Trading Journal Guides: Risk, Analytics and Review
Every guide below comes from building and using a free trading journal and analytics platform. They cover forex, futures, gold, oil, crypto and indices, on live, demo, prop firm and backtest accounts. The guides describe your own trade statistics and are not financial advice.
What is a Trade Tracker and Do You Actually Need One?
What a trade tracker should record, and why spreadsheets hit a ceiling fast.
Free Trading Journal Template for Excel and Google Sheets
A free CSV template for Excel or Google Sheets, or skip the spreadsheet entirely.
How to Track Your Trading Performance — Beyond Just P&L
P&L alone misleads. Here's what to track instead, and how to set it up.
Why I Built The Trading Terminal
The story behind the platform — why a trader built a free journaling and analytics system from scratch.
Why Most Prop Firm Challenges Fail
Most prop firm challenges are not passed. Here are the patterns behind it and what a journal can show you.
How to Build a Trading Journal That Actually Improves Your Trading
What to log, how to review it, and why most traders stop journaling after two weeks.
How to Calculate Position Size: A Practical Risk Management Guide
The formula every trader needs — and how to apply it consistently across any instrument.
Risk-Reward Ratio Explained: Why R-Multiples Matter More Than Dollars
Why thinking in R-multiples gives you a clearer picture of your edge than dollar amounts ever can.
Best Time to Trade Forex and Gold: Find Your Session
Find which session suits you by analysing your own data, not generic advice.
How to Find Your Most Profitable Trading Setup
Most traders have one or two setups that carry their P&L. Your journal can show you exactly which ones.
Mistake Cost Analysis: What Your Mistake Tags Add Up To
A framework for adding up the net P&L of trades tagged with each of your common mistakes.
How to Use a Trading Journal to Measure Trading Psychology
Emotion and discipline scores aren't soft metrics — they're the edge most traders never measure.
Max Daily Loss Rule: How a Daily Loss Limit Works
How a max daily loss rule works and how to track your own limit before a bad day ends a challenge.
Win Rate vs Profitability: Why Your Trading Win Rate Can Mislead You
A 40% win rate can be more profitable than 70%. Here's why, and what metric actually matters.
How to Calculate and Interpret Profit Factor in Trading
Profit factor is one of the clearest measures of whether a strategy has a real edge. Here's how to read it.
Trading Journal for Scalpers: What to Track
Scalping generates more trades — and more noise. Here's what to log to cut through it.
How to Do a Weekly Trading Review: The 30-Minute Process
A structured 30-minute weekly review that turns your journal data into concrete improvements.
How to Build a Trading Playbook You Can Actually Measure
A playbook that doesn't connect to your journal data is just a reference manual. Here's how to build one that works.