What's one of the biggest secrets of successful traders?
It's not magic, or fortune telling, or even some fancy strategy.
Often, it's the ability to identify patterns (not chart patterns), learn from the past, and revisit it regularly for insight.
How do they do that? With a trading journal, of course.
With this ranking of the best trading journals, find power analysis tools that can supercharge your growth as a trader!
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Supported Devices | All + Mobile App | All + Mobile App | All | All | All |
Supported Assets | Stocks, Futures, Options, Crypto, Forex, CFD | Stocks, Futures, Options, Crypto, Forex, CFD | Stocks, Futures, Crypto, Forex, CFD | Stocks, Futures, Options, Forex | Stocks, Futures, Options, Crypto, Forex, CFD |
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Traders today can choose from a long list of trading journals - each program far more powerful than what was available when I first started trading. While the journal options are greater now, it also complicates the decision of choosing one. You have to decide which one is best for you based on what you need and how you trade - and what is possible that might help you improve your trading in ways you never imagined.
I've used trading journals for many years, from Excel to Tradervue, and now I've spent a bunch of time trying out some of the newer ones. Here's my breakdown to help you choose the best trading journal for yourself.
What's the Best Trading Journal?
1. Tradersync - Best online trading journal for multiple accounts + AI
2. Tradesviz - Best low-cost trading journal, especially for short-timeframe scalpers. Plus, AI!
3. Edgewonk - Great low-cost trading journal.
4. Tradervue - Best online trader journal for deep analysis
5. Trademetria - Clean tracking and trade analysis
1. Tradersync
My Verdict — Best of the Best
Price starts at $14.97/mo (annual billing) or $29.95/mo (monthly billing)
Tradersync saves you a ton of time if you're trading multiple accounts, with the easiest reliable trade importing you'll find. When you export your trades from 5, 10, or 20 accounts, you can put them in one big export. Import that one file, and Tradersync will automatically split them up by account for you. Autosync is also available for many brokers, although I prefer to not rely on direct autosync.
Why do I mention this first? Mostly because quick, easy imports increase the chances you'll use your trading journal every day. And the less time you spend importing, the more time you can spend analyzing your trading and learning from it - which is how you improve!
That's only the beginning, though. Tradersync's other features may seal the deal for you.
The Best Part:
- Get unprecedented insight into your trading with powerful AI features, simulation, market replay, mistake reporting and more and do it quickly with easy imports.
The Worst Part:
- AI feedback, market replay, and trade management analysis are limited to the top plan tier (Elite) with above-average cost (unless you pay yearly).
Get it if you want to get your importing done in a snap and analyze your trading with beautiful reporting and powerful AI tools, and practice trading it better in stock market replay.
I recommend you go with the Elite plan and make the most of all the features during your trial, then decide if you want to keep that or downgrade to premium.
Copy and use the code below for the max discount available:
Best For
Tradersync is best for traders of stocks, options, forex, futures, and crypto who want to quickly get their hands on their trading data in a way that helps them improve and practice that improvement.
Top Benefits:
- Works on any device since it is web-based and includes a mobile app.
- Lets you track unlimited accounts and import them easily, all in one spreadsheet if needed.
- Save even more time with autosync of trades with major brokers and many others.
- Helps you break bad habits and build good habits by practicing trading (or re-trading your trades) using market replay.
- Explore your trades with specific questions and receive AI feedback about your trading patterns
- Helps you optimize your strategies by finding changes that could have made you more profitable.
- Allows you to analyze trades by setup and by tag. Filter by these as well as many other aspects of each trade.
- Provides reporting of common useful metrics like MFE/MAE, R Multiples, etc.
- Adjust balances for withdrawals/deposits as needed, so your balances stay accurate if you want them to.
- Supports stocks, futures, options, forex, and crypto
- Import unlimited accounts and unlimited trades.
Customer Service
In all my communication with Tradersync customer service, they've been quick to reply and they've done their best to help, regardless of the request. They offer chat and email support.
Pricing
- Pro: $29.95/mo ($14.97 if billed annually) - stocks, options, futures. Private profile. Import trades. Basic reports.
