Create a Trading Journal on Google Sheets: Mastering the Art

Have you ever felt overwhelmed while trying to keep track of your trades? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Many traders struggle with organizing their trading activities. The missing element for most of them is a structured way of thinking and learning.

This is where a trading journal comes in. Integrating this tool into your trading routine can bring clarity to your strategies and improve your performance. In fact, renowned trading psychologist Dr. Brett Steenbarger conducted a study revealing that keeping a trading journal significantly enhances your learning curve and self-awareness.

If you’re intrigued by the idea, let’s dive deeper and explore how to create the perfect trading journal from scratch. Alternatively, if you prefer a ready-to-use solution, check out our curated list of the best trading journal software or download the journal we create in this article.

Creating a Trading Journal Using a Spreadsheet

There are various types of trading journals, each with its own format, support, features, and advantages. In this article, we’ll focus on creating a spreadsheet-based trading journal. Once you gain some experience with this method, you’ll be able to determine which specific type of trading journal best suits your needs.

Step 1: Choose Your Spreadsheet Platform

First and foremost, you need to decide on the platform for your trading journal template. Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel are both excellent options with user-friendly interfaces. If you want the flexibility to access your journal from anywhere, anytime, we recommend opting for Google Sheets or Office 365, as they offer auto-saving and accessibility across multiple devices.

Step 2: Set up Your Basic Structure

Now that you’ve chosen your trading platform, it’s time to establish the fundamental structure of your trading journal. You can include any data you find relevant to your trades, but if you’re new to trading, we recommend starting with the following key entries:

• Status: The current status of the trade.
• Symbol: The symbol or ticker identifier of the traded asset.
• Shares: The number of shares or contracts at entry.
• Setup: The trading setup or pattern that led to the trade.
• Long/Short: Indicate whether the trade was long (buy) or short (sell).
• Entry Date: The date when you entered the trade.
• Entry Price: The average price at which you entered the trade.
• Stop Loss: The price point at which you will exit to limit losses.
• Exit Price: The average price at which you exited the trade.
• Plan Followed: A Yes/No field indicating whether the trade followed the predefined trading plan or strategy.
• Trade Review: Reflections on what went well, what could have been done better, and the lessons learned from the trade.

Here’s an example of how these entries could be organized in your trading journal:

By using this structured format, you can systematically document and analyze your trades. This will help you make informed decisions and improve your trading skills over time.

Step 3: Add Custom Fields

After setting up the basic structure of your trading journal, you can enrich it with additional entries tailored to your experience and needs. Consider incorporating the following entries to gain a more comprehensive view of your trades:

• Entry Note: A brief description or observation at the time of entry.
• Trade Reason: Contextual information on why the trade was initiated (e.g., technical indicators, news events).
• First Exit Date: The date of your first exit from the trade.
• First Exit Price: The price at which you made your first exit.
• Last Exit Date: The date of your last exit from the trade.
• Last Exit Price: The price at which you made your last exit.
• Average Exit Price: The average price at which you exited for all exits.
• Total Risk: The total risk for the trade.
• Risk per Share: The risk per share or contract.
• P/L $: Profit or loss in monetary terms.
• P/L %: Profit or loss in percentage.
• Position Size: The size of the position taken.
• Final Notes: Observations or final information about the trade.
• Trade Outcome: The final outcome of the trade (profit, loss, break-even).
• Adjustments: Changes made to the trade, if any, and the reasons behind them.
• External Factors: Major events or news that may have influenced the trade.

These additional details provide valuable insights into your decision-making process and results. Here’s an updated screenshot of your trading journal:

Throughout this process, remember that simplicity is key. A clear and straightforward presentation will help you organize everything and provide clear visibility into the performance of your trades over time, without unnecessary complexity.

Now that your trading journal is ready, how can you leverage this tool to improve your performance? Let’s explore that in the next section.

How to Effectively Use a Spreadsheet-Based Trading Journal

I’ve written a comprehensive article on using trading journals, offering in-depth advice on effectively utilizing these journals. In this section, I’ll share some tips on how to get the most out of your spreadsheet-based trading journal.

