How to use the free trading journal
There are three ways to get trades in, and they can be mixed:
- Add a trade. Fill in the form (only the result is required) after each trade. Each trade becomes one line of the journal in the box.
- Paste a list. Paste rows from a spreadsheet or a broker export. A header row is recognised in any column order if it names the columns date, symbol, side, result (or R, PnL, profit), setup (or tag, strategy) and notes. With no header you can paste one result per line, or two columns of date and result.
- Import a file. Choose a CSV or text file. It is read by your browser and is not uploaded.
Use one unit for the result. R multiples (the result as a multiple of the amount you risked) make trades comparable when your position sizes differ; money works if you risk about the same each time. Dates must be yyyy-mm-dd to be recognised. Lines without a numeric result are ignored and counted in the line under the box.
What you get
- The headline numbers. Win rate, payoff ratio (average win ÷ average loss), expectancy (the average result per trade) and profit factor, the same calculations as the profit factor calculator, including the share of profit that came from your best trade.
- A range, not just a number. The journal re-samples your trades thousands of times and shows the range of profit factors that sample could have produced. With few trades the range is wide, and that is the honest answer.
- The equity curve, the longest losing streak and the deepest fall from a peak, in the unit you use.
- Breakdowns. Results by setup tag, weekday, week and side, with groups of fewer than 10 trades marked.
- Your biggest losses and wins with their notes, because the note is what lets you review a result.
- A cleaned CSV with a running total, to keep in your own files, and a printable weekly review sheet.
Where your data goes
The calculations run in your browser and the page makes no request with your trades. By default nothing is saved: reload the page and the journal is gone, so download the CSV to keep it. If you tick Keep my journal in this browser, the text is stored in your browser's local storage on this device, and Clear my data removes it. Local storage is per browser and per device, so it does not sync, and clearing your browser data also clears it. Do not tick it on a shared computer.
What to put in a trading journal
The best journal is the one you actually fill in, so keep the daily part small: about a minute per trade. Everything below is useful, and only the first group is required.
- The facts, written at the time. Date, symbol, side and result. Without these there is nothing to count. Record the result in R if you can: it needs the amount you risked, which also forces you to know it before you enter.
- The setup tag. One word from a short, fixed list you wrote in advance (for example breakout, pullback, reversal). A tag you invent after the result is known is not data. If you cannot tag a trade with one of your setups, tag it "outside plan": those trades are worth reading first.
- The reason, in one sentence, before the result. Why you took it and where you were wrong if it fails. Writing the reason after you know the result mostly records the result.
- One line on execution. Did you follow your rules? Entry on plan, stop where you said, size as planned. This separates a good trade that lost from a bad trade that won, which the result alone cannot.
- Optional context. Session or time of day, how you felt, a screenshot link. Add only what you will use in the review; unused fields turn a journal into homework and it gets dropped.
Leave out whatever you will not read. A journal with 30 columns and 12 trades is worse than one with 5 columns and 120.
How to review a journal
Looking at the numbers after every trade invites reacting to noise. Two sessions work better:
- A weekly review (20 to 30 minutes). Count first: trades, net result, how many followed the plan. Then read the notes on the biggest loss and the best win, and sort the week into trades inside your plan and trades outside it. End with exactly one rule to try next week, written so you can check it: "no entries in the first 15 minutes" is checkable, "be more patient" is not. The printable sheet below follows this order.
- A monthly or 50-trade review. Only now look at the profit factor, the expectancy and the breakdowns. Ask which setups carry the result, whether the losing streaks and drawdown fit the risk you take, and whether the trades outside your plan cost more than they made.
The two rules that keep a review honest: judge process from the sample, not from one trade, and change one thing at a time. If you change three rules in a week you will not know which one mattered.
Reading the numbers without fooling yourself
payoff ratio = average win ÷ average loss
expectancy = net result ÷ number of trades = win rate × average win − loss rate × average loss
profit factor = gross profit ÷ gross lossBreak-even trades count in the total but are neither wins nor losses. Cost per trade should already be in the result.
The sample journal, step by step
The sample journal has 29 trades over five weeks, in R. 14 won, 14 lost and one closed at break-even, so the win rate is 48.3%. Gross profit is 23.00R and gross loss is 14.40R: a profit factor of 1.60, a net result of +8.60R and an expectancy of +0.30R per trade. The best single trade was +2.40R, 10% of gross profit, and without it the profit factor would be 1.43. The longest losing streak was 2 and the deepest fall from a peak was 2.00R.
The reliability range for the profit factor of those 29 trades is 0.83 to 3.10, and 11% of the re-samples fall below 1. In other words the sample looks profitable, but a journal of this size does not rule out that the true profit factor is around 1.
