I’ve already written about the trade journal and its application in Forex trading a year ago. Since then I’ve been using the journal extensively myself and I saw many disadvantages in it that could be fixed. I won’t be going far into saying how important it is to have a trade journal even if you have some perfect Forex system; I believe that to the most traders it’s quite obvious and if not — they can always read my previous post on this topic.
My last trade journal lacked a separate column for the actual profit/loss expressed in USD (or any other currency) and the column for the current account balance. Such information doesn’t usually characterize the Forex trading system used for trading but is very useful to track the success of a trader, especially if one makes any withdrawals/deposits to the account. Money management becomes much easier when you actually see the changes in the amount of money.
My new trade journal offers a full money tracking capability, including profit/loss per trade and current balance after each trade. It also automatically calculates the percentage profit/loss of positions now. The example trade journal is available for a download (Excel table). It features some example operations with the trading funds and a trading position example.
If you have any questions, comments or recommendations regarding further improvements of the Forex trade journal, please, feel free to reply below.
July 8th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Hi,
I really don’t use trade journals even though i know the importance, its just laziness on my part. I will make this a habit now. Thanks
▼Reply
July 24th, 2010 at 9:18 am
If all Forex Traders use trade journals then they do not have need of any ones guidence. Trade journals is realy helpful for all Forex Traders in this some example operations with the trading funds and a trading position example was given.
▼Reply
October 7th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Nice article, I’m sharing your philosophy on keeping trading journals. Especially helpful it will be if you create your own, tailoring it around your trading style.
Also thanks for sharing your spreadsheet, I’m collecting them on my site and have listed it with back-link to your blog, if you don’t mind. http://www.freeforexspreadsheet.com
Just discovered your forum as well and signed up. Looks good and active!
All the best
Rob.
▼Reply
August 3rd, 2011 at 12:09 am
Great! Thank you!
I’m a brand-spankin’-new trader
and this will come in handy as hell!
▼Reply
admin Reply:
August 3rd, 2011 at 9:11 am
Glad to help! Please tell me your experiencing using the journal and if you want something added/changed.
▼Reply
Brian Konzem Reply:
January 8th, 2012 at 2:09 am
I think I like your journal but I am somewhat a novice with excell. I would like to use this but I wish I could figure it out a little better. I am not really sure how to enter stuff in which box to get the calc working. I just suck at axcell can you give a quick demo thanks
▼Reply
admin Reply:
January 8th, 2012 at 10:29 am
It’s quite simple. For deposit/withdrawal entries, you enter only Profit/Loss in USD. For example if your deposit was $10,000, you enter “10000″ there.
When you enter some trade, you fill Date with date of entry, Strategy with textual description of entry signal, Pair with the currency pair of your trade, Direction can be either short or long. Entry Price, Initial Stop and Initial Target should be filled as they appear in your trading platform. IRR will be calculated – it’s initial reward/risk ratio. Exit – is the price at which the position was closed. Comment – is the field to fill as you enter the trade
This is filled after position is closed:
Date of Close – is obvious. Pips – you enter amount of pips won/lost in this trade. % – is calculated automatically after you enter USD – the actual amount of profit/loss from your trade. Length – length of the trade, e.g. “7 days” or “4 hours”. After-Comment is your comment after the trade is closed.
End Balance is calculated automatically.
▼Reply
September 25th, 2011 at 3:04 am
I’m a very visual trader. Would love to see a link where I could take a screenshot of the chart as I make the trade and when I leave the trade. THAT would be gold. As it is I suppose something like yours plus a literal cut and paste on real paper would do.
▼Reply
admin Reply:
September 25th, 2011 at 7:27 am
If you are trading in MetaTrader, you can click the right button on a chart and choose “Save As Picture” and then just copy/paste it wherever you wish.
▼Reply