- Premium: $49.95/mo ($24.97 if billed annually) - All pro features plus: Pre & post-market chart data. Commissions and fee tracking. Running P&L. Best exit reports. Evaluator reports. Simulator reports. R multiple reports. MFE/MAE stats.
- Elite: $79.95/mo ($39.98 if billed annually) - All premium features plus: Stock Market Replay - practice your trades. AI feedback. Automate commissions & fee tracking. Track targets & stop losses. Trade management analysis. Automatic spread detection. Spread report.
2. Tradesviz
My Verdict — Best for Ultra-short-term Scalpers, Best Bang for Your Buck
Price starts at $0, full-featured plans start at $14.99/mo (annual billing) or $19/mo (monthly billing).
Tradesviz puts powerful reporting at your fingertips, offering more stats for analysis than most other online trade journals. And tradesviz works hard to make it convenient, too! They offer autosync of trades with 30 brokers and are compatible with over 100 others. The others can be semi-synced using Google Drive sync.
Tradesviz is way more than just a journal, with everything from simulated trading to in-depth options analysis, Tradesviz is making itself a one-stop shop for trading resources.
The Best Part:
- Unleash the deep-diving analysis of your trading with powerful AI interaction, simulation, pivot tables, and sub-minute (5 sec, 15 sec, 30sec) timeframes - something no other journal offers.
The Worst Part:
- Limited to 20 trading accounts, and to import multiple accounts you'll either need to use autosync or import them one account at a time (I'm including a workaround for this if you sign up through EpiccTrader below. I use their Google Drive sync and an Excel macro so I only have to export one file with all my accounts - [CLICK HERE TO GET THE MACRO].
Get it if you want to get your importing done in a snap and analyze your trading with beautiful reporting and powerful AI tools, and practice trading it better in stock market replay.
I recommend you go with the Platinum plan and make the most of all the features during your trial, then decide if you want to keep that or downgrade to pro.
Copy and use the code below for the max discount available:
Best For
Tradesviz is best for ultra-short-term scalpers because they're the only journal that offers micro-timeframe trade analysis (5, 10, 15, 30 seconds).
Top Benefits
- Works on any device since it is web-based and includes a mobile app.
- Helps you increase your odds of success with data-driven focus and built-in trading simulator
- AI analytics can answer questions about your trades that might take you days to sort out elsewhere.
- Find your strengths and weaknesses using pivot tables and charting.
- Find your strengths and weaknesses with over 400+ statistics for analysis.
- Sort through every aspect of your trades using pivot tables and charting.
- 30+ auto-import brokers and 100+ manual import brokers that can be semi-automated using Google Drive sync.
- Get more than just a trading journal, with in-depth options analysis, TradingView charts, Fundamental analysis, and more.
- Trade commission free with partner Tradier if desired.
- Supports stocks, futures, options, forex, and crypto trades
Customer Service
Tradesviz customer service has gone above and beyond, providing excellent service and helping me figure out how to make their service work for me. They're quick and responsive, and they offer chat and email support.
Pricing
- Free: $0 - Up to 3,000 stock executions per month, basic charts, 50+ performance visualizations, real-time options flow.
- Pro: $19/mo ($14.99 if billed annually) - Unlimited imports + All asset type support, 400+ Performance visualizations, Multiple auto-generated + Interactive charts, Multiple trading accounts, AI Q&A
- Platinum: $29/mo ($22.49 if billed annually) - All of the above, plus unlimited custom dashboards, advanced options flow analysis & scanner, exit analysis charts, trading simulator, built-in trading console with zero-commission trading, pivot/grid charting, trade/day plans & checklist analysis
Try Tradesviz today, all plans include a free trial. You'll have to provide billing information, but won't be charged until the trial period ends. You can downgrade or cancel your plan before the trial ends to reduce/avoid the fee.
3. Edgewonk
My Verdict — Great Low-Cost Journal
One price - $14.08/mo, but it's only available as a 1-year subscription - $169/yr.
