5 Best Trading Journals for 2023 [Software and Apps]

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Sometimes, you invest endless hours in something that does not work and don’t know why. You did everything possible to improve things and try different approaches, but it always ends the same. The same is true for trading and investing, where we often spend hours by hours developing new trading strategies and trying different trade entry and exit methods with uncertain outcomes.

What strategy works best, and what type of trading setup should I focus on? How does my trade result look like when differentiating between days of the week and times of the day, and how is the difference in the profitability of long vs. short trades?

The best way to identify the most profitable strategies, strengths and weaknesses in your trading style is by using the best trading journal for detailed trade analysis. Below I’ve added my five favorite trading journal apps that help you with detailed analysis, and also included comparison tables and a starter guide.

The 5 Best Trading Journals

• Edgewonk: Best online trading journal at a reasonable price
• TraderSync: Best trading journal app with AI-functionalities
• Trademetria: Robust trading journal with portfolio tracker
• Tradervue: Long-term existing trading journal with enhanced journaling
• Microsoft Excel: Best trading journal software for individual programming

1. Edgewonk

If you want the best trading journal for the best possible price on the market, then choose this option. It is an excellent combination of a journal and a trades analytics platform.

Edgewonk 3.0 is an online trading journal with in-depth analytics tools, which does not require a software installation on your PC. Instead, all features are available online from everywhere.

You can take advantage of entry/exit optimization tools, a trade simulator, advanced trade classifiers, trade management evaluation, holding time analysis, and more. It is safe to say that the software has everything you need to get a full picture of your profile.

Edgewonk also allows you to customize the input information, including adding notes and tags for each trade. But the most exciting feature is the psychological classifiers. You can add information about your mood, reasons for entering/exiting a trade, and more. That way, you can spot patterns related to the success of your trades and their reliance on your emotions and psychological states.

The downside is it doesn’t support as many trade platforms and brokers as other solutions on the market for automated imports, but over 30 brokers are supported (including all leading retail brokers). Importing options trades is not supported right now.

Key features

• Works on all devices
• Trading journal and diary included
• Actionable tips for targeted adjustments
• Trade management optimizer
• Future simulator with growth scenarios
• Supports multiple trading journals
• Chartbook and emotional analytics
• Cryptocurrency trades are supported

Price: Pro plan for $169 per year ($10 coupon available)

Asset classes supported: Stocks, futures, currencies, commodities and CFDs

Best Offer:

• Click here and try Edgewonk for free or use the promo code DT10 to save $10

With Edgewonk you get the best trading journal for the lowest annual costs. Please, read the Edgewonk review to discover all features and functionalities.

2. TraderSync

Tradersync is a flexible and feature-rich trading journal developed by a group of programmers in 2014, who previously faced the same challenges as most traders. They took various trading courses and never knew which ones taught the most profitable concept since they did not track the trades correctly. So, they decided to develop a trading journal and called the project TraderSync.

With TraderSync, subscribers see their trades on a chart, including entries, profit targets and stop loss level visualization. Even interactive charts and intraday charting ist supported.

Key figures like overall return, risk, return per share and options contract are supported, notes can be made for each trade, and you can track commissions. Those who want can set up a public profile and share their trades with others.

A tagging system helps to filter various categories for further analysis. New features like the Artificial Intelligence Feedback and the Trading Strategy Simulator are excellent additions to the basic functionalities.

Key features:

• Mobile App for iOS and Android
• Trade data via manual entry and import
• Multiple portfolios
• Performance reports
• Simulator
• Pre and post chart data
• Trade management
• Artificial Intelligence insights

Price: Free trial (7 days), Pro plan ($29.95 per month), Premium plan ($49.95 per month), Elite plan ($79.95 per month)

Asset classes supported: Stocks, options, futures, and currencies

Best offer:

• Click here to start your free TraderSync trial (no credit card required)

Read the TraderSync review to learn more about the specific features and benefits.

3. Trademetria

Trademetria is a powerful trading journal developed by Thiago Ghilardi, a computer science graduate and full-time trader. Trademetria is a tool with tens of thousands of users around the world. The functionalities are remarkable, and you can track up to 50 accounts with unlimited order imports by using the Pro-version for $39.95 per month.

Unlimited delayed quotes for equities and forex, key metrics, a trade history calendar, buys and sells visualized on a chart, a PnL simulator, and strategy rankings are just some of the featured supported. More than 100 different online brokers are already supported, and the list is growing further.

Price: Free plan, Basic plan ($29.95 per month), Pro plan ($39.95 per month)

Asset classes supported: Stocks, options, futures, commodities, forex, cryptos, CFDs

Best offer:

• Free account + 40% Off on annual plans

The Trademetria review gets into more detail about the trading journal functionalities.

4. Tradervue

Tradervue was one of the first trading journals available to retail traders and a role model for other trade journal developers since it defined the absolute minimum every trading journal would have to offer.

