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Any serious options trader must have an options trading journal to track their trades. Trading journals allow you to gather data about your trades which could then be mined to provide you with great insight that you will not be able to have otherwise.
Tracking this eight data points will get you enough insight into your trades for you to start understanding your performance. Still, we recommend you go beyond this eight data points and track the following:. Tracking these points together with the basic data points will give you enough data for you to start charting your performance and run correlation among your data to find out what you are doing right and wrong.
These are very simple points to track. However, they go along way when trying to identify your options trading edge.
Power E*TRADE –. Build your own –.
Which is why I rate it the single best all in one free trade journal option. Many traders prefer to build their own journal.
Building your own journal offers endless opportunities for customization. Handwritten journals are fine but they lack the ease of analysis and filtering options available with software solutions. If you prefer to create your own trade journal, a great option is Evernote. Evernote is perfect for detailed note taking. Evernote has a sleek and intuitive design. Journal enters can be easily organized with filter and tagging options. Evernote is an online notebook that you can access anywhere — from your smartphone, desktop to the web, your notes are synced on all your devices.
Skitch is An add-on feature tool that takes screenshots and adds them directly to your Evernote journal.
Evernote syncs your data to all your registered devices. Whether you view your notebooks from your phone or laptop, the same sleek user interface will greet you along with all the set of tools. You can then link the specific notebook to the spreadsheet for easy access.
A tip, however, is you can find a template that resembles that of a journal e. Spreadsheet software such as Microsoft excel or google sheets function as data organization and analytics tools.
Microsoft Excel, is a hugely popular software application. Likely you already have Microsoft office installed on your machine. It features fantastic computational capacity, graphing and pivot tables — making it a must-have piece of software for a variety of applications. Google Sheets has gained similar popularity in recent times. Goggle sheets shares the same computational capabilities as Excel. Google sheets is exclusively a web based application that lets users syncs files real time to its file storage application.
The advantage of google sheets over excel is its free to use with a google account.
Both Microsoft excel and Google sheets spreadsheets organize data with the use of cells, rows and columns. Both also boast of a wide range of formulas and charting features that you can use for data manipulation and presentation.
The trading journal should contain all your past trades. Cons Simple interface scores low in the aesthetics department Limited range of reporting options compared to those offered by paid journals Steep learning curve that may be off putting for beginners. What are the best markets to trade with a day job? See also: best online stock brokers The trading journal is a personal thing so you must adapt it to your needs. Before buying the software you can try if it meets all your requirements.
Either spreadsheet application can be used to make a highly analytical trading journal where you can record, compile, and examine statistics of trade performance. The advantage of using either Excel or google sheets to build a trading journal is the limitless customization. Although there are templates available, by using spreadsheets you have complete control over the design and components of your journal.
To make your trading journal robust and complete , consider having these must-haves:. You can learn more about these necessary components in my recent post: Best Online Trading Journal — What should be included in a trading journal. As mentioned above, data manipulation and statistical analysis will be the game changer of your trade journal.
Developing to be a consistently profitable trader — like any competitive sport, requires continuous and detailed data recording and performance analysis via review — something which spreadsheets such as google sheets and excel are perfect.
The following is an example of my own trading journal. I divide my own journal into two main parts: Trade Log and Trade Analysis. Trade Log — is a strict record of trades.