Reviewed July 29, 2026. A trading journal records what you planned, what the market and venue actually did, and what you will change. It cannot make a strategy profitable, but it can replace selective memory with evidence and make risk, execution, and process mistakes easier to review.
Quick answer: Copy the verified Google Sheets template or download it as an Excel file, then record every trade using the same fields. Review results by setup and market condition, include fees and funding, and separate process quality from profit or loss.
Download the free crypto trading journal template
Choose a format
The two links point to the same publicly shared template. Google may require sign-in to create a personal Sheets copy; the Excel link downloads the workbook directly.
Template availability and both endpoints were checked on July 29, 2026.
Save a private working copy before entering trades. Add fields only when you know how the information will change a decision; a short journal completed consistently is more useful than a complex one abandoned after a week.
Why keep a trading journal?
CME Group’s trade-plan education treats a trader log as one component of a broader plan alongside objectives, methodology, risk management, and strategy. The log provides the observations needed to compare intended behavior with actual behavior.
A useful journal can help answer:
- Which setups have enough observations to evaluate?
- Did results come from the strategy, market direction, leverage, or one outlier?
- How much did fees, funding, spread, and slippage affect net results?
- Were losses within the planned risk, or did execution break the rules?
- Which errors repeat under particular times, venues, or market conditions?
A journal documents results; it does not prove causation or guarantee improvement. Small samples and changing market regimes can make patterns look stronger than they are.
What to track for every crypto trade
| Category | Recommended fields | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Trade ID, date, timezone, venue, account, spot/perpetual, pair | Makes trades traceable and prevents timezone or account confusion. |
| Plan | Setup, direction, trigger, planned entry, invalidation, target, time exit | Preserves the decision before the outcome was known. |
| Risk | Account equity, quantity, leverage, planned loss, portfolio exposure | Shows whether size matched the stated risk budget. |
| Execution | Order type, submitted price/time, average fill, partial fills, exit, slippage | Separates strategy results from venue and order-handling effects. |
| Costs | Trading fees, funding paid or received, borrow cost, gas, other costs | Produces a more realistic net result. |
| Context | Trend/range, volatility, liquidity, catalyst, timeframe, screenshot link | Supports comparison among similar conditions. |
| Review | Rule adherence, error tag, what worked, what failed, next action | Turns an entry into a specific process observation. |
Never record a seed phrase, private key, API secret, one-time code, or full account-recovery information. If screenshots show balances, addresses, names, or order IDs, redact them before sharing.
A simple before, during, and after workflow
Before the trade
- Name the setup and the evidence required for entry.
- Write the invalidation condition, not just a stop-price number.
- Calculate planned risk using position size, stop distance, and estimated costs.
- Record maximum total exposure if other positions are correlated.
- Define exit, cancellation, and time-limit conditions.
During the trade
- Capture submitted and filled prices rather than only the chart price.
- Record partial fills, cancelled orders, stop changes, and added size.
- Note venue outages, spread changes, abnormal funding, or liquidity events.
- Do not rewrite the original plan; add a timestamped change note.
After the trade
- Enter gross and net profit or loss with all known costs.
- Score rule adherence separately from the financial result.
- Apply one or two consistent error and market-condition tags.
- Write one concrete observation and one next action.
CME’s trade-plan guidance recommends defining exact setup, trigger, stop, and profit-taking conditions in advance. That makes the journal a test of a written process instead of a story created after the trade.
Useful journal formulas
Contract specifications differ, especially for inverse or quanto derivatives. Confirm the venue’s profit-and-loss formula before relying on a spreadsheet. For a simple linear position, these concepts are useful:
Net profit or loss
Net P&L = Gross P&L − trading fees − net funding cost − other costs
Represent funding received as a negative cost or track paid and received in separate columns.
Planned risk
Planned risk = |planned entry − invalidation price| × quantity + estimated costs
This simplified formula assumes a linear product and an executable stop. Slippage or gaps can make actual loss larger.
R multiple
R multiple = Net P&L ÷ planned risk
Use the risk recorded before entry. Do not change the denominator after seeing the result.
Expectancy per trade
Expectancy = (win rate × average win) − (loss rate × average loss)
Use the absolute value for average loss and keep units consistent. Report sample size and avoid treating a short series as stable.
Win rate alone is not enough. A strategy can win often and still lose money if losses are much larger than wins or costs consume the edge.
How to review the journal
Daily or after each session
- Reconcile the sheet with the venue’s fills and account statement.
- Check that fees, funding, and partial fills were captured.
- Flag rule breaks without changing the original plan.
- Record any operational issue that needs immediate correction.
Weekly
- Group trades by setup, market condition, venue, and rule-adherence score.
- Review both profitable rule violations and unprofitable rule-following trades.
- Compare expected and actual entry, exit, costs, and slippage.
- Choose at most one process change for the next review period.
Monthly or after a meaningful sample
- Calculate net result, average win/loss, expectancy, drawdown, and sample size.
- Check whether one asset, day, or outlier explains most of the result.
- Compare in-sample ideas with later observations.
- Retire, revise, or continue a rule using pre-defined review criteria.
Do not optimize after every loss. Frequent rule changes make it difficult to learn whether the original plan worked and encourage hindsight bias.
Illustrative journal entry
The values below demonstrate the structure only. They are not a trade recommendation or performance claim.
| Trade ID | EXAMPLE-001 |
|---|---|
| Instrument | BTC/USD linear perpetual |
| Setup | Pre-defined range-break test |
| Planned risk | 0.25% of example account equity |
| Execution note | Entry filled in two parts; actual average fill recorded from venue statement |
| Review note | Plan followed; slippage exceeded assumption, so review order type before the next test |
Privacy and backup choices
A cloud spreadsheet is convenient but creates an account-access and sharing risk. Review the sharing panel, restrict access, use multi-factor authentication, and avoid link sharing unless needed. Google explains that Sheets files can be private, shared with selected people, or published; those are materially different settings.
If privacy requirements are higher, use the downloaded workbook in an encrypted local environment and keep a separate encrypted backup. Store only the minimum account identifiers needed for analysis.
Bottom line
A useful trading journal is consistent, honest, and tied to written rules. Capture the plan before entry, reconcile actual execution afterward, include all costs, and review groups of comparable trades. The goal is a better decision process—not an unsupported promise of higher returns.
Official sources
- CME Group: building a trade plan
- CME Group: defining strategies, setups, and triggers
- CME Group: applying and measuring a trading plan
- CFTC: develop a trading plan suited to your circumstances and risk tolerance
- Google Docs Editors Help: create and use a spreadsheet
- Google Docs Editors Help: sharing and publishing files
Join the Discussion