Trading journal: spreadsheet or software?

Both work. The right choice depends on how many trades you take and how much time you want to spend on upkeep rather than on review.

When a spreadsheet is enough

• You take a few trades a week.
• You trade one instrument, such as stocks, with no partial exits.
• You enjoy building your own columns and charts.
• You want complete control over the layout.

A spreadsheet is free, flexible and private. A simple sheet with date, symbol, side, entry, exit, size, fees, result and a notes column is a good first journal.

Where spreadsheets get hard

• Entering trades by hand. The more you trade, the more typing, and the more likely you stop.
• Partial fills and scaling. Averaging several entries and exits into one trade needs formulas that are easy to get wrong.
• Options and futures. Contract multipliers, per-contract fees and expirations add complexity.
• Statistics. Profit factor, expectancy and maximum drawdown are not hard, but building and checking them takes time.
• Slicing results. Breaking performance down by setup, weekday and entry hour needs pivot tables that need maintaining.

What software adds

Journal software imports your broker's file, pairs the fills into trades, handles contract multipliers and fees, and calculates the statistics for you. It then lets you tag setups and mistakes and see results by each. The time you save goes into the part that improves your trading: the review.

What software costs

Sometimes money, sometimes flexibility. Some tools restrict free use, so check the limits (see what to look for in a free trading journal). Software also decides how things are calculated, so compare its totals with your broker statement at least once.

A practical middle path

Start with whichever you will actually use this week. If you find yourself behind on data entry after a month, move to software and import your history. Keep a spreadsheet export as a backup either way.

OptiqJournal imports your broker's CSV and lets you export everything, so you are never locked in. Try it free for 6 months.