Free Trading Journal Template for Excel

Check the workbook before entering your trades

The download has a Trade Log and, if selected, a Performance Summary sheet. It starts empty: no invented profits are included. Enter one completed trade and reconcile its result with your broker before copying in more records.

1. Choose your columns, reporting currency and row count. The Summary references only those rows; adding rows later requires extending its ranges.
2. Enter Long or Short, entry and exit prices, positive quantity, contract multiplier, FX conversion and fees. Use 1 for multiplier when quantity is shares or spot units, 1 for FX when quote and reporting currencies match, and 0 for no fees.
3. Keep one reporting currency for a summary. Use separate workbooks for separate reporting currencies, or convert each trade consistently before combining results.
4. Check that formulas recalculate. Blank inputs leave results blank; populated invalid inputs show Check inputs. Do not overwrite the formula columns when pasting trade records.

Gross profit, costs and planned risk

Gross P&L is (exit minus entry) × direction × quantity × multiplier × FX. Long uses +1 and Short uses −1. Net P&L subtracts fees entered in the reporting currency. A hypothetical 100-share Long from 185.50 to 188.25 with multiplier 1 and FX 1 makes 275 gross; fees of 2 leave 273 net. The same Short loses 277 after those fees.

Multiplier is the quote-currency value of a 1.0 price move per quantity unit. For lots or contracts, check the instrument specification and avoid applying the contract size twice. FX is reporting-currency units per quote-currency unit. It converts trade price P&L at your stated rate; it does not compute currency gains on cash held between entry and exit.

Initial Price Risk uses the entry-to-stop distance on the loss side, quantity, multiplier and FX. It excludes fees and gaps. R-Multiple divides gross P&L by that planned price risk. P&L (%) is directional price change divided by absolute entry price, shown in percentage points: 1.48 means 1.48%, so keep that column formatted as a number.

How the Summary treats empty and unusual results

Completed Trades counts numeric net results, including zero. Empty or incomplete rows do not count. Win Rate divides positive net results by completed trades, including break-even trades in the denominator. Average and largest win/loss are blank when the corresponding group is empty. Profit Factor divides positive net results by absolute negative net results; without losses it displays No losing trades instead of a finite factor.

Generated P&L input errors or mixed reporting currencies block totals so they are not silently omitted or added together. Missing required columns make the summary unavailable. With formulas switched off, the entire workbook contains no formulas and Summary displays Formulas disabled.

Cumulative Net P&L requires contiguous completed rows in one reporting currency. It represents realized logged trades, not mark-to-market account equity. The Summary can count completed trades across blank gaps, so resolve gaps before comparing it with the cumulative column.

Scope and spreadsheet compatibility

The formulas model linear price payoffs. Inverse contracts, funding, exercise, assignment and partial-fill settlement require separate reconciliation. Recording a history does not prove that a strategy has an edge. This generator provides columns, formulas, widths and number formats, not investment advice or a guaranteed account result.

The file uses English .xlsx formulas. Verify calculation and number formats in the spreadsheet application you use. For a CSV workflow, use the Google Sheets template generator.

Microsoft worksheet naming rules · Formula export format

Frequently Asked Questions