Tradervue works well for journaling stock, forex and futures trades, helps analyze the profitability scores, and you can also share your expertise with other traders in the community. Currently, 82 different trading platforms are supported, ranging from the most popular ones like TD Ameritrade, Robinhood and MetaTrader to less-known platforms like cTrader and CQG Trader.

You can use Tradervue for free with some limitations. For example, you won’t have access to the advanced charting and analytics features, and you will have a cap of 30 trade imports per month. If you want to unlock the full potential of the platform, you should choose between the Silver or the Gold plans, depending on your needs.

Key features:

• Auto-import
• Trade notes, filtering and tagging
• Automatic price charts and chart studies
• Detailed reports and statistics
• Risk analysis
• Sharing features with privacy settings

Price: Free plan, Silver plan ($29 per month), Gold plan ($49 per month)

Asset classes supported: Stocks, options, futures and forex

Tradervue’s platform has one of the most advanced integration systems. As lined out in the Tradervue review, the trading journal is compatible with more than 80 brokers and platforms. That way, you can import your trades from almost every trading solution on the market.

5. Microsoft Excel

Not every trade analysis and trade documentation requires a paid subscription to one of the best trade journaling apps. So, it is absolutely understandable that you might not want to pay for 3rd-party solutions, and this is where Microsoft Excel comes into play.

With this tool, you can start with a new spreadsheet and define the parameters you want to analyze. Typically, it is best to download trade executions from your broker and import them in a separate data tab. Then, you start evaluating and calculating the key statistics you require for analysis and add a pivot table for comparison purposes to another tab.

The out-of-the-box finance-related functions are kind of limited, so it will be beneficial if you have in-depth knowledge about VBA for macro development.

If you buy an older version, you can limit your expenses to the purchasing costs. However, if you go with the M365 version, there are recurring costs, making the tool not better than pre-developed trading journals from the expense side.

Price: $100 one-time for older versions, $69.99 per year for M365 Personal

Asset classes supported: Unlimited

Best Trading Journal: Conclusion

The goal of our guide was to do the research for you and narrow down the best trading journals. You can now try the free plans of the journals mentioned above and find which suits you the most. And if you want to build something on your own, of course, then roll your sleeves up and open Microsoft Excel.

To summarize, we can say that EdgeWonk, TraderSync, Trademetria and Tradervue are the perfect solutions for traders who want powerful analytics features at their fingertips. TraderSync has the extra benefit that all features can be tested for 7 days for free. Trademetria has a robust user interface but only comes with delayed quotes.

And finally, if you want to avoid all limitations and build a powerful trading journal system (you can include portfolio analysis, backtesting, and other features), and have the necessary skills, then Excel will do the job for you.

Comparison

What Is a Trading Journal, and How Important Is It?

A trading journal is a record of your trading activity. Keeping track of your history will make you more prepared for the future and will give you a competitive advantage. We can go as far as saying that it often differentiates professionals from amateurs. How so? Let’s take a look at a few examples.

The truth is that what you can’t track, you can’t improve, and what you don’t track, you won’t improve. Think of sports, for example. Boxers, footballers, basketball players – all of them watch recordings of their matches to analyze their weak points and improve their future results. Even poker players take notes during tournaments.

Trading journal software is essential as it builds habits for self-improvement. Think about this – you generate lots of data while you trade. Why don’t you capitalize on that and extract some valuable patterns for analysis?

These tools also help you keep track of your market moves, measure your progress, and serve as a benchmark for trading performance. Journals can be beneficial to both beginners and professionals. It helps beginners build habits and achieve higher success. For professionals, it will fine-tune their strategies and make it easier to deep-dive in detail and analyze.

How to Start a Trading Journal and What Should It Include?

The hardest thing with trading journals is deciding to start and building the habit of maintaining consistency. Afterward, everything comes in place. If you struggle to begin your trade journal, picture your end goal, probably becoming a better trader.

Try to paint that in numbers – for example, increasing your profitability by X%. It is proven that having a measurable goal boosts motivation and helps you remain focused.

You can start keeping records of your trade history in several ways. A text document, an Excel worksheet, a free or a paid third-party service – you have a wide range of options. To narrow down your choices, let’s go through some basic tips on what should be included.

Automated trade history import: This is a convenient feature that will save plenty of time and effort. The most popular third-party solutions have direct integration with brokers and trading platforms. That way, your trade history can be uploaded with just a few clicks.

Report and analysis tools: These features are the most important ones. The automated analysis of your data will help you derive conclusions and extract essential bits of information about your style, mistakes, market moves, and more. That way, you will be more prepared the next time you trade and significantly optimize your overall performance.

Advanced features: Looking at graphs and previous trades is one thing. Having access to advanced features for backtesting, trade management evaluation, classifiers, trade optimization, and more can bring your game to another level.

Last but not least, a trade journal should not come at an exorbitant price. In the end, it is just a tool that is intended to help you become better, not lay fundamentals.