Trade Log

[paul ang 9]

Hi, dear community, I know this has been discussed in the basic training videos.

 

But i still want to ask... 

 

I've looked at chartlog (its wierd, sometimes it doesnt capture some trades)

 

And i've looked at this total trader excel sheet (OMG)

 

And i don't really like them...

 

Is there some way that is simpler? Similar to Andrew's method? Like just a snap shot and a few comments and data?

 

Any suggestions?

[Radek 7]

Hi Paul,

I recommend not going "light" on journaling and tracking your trades when you start. Andrew, Aiman, Peter, Brian, Thor and other guys are very experienced and this is why not always they put attention to details.

But when you start you need to focus on the details to figure out what type of trader you are and what works for you.

I know this is time consuming, but this is the hard work that everyone is talking about trading. Trading is hard work, not due to pressing Buy or Sell buttons, but because of journaling and self reflection.

I personally use very large excel sheet. I have dozens of formulas that help me convert my platform trade log into my Excel trade log.

Sample of what I'm tracking is below.

- Is it live or sim

- Purchase date

- is it long or short

- stock (ticker)

- entry and exit times (in GTM not in US market time)

- entries and exits (qty, value, commision)

- R level - how much was I risking

- Entry Value and Exit Value (to check what Buying Power I was using)

- Entry Cost and Exit Cost (basically commissions)

- P/L ( $ amount I made / lost on the trade)

- R gain or loss (How many Rs' I gained/loss

- Was it a Win or a Loss (for further analysis in a Pivot Table)

- Hour of the day (for further analysis in Pivot Trable)

- Setup (what was the pattern I was trading

- Setup quality and Execution quality - How do I assess this pattern and execution AFTER trade is completed and done. I use a scale from 1 to 3 to make it easy. So for me 3 and 3 is ideal. 1 and 1 is worst

- Comment

- day of week (to check if I'm better on a specific day of a week)

- mistake - a drop down list of "mistakes" I make during my trading. I consider trading as game of mistakes. The less mistakes you make, the more money you keep.

Sample trades:

 

Then I have a lot of other tabs to check where I am:

 

Hope this helps,

Cheers - Radek

 

 

[Mitch The Duck 4]

Hi Radek,

 

Care to share your excel sheet? I'm also diving into journaling and looking for options. I am trying out the Total Trader sheet at the moment, it does need quite some tweaking but I'm really digging the idea of having my own self contained journaling software instead of something like chartlog or tradervue.

Also Paul, if you havn't checked out TraderVue give it a go. It's pretty streamlined.

Cheers,

MiTCh

[Gary Rempel 1]

Hey Radek!

I would also like a copy of the excel spreadsheet, if you are willing.

Thanks,

Gary

[Radek 7]

Here you go guys, Below is my file I use for tracking. This is excel file, so you have to remove the ".txt" extension. I had to add it to be able to upload it here.

Trade-Log-v9-shared.xlsx.txt

[Mitch The Duck 4]

Thank you sir!

 

[Gary Rempel 1]

Thanks Radek!

[JC 22]

On 12/2/2020 at 8:36 PM, Mitch The Duck said:

Hi Radek,

 

Care to share your excel sheet? I'm also diving into journaling and looking for options. I am trying out the Total Trader sheet at the moment, it does need quite some tweaking but I'm really digging the idea of having my own self contained journaling software instead of something like chartlog or tradervue.

Also Paul, if you havn't checked out TraderVue give it a go. It's pretty streamlined.

Cheers,

MiTCh

Hi Mitch

 

I have significantly updated the Total Trader excel sheet.  Spent a lot of time on it.  If you are digging into that I can share my updated version in case it is interesting / of use.

 

JC

[Reza Yazdan 0]

On 12/9/2020 at 2:23 AM, JC said:

Hi Mitch

 

I have significantly updated the Total Trader excel sheet.  Spent a lot of time on it.  If you are digging into that I can share my updated version in case it is interesting / of use.

 

JC

Hi JC,

It would be great if you can share that updated version here.

Reza

[JC 22]

On 12/29/2020 at 1:53 AM, Reza Yazdan said:

Hi JC,

It would be great if you can share that updated version here.

Reza

Hey Reza

 

I can run through some final checks and tests and post a clean version.  I'll need a few days and then I will post. 

 

JC

 

 

[Reza Yazdan 0]

On 1/12/2021 at 12:28 AM, JC said:

Hey Reza

 

I can run through some final checks and tests and post a clean version.  I'll need a few days and then I will post. 

 

JC

 

 

Thanks JC,

Looking forward to it.

Reza

[Gary Rempel 1]

Sounds great! Would you mind double checking if it will work on Google Sheets? I've had nothing but problems since changing to Windows 10 using Libreoffice and the sheet above doesn't seem to work with Sheets either. Anyways, Thanks for sharing your hard work!

