I’ve had a few requests for a copy of the spreadsheet I use for my trading journal. I just uploaded it to the server so feel free to snag a copy if you’re interested. It’s not the most elegant spreadsheet but it does what I need. I’ve never been a big Excel guy, (unlike some people who have nice, fancy trading journals) so I had to use brute force to get some things done.

Here’s some detail about the columns:

Expectancy: An average of column K (R Multiple). This formula must be modified each day to include the latest rows.

Total P&L: Sum of Column J (P&L)

Trade #: Just used for some calculations later…

L/S: Long or Short

QTY: Number of shares

Bought: Purchase price

Sold: Selling price

Initial Risk: Dollars at risk based on the initial stop

Comm: Commission for both sides of the trade. I have it set to calculate based on the number of shares entered in column E.

P&L: The actual P&L, including commission

R Multiple: P&L divided by the Initial Risk

% Wins: This is calculated by dividing column R (Sum W/L) by column A (Trade #)

Comments: I use this to list errors made on the trade or anything else worth noting.

$ at Work: This gives me an idea of how much money was in the position. It’s simply QTY (column E) divided by Bought (purchase price). Note that this is not accurate for shorts but it’s close enough for government work. :-)

% P&L: The percentage return for the trade. P&L divided by $ at Work. Again, not exact for shorts.

Initial % Risk: Just tells me how far my stop was from my entry in percentage terms.

W/L: Tells whether the trade was a winner (1) or a loser (0). This is used by the next column, Sum W/L.

Sum W/L: A running total of the W/L column. This is used in the % Wins column.