Trading Journal Template: The Fields That Actually Matter
Trading Journal Template: The Fields That Actually Matter
Most trading journal templates give you too many columns. You spend ten minutes logging one trade and give up by Wednesday.
This template is the opposite: the minimum set of fields that actually tell you something useful, with a daily and weekly review structure that takes under five minutes to fill in. Use it in a spreadsheet, a notebook, or skip the DIY entirely and use a tool that handles the tracking automatically.
The core trade log
Every trade you take should have these fields logged before the end of the trading session.
Required fields
Field | What to log | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
Date | Trade date | Lets you spot day-of-week patterns |
Symbol | Ticker (AAPL, SPY, etc.) | Lets you analyze by instrument |
Direction | Long / Short | Spot if you have a long or short bias |
Setup | 1–2 word label (Breakout, Reversal, Gap fill, etc.) | Your single most important analytical field |
Entry price | Exact price | Required for R calculation |
Exit price | Exact price | Required for P&L |
Size | Shares / contracts | Required for accurate P&L |
Stop loss | Planned stop at entry | Lets you calculate planned R |
P&L ($) | Realized gain or loss | The result |
Execution rating | 1–5 stars | Process score, separate from outcome |
That last field — the execution rating — is the most important and the most skipped. A 5-star trade is one where you followed your plan perfectly, regardless of whether you made money. A 1-star trade is one where you deviated from your plan, regardless of whether it worked out. Over time, your execution rating correlates with your P&L more than any individual trade result does.
For options traders, add
Field | What to log |
|---|---|
Contract type | Call / Put |
Strike | Strike price |
Expiration | Expiration date |
Multiplier | 100 for standard equity options |
Strategy | Vertical spread, iron condor, naked put, etc. |
DTE at entry | Days to expiration when you opened the trade |
The daily review (5 minutes)
After each session, before you close your platform:
1. Rate every trade you took today — go through each one and give it an execution score from 1–5. Be honest. A trade that made money but violated your rules is a 1.
2. Write one sentence about your session — not a recap of every trade. One sentence: what was the market doing, and how did you respond to it? "Choppy open, chased two trades I shouldn't have, stopped at noon" is enough.
3. Flag anything that felt off — a trade where you sized up for no good reason, a stop you moved, a re-entry after a loss. You don't need to analyze it now. Just flag it for your weekly review.
This takes under five minutes. The goal is capture, not analysis. You're building the raw material for the weekly review.
The weekly review (20 minutes)
Once a week — Friday after close or Sunday before open — spend 20 minutes on these questions:
1. What was my expectancy this week?
Average P&L per trade: (total P&L) ÷ (number of trades). Is it positive? Higher or lower than last week?
2. Which setups worked and which didn't?
Group your trades by setup type. Your breakout trades might have a positive expectancy while your reversal trades are negative. If so, stop trading reversals.
3. What was my average execution rating?
If your average is below 3, your process is breaking down. That's a bigger problem than a negative week — it means bad habits are forming.
4. Were there any flagged trades from this week?
Go back to your daily notes and look at the trades you flagged. What pattern do you see? Was it all on one day? All in one symbol? All after a losing trade?
5. What's the one thing I'd change next week?
Not five things. One. Write it down and put it somewhere visible during your next session.
The monthly review (1 hour)
Once a month, step back from the weekly results and look at the bigger picture:
Are my key metrics improving? Track expectancy, profit factor, and average execution rating month over month. These should be trending in the right direction.
Which symbols am I actually profitable in? Most traders have 2–3 symbols where they have a real edge. Find them and trade them more.
Am I overtrading? Calculate your average number of trades per day and compare it to your win rate. More trades rarely means more profit — it usually means more impulsive trades.
What behavioral patterns keep appearing? If revenge trading shows up in your weekly reviews three months in a row, it's not a bad week — it's a habit. Treat it like one.
Spreadsheet vs. dedicated tool
A spreadsheet template works. Here's what it can't do:
Auto-calculate metrics. You'll need formulas for P&L, expectancy, profit factor, R-multiple, win rate by setup, and performance by time of day. It's doable, but it takes hours to build and breaks easily.
Multi-leg options. Spreads and iron condors across multiple rows in a spreadsheet require manual aggregation. Most traders just don't do it.
Behavioral pattern detection. A spreadsheet shows you data. It won't tell you that you've been holding losers 2.4x longer than winners for the past three months.
StonkJournal is the free alternative. All the fields above are built in, the metrics calculate automatically, multi-leg options are handled as single unified trades, and the free plan has no trade limits. The Pro plan ($10/month) adds AI Coach, which does the behavioral analysis work automatically — surfacing patterns like disposition effect, revenge sizing, and time-of-day drift tied back to your specific trades.
If you want to start with a spreadsheet and migrate later, that works too. The habit is more important than the tool.
Quick-start template (copy this)
If you want to start today, here are the columns for a minimal spreadsheet that covers everything essential:
For options, add:
For your daily review row at the bottom of each day:
For your weekly summary:
That's the whole system. The power isn't in the template — it's in actually filling it in every day and reviewing it every week. Most traders have a template. Almost none review it consistently.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the most important field in a trading journal?
Setup type. It's the only field that lets you analyze whether specific strategies have an edge. Without it, all you have is a P&L log.
Should I log trades in real-time or end of day?
End of day is fine for the full entry. But write a one-word note during the trade — your emotional state, whether you followed the plan — because you'll forget by close.
How many fields are too many?
If it takes more than two minutes per trade to log, you won't maintain it. Start with the core fields above and add more only if you find yourself needing them.
Is a spreadsheet or an app better?
An app that you'll actually use is better than a spreadsheet you'll abandon. If friction is killing your journaling habit, try StonkJournal — it's free with no trade limits and handles everything above automatically.
Do I need to journal every trade?
Yes. The trades you're tempted to skip — the losers, the undisciplined entries — are exactly the ones that matter most to log.
STONK JOURNAL
Not financial advice. Past performance is not indicative of future snacks. Built by traders who lost money first.