Free template
Trading journal template for Excel and Google Sheets
A free spreadsheet for recording every trade with its plan, its result in R and what it taught you. The formulas work out risk, reward-to-risk, P&L and R for each trade, and a summary sheet turns them into win rate and expectancy.
Download
No sign-up and no email address: the files download directly. Open them in Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc or Numbers.
A trading journal is only useful if every trade is recorded the same way: the plan before the entry (setup, entry, stop, target, size) and the outcome after the exit (exit price, fees, P&L, R multiple, whether the plan was followed). This template fixes those columns so the record stays consistent, and it does the arithmetic so you don’t have to.
The workbook has three sheets. Journal is one row per trade, with formula columns for the risk in dollars and as a share of the account, the planned reward-to-risk, the P&L after fees and the R multiple. Summary holds the account size and calculates closed trades, win rate, average win and loss in R, payoff ratio, expectancy, profit factor and how the trades that followed the plan compare with the rest. How to use explains every column. The CSV has the same columns without formulas, for any other tool.
If you are new to journaling, the guide How to keep a trading journal explains what to record and why, and How to review your trades shows how to turn the summary into a weekly review.
What is inside
| Column | What to enter | Filled by |
|---|---|---|
| Date | The entry date (yyyy-mm-dd). | You |
| Ticker | The stock or ETF symbol. | You |
| Side | Long or Short, from the drop-down list. Short reverses the sign of the P&L. | You |
| Setup / system | The written setup or system the trade was taken under, always under the same name. | You |
| Entry | The average entry price per share. | You |
| Stop | The initial stop, set before the entry. Keep the original value even if you later move it. | You |
| Target | The planned target, if the setup has one; leave it empty if it doesn’t. | You |
| Shares | The number of shares bought or sold short. | You |
| Risk $ | Formula: |entry − stop| × shares, the dollars lost if the stop is hit (before gaps and costs). | Formula |
| Risk % | Formula: risk $ ÷ the account size on the Summary sheet. | Formula |
| Planned R:R | Formula: |target − entry| ÷ |entry − stop|, the reward-to-risk planned before the entry. | Formula |
| Exit | The average exit price per share, once the trade is closed. | You |
| Fees | Commissions and fees for the round trip, in dollars (empty counts as 0). | You |
| P&L $ | Formula: (exit − entry) × shares, negative for a short, minus fees. | Formula |
| R multiple | Formula: P&L $ ÷ risk $. +2 means the trade made twice what it risked; −1 a full planned loss. | Formula |
| Followed plan | Yes, Partly or No, from the drop-down list: were the entry, stop, size and exit as planned? | You |
| Notes | What happened, briefly: the reason for the entry and for the exit. | You |
| Lesson | One thing to repeat or to change next time. | You |
Preview
Three illustrative trades with fictional tickers, as the workbook shows them once the account size is set to $25,000. The shaded columns in the file are worked out for you.
| Date | Ticker | Side | Setup / system | Entry | Stop | Target | Shares | Risk $ | Risk % | Planned R:R | Exit | Fees | P&L $ | R multiple | Followed plan | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-08 | XMPL | Long | 20-day breakout | $50.00 | $47.50 | $56.00 | 100 | $250.00 | 1.0% | 2.40 | $54.20 | $2.00 | $418.00 | +1.67R | Yes | Closed above the 20-day high; sold on the exit rule. |
| 2026-09-15 | YMPL | Long | 21 EMA pullback | $82.00 | $79.00 | $88.00 | 80 | $240.00 | 1.0% | 2.00 | $79.00 | $2.00 | −$242.00 | −1.01R | Yes | Stopped out at the planned stop. |
| 2026-09-22 | ZMPL | Short | Failed breakout | $40.00 | $41.50 | $37.00 | 150 | $225.00 | 0.9% | 2.00 | $41.90 | $2.00 | −$287.00 | −1.28R | No | Held past the stop, hoping for a reversal. |
How to use it
Use it in Google Sheets
Questions
What should a trading journal include?
At minimum the plan before the entry (setup, entry, stop, target, size) and the outcome after the exit (exit price, fees, P&L and R multiple), plus whether the plan was followed and one lesson. This template has a column for each, and formulas for everything that can be calculated.
Excel or Google Sheets: which is better for a trading journal?
Either works: the template uses only common formulas (IF, ABS, COUNTIF, AVERAGEIF, SUMPRODUCT), so it calculates the same in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice. Google Sheets is convenient across devices; Excel works offline. Choose the one you will open after every trade.
How does the template calculate win rate and expectancy?
Each closed trade’s R multiple is its P&L divided by the dollars at risk to the stop. The summary counts trades with a positive R as wins, divides by all closed trades for the win rate, and works out expectancy as win rate × average win − loss rate × average loss, in R.
Is the template free, and do I need to sign up?
It is free and downloads without an account or an email address. You can use it, change it and keep it. The online Clear Tape journal is a separate, optional tool with a free plan.
When is a journal app better than a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet is enough while you enter trades by hand. An app helps once you want broker imports, partial fills and several exits per trade calculated correctly, charts of the equity curve and drawdown, or a review of your process without building formulas yourself.
Related guides and tools
Other templates
An educational template. The formulas and examples illustrate record keeping and risk arithmetic; they are not investment advice.
Prefer it calculated for you?
The free Clear Tape journal does the same work without a spreadsheet: plan the trade, log or import the fills from your broker’s CSV, and it works out R, expectancy and drawdown, then gives each trade an AI score for how closely it followed the plan. The template stays yours either way.