Trading Journal Template for Excel and Google Sheets
This trading journal template is a free Excel workbook with working formulas: log each trade and the Summary sheet calculates win rate, average win and loss, expectancy and profit factor. It opens in Excel, and in Google Sheets by uploading the file. Download it, the simple CSV, or the version for your market. Updated 13 October 2026.
By Harrison Weaver, founder of The Trading Terminal
What is a trading journal template?
A trading journal template is a ready-made spreadsheet for logging trades: the columns are chosen, the formulas are written and the example row shows how to fill it in. It removes the blank-page problem and the design decisions that make home-built journals inconsistent. You type each trade in the yellow cells, and the grey cells and the Summary sheet work out the rest.
This page is the home of the free template. For the wider guide to keeping a journal, see trading journal, and for the software alternative see trading journal software.
Where do you download the trading journal template?
The general template works for any market. It is an Excel workbook (.xlsx) with four sheets: How to use, Journal (500 rows ready, with drop-downs for direction, setup, session and mistake), Summary (win rate, average win and loss, payoff ratio, expectancy, profit factor, total P&L and breakdowns by setup, session and mistake) and Lists (edit the drop-downs).
Download the trading journal template (.xlsx)
Free, no sign-up, no macros, no links to other files. Row 6 is a fictional example: overwrite or delete it.
Prefer the simplest possible file? The CSV has eleven columns and three fictional rows, and opens in any spreadsheet program or Google Sheets.
Columns: Date, Instrument, Direction, Entry, Exit, SL, TP, R:R, Outcome, Setup, Notes.
How do you open it in Google Sheets?
- Download the .xlsx file to your computer.
- In Google Sheets choose File, then Import, then Upload, and pick the file.
- Choose to replace the spreadsheet or insert new sheets. The formulas, drop-downs and Summary sheet come with it.
We do not publish a shared Google Sheets copy link. You upload your own file, so your trades stay in your own account.
What does the template calculate?
Every statistic is a plain spreadsheet formula, with definitions that match the how we calculate page:
| Figure | How it is worked out |
|---|---|
| Planned R:R | Distance from entry to target divided by distance from entry to stop loss |
| Result (R) | Net P&L divided by the amount you risked on the trade |
| Outcome | Win if net P&L is above zero, Loss if below, Break even if zero |
| Win rate | Wins divided by wins, losses and break-evens together |
| Average win and average loss | Mean net P&L of the winning trades, and of the losing trades |
| Expectancy per trade | Win rate x average win + loss rate x average loss |
| Profit factor | Total P&L of winning trades divided by the absolute total of losing trades |
We checked every formula by recalculating each workbook in a second spreadsheet engine and comparing the results with an independent calculation. The Summary sheet shows the example row's figures until you replace it.
Which template fits your market or trading style?
Each workbook has its own columns and formulas, because a futures trade is measured in ticks and contracts and a crypto trade in fees and funding. Pick the one that matches how you trade:
| Style or market | What is different in the workbook | Download |
|---|---|---|
| day trading journal | Trade number for the day, minutes in trade, followed-plan check and a summary by session | .xlsx |
| swing trading journal | Date in and out, days held, weekly trend, position size as a percentage of the account | .xlsx |
| forex trading journal | Pip size, result and stop in pips, lots, and costs from commission and swap | .xlsx |
| futures trading journal | Tick size and value, contracts, result in ticks, gross and net P&L after fees | .xlsx |
| crypto trading journal | Spot, perpetual or margin, leverage, fees and funding, net P&L and return on position | .xlsx |
| gold trading journal | Ounces per lot, move and stop in dollars per ounce, news-event days, spread and commission | .xlsx |
| oil trading journal | Contract, barrels per contract, move in dollars per barrel, inventory and OPEC event days | .xlsx |
| indices trading journal | Index, open type, value per point, result and stop in points | .xlsx |
| prop firm trading journal | Phase, plus Rules and Daily sheets that work out a static or end-of-day trailing floor from your own numbers | .xlsx |
| demo trading journal | Strategy being tested, would-I-take-this-live check, progress towards a target number of trades | .xlsx |
| backtesting journal | Result in R from prices, cumulative R, drawdown in R and longest losing streak | .xlsx |
| ICT trading journal | Killzone, higher time frame bias, liquidity taken, entry model and a with-or-against-bias summary | .xlsx |
What should a good trading log include?
A log built to improve your results needs more than date and P&L. At minimum it captures the mechanics of the trade (instrument, direction, entry, exit, stop loss, take profit and R:R) and the context that explains the result: the setup you traded, and any note on execution. This is the same core a trade tracker should record, whether it is a spreadsheet or an app: enough detail that a trade from three months ago is still legible and comparable to one from yesterday.
The columns matter less than the consistency. Use the same setup names every time and fill in every field, including on trades you would rather forget. Fifty complete entries beat two hundred half-filled ones, because only complete data can be analysed later. The Notes column is the one traders skip most often, and it is the one that makes the rest worth reviewing: one line such as "chased the entry" or "moved stop to breakeven too early" separates a trade that failed for a good reason from one that failed because a rule was broken. The prompts are in what to write in a trading journal, with filled-in samples in trading journal examples.
| Date | Instrument | Direction | Entry | Exit | SL | TP | R:R | Outcome | Setup | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-01-06 | EUR/USD | Long | 1.0850 | 1.0910 | 1.0820 | 1.0940 | 2.0 | Win | Liquidity Sweep | Clean sweep of prior session low |
| 2026-01-08 | XAU/USD | Short | 2645.30 | 2652.10 | 2653.50 | 2620.00 | 3.1 | Loss | Breakout Retest | Chased entry slightly early |
| 2026-01-13 | NQ E-mini | Long | 17420.00 | 17420.00 | 17390.00 | 17510.00 | 3.0 | Break Even | Trend Continuation | Closed flat after news spike |
The three CSV rows are fictional and illustrative only. Replace them with your own trades.
Where do spreadsheets fall short?
A spreadsheet gets you started, but the limits show up as your trade count grows. Win rate per setup or per session means formulas that break when you add a row out of order or rename a setup. There is no automatic way to see which mistake has the lowest total net P&L over a quarter without tagging, filtering and summing it every time. And a spreadsheet cannot warn you that you are approaching a daily loss limit: by the time you check it, the day is over. None of this makes a spreadsheet a bad starting point; it has a ceiling that active traders reach sooner than they expect.
How does The Trading Terminal replace and extend the template?
Every field in the template has a place in the trade journal of The Trading Terminal, plus confluences, screenshots, emotion and discipline ratings and trade grading, captured through a form instead of a spreadsheet row. Mistake Cost Analysis takes the notes column and shows the net P&L of the trades carrying each mistake tag. If you trade through cTrader, MT4 or MT5, the Connections feature imports closed trades automatically (Elite), and any platform can use CSV import on every plan. See the cTrader trading journal, MT5 trading journal and MT4 trading journal pages.
The Free plan is A$0 with no card and covers 1 account, up to 30 trades a month and 90 days of dashboard history; the full list is on the free trading journal page.