Trading Journal

How to use your trading journal

Choose one account currency and an opening balance before entering trades. Record the instrument, direction, actual entry and exit, position size, original stop and all costs. Keep the closing time empty for an open trade. Open trades appear in history but do not contribute to closed-trade statistics. Use a consistent strategy name to make grouped comparisons useful. Dates are entered in your browser’s local timezone and stored as UTC; the daily, weekly and monthly summaries use UTC closing dates.

What the calculations mean

Position units = lots × contract size. Gross P&L = direction × (exit − entry) × units × exit conversion rate, where direction is +1 for a long and −1 for a short. Net P&L subtracts commission, swap and other fees entered in account currency. A positive swap is a cost and a negative swap is a credit. Initial risk = absolute(entry − original stop) × units × entry conversion rate. Net R = net P&L ÷ initial risk. Editing an existing trade preserves its original recorded risk.

Worked example

A long EURUSD trade has 0.10 lots, 100,000 units per lot, entry 1.1000, exit 1.1020 and original stop 1.0990. With a USD account, conversion is 1. Gross profit is $20. A $1 commission leaves $19 net profit. The original risk was $10, so the outcome is +1.9R. Compare this example with your broker statement before importing a larger dataset.

Reading your results

Win rate counts positive net outcomes among all closed trades, including breakeven trades in the denominator. Profit factor divides total net winning amounts by the absolute total net losing amounts; without losses, a finite ratio is not reported. Expectancy is average net P&L per closed trade. Maximum drawdown follows the closed-trade equity curve from its running peak. It does not measure intratrade floating drawdown. Filters recalculate the displayed sample using the configured starting balance.

Storage, backups and import

Records stay in this browser’s IndexedDB on this site origin. They are not a cloud backup and do not synchronize between devices. Clearing site data, using private browsing or losing the device can remove them. Export JSON or CSV regularly. Import accepts the exported schema, validates every row and rejects duplicate IDs or mixed account currencies. The limit is 5,000 trades and 5 MB per import. JSON record imports do not replace the configured opening balance. Export files may contain personal trading notes; keep them private.

FAQ: Why can results differ from my broker?

This journal models linear price × position contracts. Broker rounding, tick values, inverse contracts, commissions and conversion timing can differ. Use actual statement values for costs and correct contract specifications. The tool does not reconcile a brokerage account or fetch trades. A profitable historical sample is not evidence of future profitability.