What the tracker measures
The free journal template's Summary sheet, measure for measure, then what a spreadsheet makes hard: R by group and the curve.
Every Summary measure, as the sheet calculates it
- Total trades: rows with a number in Result.
- Wins, losses, breakeven: Result above 0, below 0, exactly 0.
- Win rate: wins ÷ total trades.
- Average win (R), average loss (R): the mean R of trades with R above 0, and below 0.
- Expectancy per trade (R): win rate × average win R − loss rate × |average loss R|.
- Total R, total result: the sum of every R, and of every Result.
- Profit factor: gross wins ÷ |gross losses|, in money; n/a until there is a loss.
- Largest loss, largest loss (R): the most negative Result and R; below −1R, the loss outran the plan.
- Total fees: the Fees column summed over the rows with a Result; already inside Result.
- Plan Y and N, followed plan %: trades with a Result marked Y and N (Yes and No read the same), and Y ÷ (Y + N); blank flags left out.
- Expectancy when plan followed, and broken: the average R of Y trades, and of N trades.
- Total R when plan broken: the R of every N trade, summed.
Beyond the sheet: R by setup, symbol and mistake tag, by session, weekday and direction where the file has them, each with its trades, total R and average R; and cumulative R trade by trade, its deepest fall from a high (the maximum drawdown in R) and the most losing trades in a row.
How to track your trading performance
One row per closed trade, the risk written down before entry, and a look at the numbers once a week.
Four steps, in the template
- Write the setup and the planned loss at your stop (Risk) before you enter.
- When the trade closes, enter the net Result after commission, swap and fees, and mark Followed plan Y or N honestly.
- Tag the mistake, if there was one, from a short fixed list, so the same mistake always has the same name.
- Once a week, save the Trades sheet as CSV and read it here: expectancy in R first, then plan Y against N, then the R by mistake tag. The trading journal examples walk one weekly review through.
Which journal files it reads
The template and its nine editions by their headings; any other CSV through a column picker.
Editions, other journals, separators
The free trading journal template and its editions keep the eighteen columns in the same places, so each is read as it is: futures, XAUUSD, crypto, prop firm, day trading, swing trading, options, Indian market, trading psychology. In the futures, XAUUSD, crypto, options and Indian-market workbooks Risk and Result are formulas, so save the workbook's Trades sheet as CSV after it has calculated; their CSV downloads hold only the example rows' values, and rows typed into a CSV have Risk and Result blank.
Another journal or a broker export works if it has a result per closed trade: map Result, then Risk or an R column. Comma, semicolon and tab separators, quoted fields and a UTF-8 byte-order mark are read; for a semicolon file with decimal commas, pick the comma decimal mark. An MT5 statement goes through the MT5 report analyzer first, which drafts a CSV in the template's columns from its closed positions; add each trade's planned risk to get R.