Utilizing Predefined and Custom Functions

While spreadsheet-based trading journals fall under the manual category, they offer the advantage of automating various metric calculations through built-in and custom functions. I highly recommend adopting automation whenever possible in your trading journal. This approach significantly reduces the required time and mitigates the risk of human errors, which could otherwise result in inaccurate entries.

For example, in your spreadsheet-based trading journal, you can auto-fill values in the “Position Size” column using the formula =Shares*Entry Price. Similarly, you can auto-fill values in the “Risk per Share” column using the formula =Total Risk/Shares. Basic spreadsheet skills will help you automate various calculations in your trading journal.

Using Charts

A picture is worth a thousand words—or numbers, in our case! Charts make it easier to read data and identify patterns or trends that would otherwise be invisible. For example, they can help you determine if you perform better with high conviction or if there is a specific time range when most losses occur. Visual tools will help answer these questions.

Let’s take an example. In our previously created trading journal, it is evident that whenever you had high conviction about a specific trade, you achieved a profit in all five instances. However, manually counting these occurrences can be a challenging task. That’s where charts become invaluable.

For instance, you can use pivot tables and charts in Google Sheets to graphically represent the number of successful and unsuccessful trades in different conviction categories (high, low, moderate). Here’s an example:

The figure clearly illustrates a 100% success rate when you have high conviction about a specific trade. However, it’s important to note that such a scenario is rare in real trading.

To create a pivot table in Google Sheets, follow these steps:

1. Open your Google Sheets document containing the data you want to analyze.
2. Select the cells you want to include in your pivot table.
3. Go to the Data menu, then select Pivot Table from the dropdown menu.
4. Choose where to place the pivot table (preferably in a new sheet).
5. Set up the pivot table by selecting rows, columns, values, and filters.
6. Format and analyze the pivot table as desired.
7. Refresh the data if necessary.

Pivot tables are a powerful tool for quickly and easily analyzing large sets of data. They can provide valuable insights into your trading performance.

Identifying and Correcting Your Mistakes

We all make mistakes, and traders are no exception! Your journal serves as an honest mirror, reflecting both successes and errors. Let’s explore common pitfalls and provide guidelines on how to identify them using the columns in your spreadsheet-based trading journal.

1. Overtrading: This common mistake occurs when traders make too many trades, often influenced by emotions rather than a thoughtful strategy. Monitor days with abnormally high entries in your trading journal. Additionally, pay attention to frequent changes in the “Shares” column, which may suggest impulsive trading decisions.
2. Chasing Losses: Chasing losses involves attempting to recover lost money by taking more risks, which often leads to even larger losses. To determine if you’re falling into this trap, look for cases in your trading journal where the “Profit/Loss” column consistently shows negative values. If you notice a sudden increase in the traded quantity following these losses, it may indicate an attempt to recover losses through risky trades.
3. Taking Profits Too Early: Traders sometimes exit winning positions prematurely out of fear that the market might turn against them, thereby missing out on potential gains. When reviewing your trading journal, pay special attention to trades where the “Profit/Loss” column shows a positive value but is followed by a quick exit. This pattern suggests a tendency to take profits too early out of apprehension.
4. Deviating from Your Plan: This refers to changing your trading strategy impulsively without thorough analysis, which can result in unexpected losses. For example, imagine you have a solid trading plan to buy a stock at a specific support level. However, when you see the stock approaching that level, you hear news of market turbulence, causing you to reconsider buying the stock.

By identifying these mistakes in your trading journal, you can work on correcting them and improving your future performance. Remember, using a trading journal effectively is not about dwelling on past failures but rather learning from them for better future outcomes!

Conclusion

In this article, you’ve learned how to create a trading journal from scratch using a spreadsheet and how to use it effectively. You’re now equipped to create your own personal trading journal and enhance your performance. However, if you want to take your trading journal experience to the next level, you may want to explore the benefits of an automated trading journal. Such a tool can streamline your process, reduce potential errors, and save you valuable time.

About Crawlan.com: Crawlan.com is a website focused on providing tips, guides, and resources for traders and marketers. With our recognized expertise in utilizing Google Sheets, Crawlan.com is the perfect place to find valuable information on creating your trading journal and many other tips to improve your trading skills and performance.

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