Breakdowns: where the signal is, and where it is noise
Splitting by setup is the most useful cut, because setups are what you can change. In the sample:
| Part of the journal | Trades | Net | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breakout | 12 | +10.70 | 66.7% |
| Pullback | 9 | +4.10 | 55.6% |
| Reversal | 8 | -6.20 | 12.5% |
The reversal trades account for a net of -6.20R from 8 trades, with 12.5% winning, while breakouts made +10.70R. That is a prompt to read the eight reversal notes, not yet proof that reversals have no edge. Splitting by weekday is where journals most often mislead:
| Weekday | Trades | Win rate | Net | Expectancy | Profit factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 6 | 83.3% | +6.80 | +1.13 | 7.80 |
| Tuesday | 5 | 0.0% | -5.00 | -1.00 | 0.00 |
| Wednesday | 7 | 71.4% | +6.80 | +0.97 | 4.40 |
| Thursday | 6 | 16.7% | -3.20 | -0.53 | 0.36 |
| Friday | 5 | 60.0% | +3.20 | +0.64 | 3.29 |
Tuesday is at -5.00R and Wednesday at +6.80R, on 5 and 7 trades. Splits like this can come from chance alone: for a strategy with a true 50% win rate and 1.5R winners, splitting 30 trades into three groups of 10 leaves at least one group with a negative net result in 43% of simulated runs. So treat a weekday, a symbol or a time-of-day pattern as a hypothesis, write it down, and test it with new trades before you change what you do.
What a journal cannot tell you
- It describes the past. Market conditions change, and a setup that worked in one regime may not in another.
- It depends on honest entries. A journal that skips the trades you are embarrassed by overstates the result. Log every trade, including the bad ones.
- It does not size your risk. Use the position size calculator so each trade's risk is planned, and the risk of ruin calculator to check how much a losing streak of the length in your journal could cost at your risk per trade.
- It is not advice. It shows what happened in your trades. It does not tell you what to trade.
For the per-trade view see the guide what is expectancy in trading, and for the ratio view what is profit factor.
Weekly review sheet (printable)
Weekly trading review · week of ____ / ____ / ______
1. The numbers
- Trades taken: ______ Planned setups: ______
- Wins / losses / break-even: ____ / ____ / ____
- Net result: ______ Biggest loss: ______
- Largest loss within plan? yes no
2. Did I follow my rules?
- Every trade had a stop set before entry
- Risk per trade within my limit
- No trade outside my setups
- No revenge or extra trades after a loss
- Stop never moved further away
3. The trade I would take again, and why
4. The trade I should not have taken, and what triggered it
5. One pattern I see in my notes
6. One change for next week (a single, specific, checkable rule)
Journal for education and self-review only. Results from a few trades say little about the future.
Worked examples
The sample journal
29 trades over five weeks, in R, with setups, symbols and short notes. The load button in the tool opens it. 48.3% win rate, a profit factor of 1.60 with a range of 0.83 to 3.10, so the result is encouraging but not settled.
One setup that loses
The 8 reversal trades won 12.5% of the time and lost 6.2R net, while the other two setups made +14.80R. One of them has the note "moved the stop, lost more than 1R": a loss of 1.4R from a 1R plan.
Three groups of ten
Take a strategy with a true 50% win rate and 1.5R winners and log 30 trades in three setups of 10 each. In 43% of simulated runs at least one setup shows a net loss, though all three have the same edge. This is why groups under 10 trades are marked.
Just a list of results
Six results pasted one per line (1.5, −1, −1, 2, −1, 1.5): profit factor 1.67, win rate 50%, a net of +2.00. With six trades the range is very wide, which is why the tool shows it.
Frequently asked questions
What is a trading journal?
A trading journal is a record of each trade: when, what, which way, the result and the reason, plus a review of what the record shows. Its purpose is to replace memory, which remembers big wins and recent losses, with a count you can check.
Is this trading journal really free?
Yes. There is no account, no email and no paid tier on this page, and it runs in your browser. The trade-by-trade form, the statistics, the CSV download and the weekly review sheet are all included.
Where is my data stored?
In the text box on the page, in your browser. It is not sent to a server. By default it disappears when you reload. If you tick the box to keep the journal in this browser it is saved in local storage on this device, and the Clear my data button removes it. Download the CSV to keep a copy of your own.
What should I write in a trading journal?
Always the date, symbol, side and result, plus a setup tag from a fixed list and one sentence on why you took the trade. Add an execution line (did I follow my rules?). Anything beyond that is optional, and extra fields you do not read tend to end the habit.
How do I import trades from a spreadsheet or broker?
Export or copy the rows as CSV, with the columns date, symbol, side, result, setup and notes in any order if you keep the header row. Only the result is required. Use yyyy-mm-dd for dates, a dot for decimals and put losses as negative numbers. Broker statements often list gross and net columns: use the net result.
How many trades do I need before the statistics mean anything?
There is no fixed number, which is why the page shows a range instead. As a rule of thumb, treat anything under 30 trades as anecdote, and any breakdown into smaller groups needs more again. The more groups you split the journal into, the more trades you need.
How often should I review my journal?
Read the numbers lightly each week and decide one thing to change, then do the deeper review of the profit factor, expectancy and breakdowns every month or every 50 trades. Reviewing after every trade tends to make you react to noise.
Can I use this as a forex, stock, futures or crypto journal?
Yes. The statistics work on any list of results in one unit. For forex, convert pips to R or money first with the pip value calculator, and for futures use the contract's point value. Costs and slippage should be inside the result.
How is this different from journaling software?
Paid journals can import from brokers, store screenshots and sync across devices, which this page does not. This one is for traders who want the numbers and a review routine without an account, and for anyone who wants to keep the data on their own device.
A journal shows what you traded. The setups are your job.
The numbers tell you which of your setups work. These indicators help you define setups with clear entries and invalidation, so your journal has something consistent to measure.
Guides that explain it
Last updated November 2026. For education only. Not financial advice. Results depend on your inputs and cannot predict future performance.