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Trading Log and Calculator

The viewer below displays a trading log and calculator. It is there as a visual aid to the brief discussion which follows.

***To download the actual Excel 2007 file, click the link below the viewer.***

Why this spreadsheet: Files like these are indispensible to the swing trader. They serve two basic functions.

First, they log your trades, providing you a historical record of your trading activity. This comes in handy for tax purposes. Although your broker will provide you a record of your trades with them, it may not be in a format you find particulary user-friendly. Developing your own trading log solves this problem, especially if you use multiple brokers over the course of the tax year.

Second, they calculate your running profit/loss and a host of other statistics that prove invaluable in your development as a swing trader. Having this information readily available helps you make adjustments to your trading plan and strategy if you are not getting the results you desire.

How to use it: The 14 columns displayed below do the main work of the spreadsheet and are really all you need to concern yourself with if you wish to use it as a template for your own trades. Note that the actual downloaded file will have additional columns of data. These columns are only applicable to the specific trading strategy that was employed during the development of the trading log and calculator (a strategy which is documented on this site). So unless you are going to use that specific strategy, you can safely ignore or even delete those columns outright.

As the yellow introductory text box says, study the spreadsheet before you do anything. No cells are locked or otherwise protected from editing, so the biggest mistake you can make is entering information into a cell and overriding a formula. (But no worries, if you do make a mistake and find you cannot reverse the action, you can always come back and download a fresh copy.)

More specifically, do not input anything into:

  • the top 9 cells (i.e., Amount Invested, Amount After Comm... Number of Trades),
  • the 7 columns of cells with a light-blue background (i.e., Amount Invested, Price Change per share... # of Days held), or
  • the 13 cells in the table at the very bottom of the spreadsheet (i.e., total win, total loss... expectancy ratio).

The cells which can be safely changed are the 7 columns of cells with a white bakground (i.e., Stock Symbol, Purchase Date... Trade Fees). Changing data in these cells changes data in the cells with formulas. To confirm this, try deleting the historical data for all 82 stocks (i.e., PG, DD... ADM). As you can see, this blanks out the entire spreadsheet. Now you can use it as a template for your own trades.

A final word. Of course, there are plenty of other statistics you might find useful that go beyond what this spreadsheet provides. But from the feedback we have received, users seem to agree that, at the very least, it is a solid starting point. So develop the spreadsheet's functionality at will. Make it yours. Because, as this site repeatedly emphasizes, the most important thing in swing trading is to take full ownership of your own trading activity. You, and you alone, are responsible for your own success or failure as a trader. There are no excuses.

See you at the opening bell.

Trading log and calculator download