Best Trading Journals for 2023: The 5 Top Apps and Software Solutions

Sometimes you spend endless hours on something, but it still doesn’t work out in the end. You take different paths, try several approaches, but you just can’t deal with the issue the way you want. It happens in every aspect of life.

The only solution is to take a moment, back off from the problem, and spent some time analyzing. Go through your methodologies, take a look at the mistakes you’ve made in the process, and come up with a new, fine-tuned plan. You will be mesmerized by how easy things can get if you don’t rush and just focus on the things you’ve done and the things you can make better.

It is the same with trading and investing. Many traders often spend hours developing and refining their strategies, but, in the end, something still doesn’t work. It is pointless to keep doing this if you don’t try to find the weak spots first. The best way to separate the most profitable strategies from the others is to start with the best trading journal for your needs and budget.

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The 5 Best Trading Journals

• Edgewonk: Best online trading journal at a reasonable price
• TraderSync: Best trading journal app with 100+ supported brokers and AI-functionalities
• Tradervue: Long-term existing trading journal with enhanced journaling
• Trademetria: Robust trading journal with portfolio tracker and strategy backtesting
• Microsoft Excel: Best trading journal software for individual analysis and programming

1. Edgewonk

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

Edgewonk 3.0 was released in March 2021 and is now an online trading journal with in-depth analytics tools. The old Edgewonk 2.0 required a software installation on your PC, but now 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.

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

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. Importing options trades is not supported right now.

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

Asset classes supported: Stocks, futures, forex, cryptocurrencies, commodities and CFDs

Best Offer:

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

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. The founders faced the same problems as most of us. They took various trading courses and never knew which ones taught the most profitable concept since they did not track the trades correctly. Subscribers see their trades on a chart, and targets and stop losses can be visualized as well. Even interactive charts and intraday charting ist supported.

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

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.

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 forex

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. Tradervue

Tradervue was one of the first trading journals. We can even say that it was at the core of shaping the niche. We should say, though, that its functionalities aren’t as advanced as the ones of EdgeWonk.

However, it comes with journal features, analytical features and even a unique sharing feature. Tradervue’s users can share their past performance history and analytics with peers from the community. That way, they can brainstorm, analyze, and discuss trades and strategies.

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

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 100 trade inputs per month. However, it is a way better and more convenient tool than keeping your trade history on an Excel spreadsheet, for example.

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.

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 70 brokers and platforms. That way, you can import your trades from almost every trading solution on the market.

4. 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 $29.95 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 ($19 per month), Pro plan ($29 per month)

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

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

5. Microsoft Excel

If you don’t want to pay for third-party solutions and want to take full control of the features and functionalities, you can opt to build a spreadsheet trading journal from scratch. Microsoft Excel allows for the development of various features. If you don’t want to start from scratch, you can get a solid base using a free spreadsheet template from the web. There is a variety of ready-made templates that you can use as a starting point.

If you choose this option, however, there are two things that you should bear in mind. The first is that it will take you time. If you don’t have the necessary knowledge, you will have to get familiar with the financial-related functions in the program, VBA for macros, and more. Also, you will have to spend some time double-checking the template to ensure everything works fine. You don’t want your results to be skewed by a small mistake here or there.

The next thing you should be aware of is building the habit of manually inputting your trade history every day. This requires maintaining consistency.

Price: A standard license/free

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 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.

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