[JC 22]

3 hours ago, Gary Rempel said:

Sounds great! Would you mind double checking if it will work on Google Sheets? I've had nothing but problems since changing to Windows 10 using Libreoffice and the sheet above doesn't seem to work with Sheets either. Anyways, Thanks for sharing your hard work!

I am not sure that the macros in excel will operate in google sheets.  I know that sheets allows macros but the code would have to be rewritten to Google Apps Script.  You can always test the original version of TotalTrader that has been posted to the forum.  If that doesn't work my file definitely wont as it is an expansion of TotalTrader.

[MDB 0]

Hi JC,

You had mentioned you had significantly updated the Total Trader excel sheet. I am looking into using the Total Trader spreadsheet for journaling but noticed that the dates have to be updated for 2021.  I was wondering if it is working well for you and if you would be willing to share your updated version.

Thanks,

Marco 

[JC 22]

Sorry for the delay in posting the file.  But anyway here it is.  As mentioned previously it is a revision / expansion of the Total Trader file.  It will only work in excel as the macros use visual basic.  As it uses macros the file needs to be saved as a macro enabled excel file .xlsm

You can download the file from Google Drive using the link below.  Any questions / corrections / suggestion message me.  

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G5fKj600EDBfM--QNMzQxxOmEkDCJUDF/view?usp=sharing

 

 

FILE USAGE INSTRUCTIONS (also included on the "INSTRUCTIONS" sheet):

The default in the file is an account size / starting balance of $25,000 and risk of $50 per trade.  These can be adjusted as required on the "INSTRUCTIONS" sheet.

  The file calculates commissions for either CMEG, IB (tiered) or excluding commissions.  If you select to include commissions (using the "ON"/"OFF" switch) the file will estimate fees as well.  The fees are an estimate only and I tend to overwrite them when the actual data is available from the broker to ensure the account balance is 100% correct.

 

First step is to enter the Date for the trades on the "INSTRUCTIONS" sheet. European format DD-MM-YYYY.

 

The file is based on loading the "Trades" report from DAS.  The columns in the report should be structured as below. 

 

You then copy the data in the Trades report and paste (past values) into the "DAS_DATA" sheet in the file.  I then tend to sort the data.  Select the data from cell A2 to the end of the data (A2:H6 shown below), select Sort and Sort by SYMB then by TIME.

 

Then run the "Analyse DAS Data" macro using the button on the "INSTRUCTIONS" sheet.

It converts the data shown above to identify the trade direction, duration, total profit, commissions and Fees, gives an ID number, win/loss etc.  

Add some additional data on the first row of each trade ONLY (the rows with a Trade ID):

• Add in the STOP price when you entered the trade (used for calculating the overall reward to risk), the Strategy you were following, then (based on the strategy indicators you have defined for the strategy) you enter a 1 if the indicator was present at the point of entry or 0 if it was not present.  This gives a way to track which indicators are key or for example the success rate of a setup if more than 50% of the indicators are present at the point of entry versus the success rate if 100% of the indicators are present. 
• Enter the timeframe of the chart you were using for the setup.  If the setup was on the 5 minute chart but you used the 1 minute to get a better entry, you should enter "5". 
• Enter a wellbeing score from 1 to 10 (10 being best).
• If you want to track some comments you can also enter a tag line and a key takeaway.

 

Example when populated

 

Then run the "Transfer Data to Journal" macro using the button on the "INSTRUCTIONS" sheet

When finished you will see this message (click OK):

 

Data is transferred from the "DAS_DATA" sheet to the "JOURNAL" sheet.  "JOURNAL" sheet feeds the "CALCULATIONS" sheet and the blue sheets "WEEKLY_CARD", "SCORECARD", "DASHBOARD", "STRATEGY_STATS".

 

 

Clear the data from the "DAS_DATA" sheet with the macro "Remove DAS Data" button on the "INSTRUCTIONS" sheet.

 

 

I set the excel calculation options to "Manual" when using the file to speed the macros up.  Then each sheet should be refreshed after the DAS data to Journal sheet successfully completed.  There are buttons on the Blue sheets to calculate the sheet and charts.

 

What can you get out of the file? Examples below are using the single trade AMD example from above.  Obviously the more trades loaded, the more informative the analysis, but this gives a small flavour...

A moving weekly scorecard that can be refreshed using the drop down list selecting the week end date:

A total Scorecard tracking the account from inception to current date:

A Dashboard with detailed stats across a range of elements that can be viewed on a total basis on average basis:

A Strategy Stats sheet with in-depth tracking of the Strategies you have defined

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2021 by JC
Left some personal data visible