In this guide, we will discuss in detail our Forex Trading Journal Template that you can use with Excel or Google Sheets for free (we personally recommend you to use google sheets). This trading journal is made by forex traders at fortradingbytrades.com.
There is a lot of trading journal software available online such as Tradeswiz and Edgewonk which are paid (can be quite expensive) and most of them are complicated to use. We have tried all the trading journal software out there, but we still prefer the simplicity of our Spreadsheet Trading Journal. That’s why we created this trading journal, which is simple to use and provides all the feedback you need to improve your trading. We will continue to improve this trading journal with more features.
Importance of a Trading Journal
Having a trading journal is very important if you are serious about trading. A trading journal helps you track your trades so that you can reflect on your losing and winning trades. A good trading journal will also give you statistics like your win rate and your account growth rate so that you can make excellent trading decisions.
All of this can be done with our trading journal. You can get our trading journal by clicking the button below.
Important: If you are using google sheets (recommended) make sure to make a copy of it by going to File -> Make a copy. Also, make sure not to delete the first row, all the formulas are in the first row (You can edit the values without deleting the cells with formulas).
Features of our Trading Journal
There are several features in our trading journal;
- Automatically calculates the Risk to Reward Ratio of your trade.
- Automatically calculates whether your trade is a winning or losing trade.
- Automatically calculates the current balance after each trade.
- Currency pairs sheet where currency pairs that you can select are listed. You can add new currency pairs or remove pairs that you don’t trade
- Strategies sheet where you can enter all your strategies with a description of what the strategy is.
- Statistics sheet which shows the account growth trade.
- Statistics sheet which shows the total winning trades, total losing trades, and win rate.
How to Use the Trading Journal
The following image shows a screenshot of our trading journal in google sheets. Google sheets are what we recommend for you to use in the trading journal mainly because it is easy to use, completely free, and you can access it from any device. As you can see, there are 17 columns in the first sheet called “Trades”. This is where you enter all the details for your trades. These columns are,
- Trade No.
- Date
- Strategy
- Buy/Sell Order
- Currency Pair
- Volume
- Stop Loss
- Take Profit
- Entry Price
- Profit/Loss
- Risk to Reward Ratio (RR)
- Win/Lose
- Account Balance
- Account Growth/Loss Percentage
- Comments
- Screenshots
- Initial Balance
The first step when using the trading journal is to input your initial balance in the initial balance field as shown below.
Values You Need to Input in the Trading Journal
When you make a new trade, you need to input the following values;
- Trade Number
- Date
- Buy/Sell
- Currency Pair (You can select this from the drop-down)
- Volume
- Stop Loss
- Take Profit
- Entry Price
- Profit/Loss Value
- Comments
- Screenshots (You can put a link to your screenshots)
- Strategy (You can select this from your list of strategies)
You can enter all your trading strategies in your strategies sheet as shown in the image below.
To select the strategy click on the drop-down menu in the “Trades” sheet. You can enter new strategies in the strategies sheet. The strategies allow you to organize all the trading strategies that you are using. You can also enter the description for each strategy so that you know what this strategy exactly is.
In a similar way to selecting your strategy, you can select the currency pair you are trading. If you cannot find your currency pair add it to the Currency Pairs sheet. You can also remove the currency pairs that you are not interested in trading. We recommend you only have a list of currency pairs that you are trading so that you have a small list to choose from.
Trading Journal Statistics
The following things will be calculated for you;
- Risk to Reward Ratio (RR)
- Win/Lose
- Account Balance
If you look at the statistic sheet, you will see the following calculations that are calculated automatically. These statistics are the Total Trades, Winning Trades, Losing Trades, and the Win percentage. Also, you can see the account growth percentage as well.
These are very important statistics to consider when testing your trading strategies. Especially the account growth rate. If the growth rate keeps decreasing, that means that you need to change something in your trading strategies. If the account growth rate is increasing, that means you’re doing great!
Conclusion
It is very valuable to have a trading journal that you can use to track your trades. There are quite a few trading journal software out there but most of them are complicated to use, and you need to pay for them (some are pretty expensive). That’s why we created a free trading journal that you can use. It is fully customise using google sheets/excel (we recommend using google sheets) and it is simple to use. If you are stuck with the trading journal or if you have any suggestions for features/improvements, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Click the button below to get the trading journal. If you are using google sheets, make sure to make a copy of it by going to File -> Make a copy. Also, make sure not to delete the first row (it contains all the formulas).
