The Indices Trading Journal for SPX, NAS100 and DAX Traders
Log every indices trade with setup, session and confluence tags. Trader DNA, Mistake Cost Analysis and 60+ analytics views break down your SPX, NAS100, DAX and US30 performance by instrument, session and setup — so you know where your index edge comes from. Free to start. Updated 12 October 2026.
What is an indices trading journal?
An indices trading journal records each stock index trade in points and in money, with the index, the value per point, the session and how the market opened that day. It shows which indices, opens and setups make money, and how much you give back by holding through the close or the gap.
The free .xlsx template for index traders is further down.
Index trading — SPX, NAS100, DAX, US30 — is heavily session-dependent. The first 30 minutes of the New York open behaves differently from a late London session continuation, and most indices traders find their edge is concentrated in 1–2 specific session windows. Without clean data on which session, which setup and which confluence combination produces results, it's impossible to know where your real edge is.
The Trading Terminal lets you tag each trade with the specific index, session, setup and confluence stack. Trader DNA then breaks performance by instrument (NAS100 vs SPX vs DAX) and session, showing your actual win rate and expectancy per combination. Mistake Cost Analysis quantifies the cost of specific errors — holding through the close, ignoring overnight gaps, trading news events — so you can prioritise which habits to fix first.
What You Get
Trade Journal
Log every trade with entry, exit, R:R, setup tags, confluences, screenshots, emotion ratings and trade grading. CSV import included.
60+ Analytics Views
Mistake Cost Analysis, Trader DNA, 0–100 Edge Score, setup win rate, session performance, confluence charts and more.
Risk Desk
Daily risk budget, distance-to-breach bars with alerts at 70% and 90%, trailing drawdown tracking. Works on live, demo and prop firm accounts.
Trade Lab
Named strategy tracking with best conditions and danger zones. Compare multiple strategies side by side.
Built for Every Account Type, Including Prop Firms
Indices trade within defined market hours, so a day's trades and a daily loss limit are easy to line up. Risk Desk tracks daily loss limits and max drawdown from your closed trades for each account — evaluation accounts keep rules separate from funded accounts. Distance-to-breach bars and alerts at 70% and 90% consumed show a potential breach before it happens.
How do you measure an index trade in points?
Index trades are measured in points, and each point has a money value that depends on the instrument, the contract and your broker. A journal that records points as well as dollars lets you compare trades across different sizes. Here is one fictional trade, which is also the first row of the template:
| Item | NAS100 long, 1 contract at $1 a point |
|---|---|
| Entry, stop, target, exit | 17,420 / 17,400 / 17,470 / 17,462 |
| Result in points | 42 points |
| Stop distance | 20 points |
| Gross P&L | 42 x 1 x $1 = $42 |
| Costs | $2 |
| Net P&L | $40 |
| Risk at the stop | 20 x 1 x $1 = $20 |
| Planned R:R and result | 2.5 planned, 2.0R result |
Index names and point values vary between brokers: the same market can appear as NAS100, US100 or another name, and a lot can be worth a different amount per point. Record the name you actually trade, keep it consistent, and enter the value per point from your own contract specification.
Why log how the market opened?
Index sessions are shaped by the open. A gap, a strong move away from the open and a quiet range are different environments, and a setup can behave differently in each. The free template has an open-type drop-down with four labels: gap up, gap down, open drive and range open. You decide the label before you see the result, then compare. Here is a fictional example of ten trades:
| Open type | Trades | Winners | Total result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gap up | 3 | 2 of 3 | +2.0R |
| Gap down | 2 | 0 of 2 | -2.0R |
| Open drive | 3 | 2 of 3 | +2.5R |
| Range open | 2 | 1 of 2 | -0.5R |
The ten invented trades total +2.0R, with the open drives doing the work and the gap-down and range days losing. A real journal needs far more trades before a pattern means much, and the labels should be written down in advance so hindsight cannot choose them. The point is the habit: tag the context, then let your own numbers show where you have been earning.
Which mistakes does an indices trading journal catch?
- Double exposure across correlated indices. Long NAS100 and long SPX500 is close to the same position twice. Note the instruments on days with more than one open trade.
- Holding through the close or an overnight gap. Flag trades held overnight and compare their results with intraday ones.
- Sizing in lots instead of points. A lot can carry a very different money risk per point. Record risk in money and in points on each trade.
- Taking the first minutes after the open without a plan. Entry time makes that testable in your own data.
- Stretching a stop on a news-driven move. Counted by the Moved SL tag.
Is there a free indices trading journal?
Yes. The Trading Terminal's Free plan covers an index trader on 1 account at A$0 with no card: the complete trade journal and dashboard, up to 30 trades per calendar month, 90 days of dashboard history and CSV import and export. Results by index and session across many trades, along with Mistake Cost Analysis, are on the Analytics page, which is Pro (A$19 a month or A$189 a year).
The free indices trading journal template has no trade cap. It takes the index, open type, size and value per point, and works out the result and stop in points, the net P&L after costs, the risk at the stop, the planned R:R and the result in R. Its Summary sheet shows total points, average points per trade and average stop, with results by index, open type and session.
Download the indices trading journal template (.xlsx)
Free, no sign-up, no macros. Row 6 is the fictional NAS100 trade above: overwrite it. In Google Sheets use File > Import > Upload. See also the trading journal template and the free trading journal page.