Excel Trading Journal Instructions

Here, we’ll walk through how to use your pro trading journal built for Apex traders using NinjaTrader 8.

If you got here without already having it, access the trading journal template here:

Get the journal

1) Download and open the Trading Journal 

1) Check your email for email from epicctrader.com

2) You might have to check promotions or spam folders. If there, move the email to main inbox.

3) Click the google drive link in the email.

4) You’ll see download links for both the Excel and PDF trading journals.

5) Click the three dots to the right of the file name

6) Click ‘download’ to get the file on your computer to open with a Excel or other local spreadsheet software.

OR

Hover over ‘Open with’ to select an app in which to open it (like Google Sheets). This may only work if you’re logged into Google in the browser you’re using.

If you don’t like Google sheets, and don’t have Excel, you’ll need to install some spreadsheet software. Some people use WPS Spreadsheet. It’s free and easy to use.

Whatever you’re using – open the journal and continue on:

2) See How the Trading Journal Analysis Tab Works

Click the ‘Analysis’ tab at the bottom. Spend a moment playing with the sample data analysis.

Take a few minutes to see how the results change when you filter by setup or filter by tag. To do that:

1. Hover over the “Setup B” cell highlighted in bright green.
2. Click the downward pointing triangle to see the options.
3. Choose a different strategy (A or C) and see the data change to match.

You can then try the same with the ‘Tags’ data box also. Use the cell showing “Final 90 minutes” highlighted bright green.

You can customize those later if you want. For now just try selecting different options to see the results change.

Keep in mind: If you ever see formula errors in this space or other parts of the worksheets, you may have accidentally changed something. 

3) View Sample Trade Data

Now click the ‘Trades’ tab next to the ‘Analysis’ tab at the bottom. That will take you to the trade entry sheet

Make note of how the trade data looks. Every datapoint to the right of the ‘Closed?’ column is calculated by formulas. Everything to the left of it is manual trade info. You’re about to delete some of it so you can start adding your own.

4) Erase Sample Trade Data

Now highlight and delete the sample data. Click cell S6, hold the shift key, and click cell B16. Then hit the delete key. 

This will clear out all the data. It will also clear out all the data that is formula-driven. Don’t panic! That’s supposed to happen. The formulas are still there, they’re just written to be blank if they don’t have the data.

5) Customize Trade Setups and Trade Tags

Before you start entering your data, customize your trade setup and tags menus. This is done through the Data Validation tool.

Google Sheets version:

For trade setups, go to the data validation menu for cell F6. You can see where I have it set as ‘SetupA,Setup B,Setup C’.

You can do more than three if you need, or you can do less than three. You can name them whatever you want. Each setup label needs to be separated by a comma, just as they are now. 

Save it for the column:

1. Once you have entered all your setup names separated by commas, hit ‘Save’.
2. Use the cursor to hover over the bottom right corner of cell F6 until the mouse cursor becomes a plus sign.
3. Click, and drag down the sheet as far as you would like. You can always drag it further down later.

Then, scroll to the right until you get to columns where you see the column headers for tags.

ou’ll edit these the same way you edited them for the trade setup labels.

Recommendation:

Brainstorm the tags you might like to analyze, and group them into sets. Avoid having overlap between sets. That way, only one tag from each set will apply to each trade, as much as possible.

There’s more information about tags and why they’re helpful further down this page. If you’re new to that concept, I recommend reading all of that before choosing your tags.

You can have as many tags in each set as you want, but keep it as simple as you can.

When you’re done with each, don’t forget to drag them down as you did the others. Alternatively, you can set data validation for the whole column. To do that, right-click on the column label (‘AI’, for example) and go to data validation there. But you’ll have to go back and ‘remove validation’ for cells AI1-AI5, and so on, if you do it that way.

Excel version:

Before you start entering your data, customize your trade setup and tags menus. This is done through the Data Validation tool.

You’ll be editing what shows up in this dropdown. You can do the same with each of the cells in columns labeled “Tag Group…”

Data validation tools vary between spreadsheet software, so yours may look different from this (shown in WPS).

1. Select cell U5, under Setup.

2. Go to the Data menu, and select Validation, then hit Validation again.

This will show you the data validation menu for whatever cell you have selected. You can see where I have cells under “Setup” set with Source: ‘SetupA,Setup B,Setup C,Setup D’.

3. Now, edit these with your preferred setup names. Try to keep them short, and make sure they stay in the right format – Each validation label needs to be separated by a comma just as they are now.

You can do more than four if you need, or you can do less than three. You can name them whatever you want.

4. Save it for the column:

1. Once you have entered all your setup names separated by commas, hit ‘Save’.
2. Use the cursor to hover over the bottom right corner of cell U5 until the mouse cursor becomes a plus sign.
3. Click, and drag down the sheet as far as you would like. You can always drag it further down later.

