Record fills, then reconcile the closed result
Copy each option leg from your broker’s execution record: buy or sell, call or put, strike, expiration, premium per share, and whole contracts. Give the trade a strategy label and add notes about the decision. IV and delta are optional manual observations, not a quote feed or a time series.
- Open the entry. Keep its status Open while any recorded contracts remain open. The log leaves P&L unvalued; it does not estimate a current exit price.
- Close every leg. Enter each leg’s closing premium and the final close date. Use zero only for a confirmed worthless expiry. A missing price is unknown, not zero.
- Enter total costs once. The fees field is the combined dollar cost for entry and exit across the whole trade. Fill prices already reflect execution slippage; do not subtract the same price difference again.
- Check the broker result. Reconcile quantities, premiums and fees before using the strategy totals. Keep broker records as the source for settlement and tax reporting.
A two-leg debit spread, with checkable arithmetic
This fictional example buys one call at $3.00 per share and sells another call at $1.00. Both are standard contracts with the same expiration. The long call closes at $4.50; the short closes at $1.80. Combined entry and exit fees are $4.
| Component | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Long call | (4.50 − 3.00) × 100 | +$150 |
| Short call | (1.00 − 1.80) × 100 | −$80 |
| Combined result after fees | 150 − 80 − 4 | +$66 |
The entry cash flow is −$200 before fees. It is a debit, not a loss. The $66 result describes this completed example; it is not a forecast, return percentage, margin requirement or maximum-risk calculation.
Where this journal’s calculation stops
- Stock and assignment: a Covered Call or Collar label does not add shares to the log. Stock gains, dividends, exercise and assignment cash flows are absent. Do not record assignment as a zero-price close to represent the combined strategy result. OIC’s covered-call explanation describes the stock-plus-option position; its assignment FAQ explains delivery obligations.
- Contract terms: this tool fixes the premium multiplier at 100 and currency at USD. It does not handle adjusted deliverables, futures options or currency conversion. Check the contract specification before recording it. See OIC’s option contract basics and corporate-action adjustments.
- Partial exits and rolls: the entry has one quantity and one entry/close premium per leg. It has no fill ledger or partial-close state. Keep separate broker records for partial fills; record a completed old position and a new position separately for a roll, without counting the same contracts twice.
- Risk: strategy names do not verify coverage, collateral, expiration alignment or maximum loss. A short option can create obligations far beyond its premium. This journal does not calculate buying power, Greeks exposure, time decay or exercise risk.
Read the statistics with their denominator
The cards and strategy table use all saved records, even when the trade table is filtered. Only complete closed records enter P&L metrics. Win rate is profitable closed entries divided by all complete closed entries, including breakevens. Average loss excludes breakevens. Profit factor divides positive net results by the absolute sum of negative net results; it shows N/A when there are no losses. There is no universal win-rate target.
Grouping partial exits differently changes the trade count and win rate. A small or selectively logged sample cannot establish a strategy’s future performance. These totals are a journal summary, not account equity: deposits, withdrawals, stock positions and open option marks are absent.
Storage and export boundaries
The journal saves records in localStorage for this browser and origin. It has no account sync or restore/import function. Private browsing, browser cleanup, storage limits or another person using the same browser can affect access. Local storage is not an encrypted vault or a privacy guarantee.
Export Filtered CSV downloads all records matching the current filters, across every results page. Clear filters for the whole log. Each row includes option legs as JSON (including IV and delta), closing premiums as JSON, dates, fees, net P&L, status, tags and notes. Blank P&L means open or incomplete. Text beginning with spreadsheet formula characters is prefixed with an apostrophe. The file is a readable copy for reconciliation, not a restorable backup.