Free Trading Journal Template for Excel, With the Formulas Explained
One row per closed trade, with R, expectancy and profit factor already worked out and every field yours to rename. Excel and .csv, no sign-up.
3 Nov 2026 · 6 min read
On this page
This is a spreadsheet with one row for each closed trade and the formulas already in place. Type the risk and the result, and it works out R, expectancy, profit factor, win rate and your longest losing run. Every field is yours to rename, so it fits whatever model, grading scheme and instruments you use.
Download it
- Trading journal template, Excel (.xlsx): the full workbook with the formulas.
- Trading journal template, .csv: the typed columns only, for Google Sheets, Notion or any other tool. A flat file cannot hold the formulas, so the calculated columns are left out.
No sign-up and no email address. Use it, change it, share it. It needs Excel 2019 or later, Google Sheets or LibreOffice.
What is in the workbook
- Journal. One thousand rows, empty, with the calculated columns filled down.
- Stats. Nineteen figures for the Journal sheet, then three small tables (by model, by account, by grade) where you type a label and get the trades, win rate, expectancy and total R for it.
- Example and Example stats. Eight made-up trades, so you can see every formula do something before you trust it with your own.
The columns, and what each one feeds
| Column | What you type | What it feeds |
|---|---|---|
| Risk in money | What you stood to lose if the stop was hit. This is 1R for that trade. | R multiple, and through it every R figure |
| Result in money | What the trade made or lost after spread, commission and swap. | R multiple, profit factor in money, net result |
| Model or setup | Your own name for the setup. Free text, so keep the spelling the same. | The by-model table |
| Account | Whichever label tells your accounts apart. | The by-account table |
| Grade | Your own scale, for how well the trade was executed, not how it ended. | The by-grade table |
| Followed my plan? | Yes or No, decided at the time of the trade. | Expectancy when you followed the plan and when you did not |
| Date, symbol, direction, emotional state, notes, screenshot link, two spare fields | Whatever you want to find later. | Nothing calculates from them. They are there to be sorted and filtered. |
The three grey columns at the right (R multiple, cumulative R and losing run) are formulas. Leave them alone. Nothing is tied to an instrument, so there is no pip value to set: R only needs the money you risked and the money you got.
How each figure is worked out
These are the sums behind the Stats sheet, so you can check them or rebuild them in a tool of your own.
- R multiple is the result divided by the risk. In the file:
=IF(AND(ISNUMBER(F2),ISNUMBER(G2)),IF(F2=0,"",G2/F2),""). A trade that lost exactly what you risked is −1R. - Expectancy is total R divided by the number of trades. It is the same number as win rate times average win, minus loss rate times average loss, with break-even trades counted as trades.
- Break-even win rate is the average loss divided by the average win plus the average loss: the win rate at which expectancy is zero for that win and loss size.
- Profit factor is the sum of the winning R divided by the sum of the losing R. It stays blank until you have a losing trade, because the sum would divide by zero.
- Longest losing run counts consecutive rows below zero, so it needs the rows in date order.
A worked example
These are the made-up trades on the Example sheet. They are not anyone's results, and the table is arithmetic, not a suggestion of what to trade.
| Closed | Symbol | Direction | Model | Risk | Result | R multiple | Followed plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct | EURUSD | Long | Setup 1 | 50 | +100 | +2.00R | Yes |
| 6 Oct | XAUUSD | Short | Setup 2 | 50 | −50 | −1.00R | Yes |
| 7 Oct | US100 | Long | Setup 2 | 50 | −50 | −1.00R | No |
| 8 Oct | EURUSD | Short | Setup 1 | 50 | +75 | +1.50R | Yes |
| 9 Oct | USDJPY | Long | Setup 1 | 50 | −25 | −0.50R | Yes |
| 12 Oct | XAUUSD | Long | Setup 2 | 50 | +150 | +3.00R | Yes |
| 13 Oct | EURUSD | Long | Setup 2 | 50 | −50 | −1.00R | No |
| 14 Oct | US100 | Short | Setup 1 | 50 | 0 | 0.00R | Yes |
- Win rate: 3 wins in 8 trades is 37.5%. One trade finished at exactly zero, so it is a trade but not a win.
- Average win and loss: the wins add to +6.50R, an average of +2.17R. The 4 losses add to −3.50R, an average of −0.88R.
- Expectancy: +3.00R over 8 trades is +0.38R a trade.
- Profit factor: 6.5 divided by 3.5 is 1.86.
- Plan followed or not: the 6 trades where the plan was followed average +0.83R; the 2 where it was not average −1.00R. Two trades prove nothing, but this is the question the column lets you ask of a real few hundred.
Make it yours
The point of a journaling spreadsheet is that the fields match how you trade. Rename the two spare columns, replace the grade letters with your own scale, write your own model names, and delete what you will never fill in: a column you skip after a week costs more than it ever gave. If you are unsure what is worth recording, the guide on what to write in a trading journal sorts the fields by the effort each one takes.
What a spreadsheet does badly
- Screenshots. A cell can hold a link or a file name, not the picture, so the chart lives somewhere else.
- Several accounts. One decision repeated onto three accounts is three rows if you are not careful, and your sample looks three times bigger than it is. Decide what a row means before you start; journalling across accounts sets out the choice.
- Typing. Every row is entered by hand. Your platform's history export saves you the prices and results; see how to export MT4, MT5 and cTrader history. The risk column stays yours, because it is the amount you meant to risk.
Using it
- Open the Journal sheet and type one row for each trade you close.
- Fill in risk and result as soon as the trade is closed, while you remember what you meant to risk.
- Read the Stats sheet on a fixed rhythm, such as the end of each week, not after every trade.
- Type a model name into the by-model table to see which of your setups is carrying the average.
We're working on a free journal and a backtester, with no date yet. Today Trepeat is a trade copier for MT4, MT5 and cTrader, currently on demo accounts, and you can add notes, a grade and screenshots to any copied trade once it closes, with a calendar of your results.
That journal does not calculate expectancy, R or profit factor today, which is what this file is for; see the journal documentation for what it records. The lot size calculator works out the size that makes 1R the amount you meant.
Written by the Trepeat team.