5. Then, scroll to the right until you get to columns Y through AB, where you see the column headers for tags.

You’ll edit these the same way you edited them for the trade setup labels.

Recommendation:

Brainstorm the tags you might like to analyze, and group them into sets. Avoid having overlap between sets. That way, only one tag from each set will apply to each trade, as much as possible.

There’s more information about tags and why they’re helpful further down this page. If you’re new to that concept, I recommend reading all of that before choosing your tags.

You can have as many tags in each set as you want, but keep it as simple as you can.

When you’re done with each, don’t forget to drag them down the column as you did the others. 

6) Enter Your Trade Data

Now it’s time to enter your trades. There are two main ways to do this, and we’ll cover them here.

Export and Import trades

You can also export trades from NinjaTrader and put them in your trading journal. It’s a simple process, but it won’t work unless you follow the instructions, so make sure to repeat every step exactly as instructed below.

1. Go to Ninjatrader Control Center, and click on ‘New’
2. Select ‘Trade Performance’ to open the trade performance window.
3. Hit the filter button to select filters
4. Check the box for any account(s) you want to export. You shouldn’t need to mess with the other filters.
5. Check the dates on the upper right and edit as desired to export the right days.
6. Hit ‘Generate’ button next to the dates.
7. Right click on the data, then click ‘Export…’
8. Click next to ‘Save as type:’ and select CSV(*.csv)
9. Choose what folder you want to export to, and hit ‘Save’.

Once you’ve done each of these steps exactly:

1. Open the saved CSV export file.
2. Make sure the column headers match what’s in the trading journal sheet.
3. Select all the trade data inside the sheet without the column headers.
4. Copy the data using Ctrl + C or right-click > copy
5. Open the journal file.
6. Click the first blank cell in the “Trade #” Column. On your first import, this should be cell A5.
7. Paste without formatting. Depending on which spreadsheet program you use, this may be called different things. The best way, on windows, is to ue CTRL + Shift + V. In Other methods might include going to “Paste Special” > “Paste Values” or “Paste without formatting”. If you’re not sure, Google “Paste without formatting in [whatever spreadsheet program you’re using]”

Now you’re ready to finish your Trading Journal entries!

7) Complete your journal entries

Now that your trades have been entered in the journal, you need to do a little journaling. There are two columns in which you can enter information that only you know – Initial Risk, and Notes. 

In the “Initial Risk” column, for each trade, enter what your specific risk was for that trade, in your account currency (Dollars, Euros, etc.). This will allow the formulas in the spreadsheet to help you with your R factor, or Reward:Risk ratio.

In the “Notes” Column, enter notes that might be helpful later. These should be things that aren’t necessarily covered by your use of tags. A couple quick ideas on notes to record:1) Detail your thoughts before/during/after the trade, be specific and include self-talk, etc.

Note specific things about the market that day. These can be patterns, events, data releases, etc. i.e. trending market, FOMC day, AAPL earnings.

8) Analyze your data

Click the ‘Analysis’ tab at the bottom. Spend a moment playing with the sample data analysis.

Take a few minutes to see how the results change when you filter by setup or filter by tag. To do that:

1. Hover over the “Setup C” cell highlighted in bright green.
2. Click the downward pointing triangle to see the options.
3. Choose a different setup (A or C or D (or whatever you’ve labeled them)) and see the data update to give you stats for that setup.

You can then try the same with the ‘Tags’ data box also. Use the cell showing “Calm” highlighted bright green.

9) Daily Trading Journal Template Use

Enter all your trades every day. Enter them after each trade, if time allows.

You can even fill in your Notes section for each trade as you go through the session. Either way, your journaling practice will be much more effective when you do it as soon as possible after trading.

Try never to wait until the end of the week or end of the month. But if you do miss a day for whatever reason, just get back on track ASAP. 

10) Analysis without paralysis

Analysis without paralysis.

Once you’ve collected a robust data set, get into the groove of regularly visiting your journal’s ‘Analysis’ tab. Keep an eye out for emerging patterns.

Your aim is to spot any clues that might boost your trading performance if you tweak your approach. Stumbling upon a clue doesn’t necessarily require you to change anything. Instead, it’s an invitation to dig deeper.

For more background on what to look for and why, see why and how to use a trading journal.

So, what constitutes enough data? As your data pile grows, so does the precision of your analysis. You’ll need at least a 30 trade sample to reach any statistical significance, better if you have much more. Drawing conclusions from fewer trades than this would be premature.

Likewise, you should rack up 30 trades per setup or tag before you start forming judgments about the numbers. That being said, if you spot any dramatic patterns early on, they might prove to be consistent over time.

Keep an objective mindset and resist the temptation to rush to conclusions or impulsively alter your strategies. Treat any observations as clues to be investigated

1. Observe
2. Ask questions
3. Make a hypothesis or theory
4. Research and experiment (back-test and forward test) to prove or disprove your theory.

The bottom line

Use it! Use it. Use it. Use it.