Edgewonk brings you thorough analysis of trades in stocks, futures, forex, crypto, and CFDs. The journal is cloud-based, so it works on any device, and their import feature is compatible with 33 brokers - and they promise to add yours if it isn't on their list.
Edgewonk is a great journal, and if you want to pay annually, it is just slightly cheaper than Tradesviz, though with fewer features, and with different features like a 100-trade backtester, Tiltmeter, and missed-trade analysis.
The Best Part:
- The backtesting and missed-trade analysis stick out here as they're unique to Edgewonk among trading journals. Although you can use more powerful backtesting with many brokerage applications.
The Worst Part:
- Doesn't work for options, lacks many of the features of the top two choices, only offers a yearly plan that isn't much cheaper. So unless you really want the missed-trade analysis, you might be better off with one of my top two picks.
Get it if you want missed-trade analysis and don't mind paying annually to save about $13/yr vs Tradesviz.
Although there isn't a free trial, they have a 14-day money-back guarantee, so you can try it and cancel for a refund within that time if you don't like it.
Use the code EPICC for the max Edgewonk discount available.
Best For
Edgewonk is best for traders who want to analyze their missed trades and want the cheapest possible yearly subscription covering all trading instruments beside options.
Top Benefits
- Works on any device since it is cloud-based.
- Helps you see the effect of missed or skipped trades.
- Allows you to backtest a strategy for up to 100 trades.
- Helps you see where you might improve performance by managing trades differently.
- Sort through several aspects of your trades using analysis and charting.
- 33 manual import brokers and willingness to add yours if they don't have it.
- Import unlimited trades.
- Supports stocks, futures, forex, CFD and crypto.
Customer Service
I haven't personally had an experience with Edgewonk's customer support, but user reviews online suggest they're helpful and that they listen to customer feedback to make improvements. They offer email support.
Pricing
- $169/yr: Comes out to $14.08/mo: Includes all features.
You can try Edgewonk risk-free today, as they include a 14-day money-back guarantee. You'll be charged when you subscribe, but if you choose to cancel within 14 days they'll refund the full payment.
Use the code below for an exclusive discount on Edgewonk.
4. Tradervue
My Verdict — Powerful Reporting Without Fluff
Starts at $29/mo. There's also a free plan for 30 trades per month.
As the OG of online trading journals, Tradervue has provided powerful trade reporting to professional and serious traders for many years now. For the longest time they were my journal of choice, and I would still be satisfied with all their analysis features. As with others, tradervue works on any device, and their import function is compatible with 82 brokers, with 5 of those being automatically synced. They also have a general spreadsheet (csv/Excel) import that will support most other brokers.
Tradervue is data-focused and provides as many reports as my top 2 choices, and some traders may prefer their methodology better. Tradervue is less design-focused than more recently launched journals, but if you don't care about that, you owe it to yourself to check out their powerful reporting tools - Especially their risk analysis, risk tracking and reporting, exit analysis, and liquidity reports.
The Best Part:
- Find your areas for improvement using powerful reporting, and you may be surprised where you're losing money or leaving it on the table. Their liquidity report can be eye-opening for how we execute our trades - it was for me!
The Worst Part:
- It doesn't bother me, but some traders see the Tradervue user interface (UI) as a little outdated or not pretty enough. I also think their multi-account importing can be a bit tedious, and that was ultimately why I began looking to switch.
Check it out for the powerful advanced filters, exit analysis, and liquidity reports and for competitive monthly pricing without having to pay yearly.
Tradervue offers a 7-day free trial, and you won't be charged until it's up. You'll have to enter payment info to start, so just make sure that if you don't want to keep it, you cancel before the 7 days is up.
Best For
Tradervue is best for traders who want powerful reporting without the fluffy UI on a competitively priced monthly plan.
Top Benefits
- Works on any device since it is cloud-based.
- Adjust your trading by seeing how almost any factor is affecting your risk/reward and profitability.
- See your trades charted automatically on multiple timeframes.
- Helps you see how changing your exit strategy could benefit your trading through advanced exit analysis.
- Learn from past trades and market environments by searching trades or days by text, tag, or dozens of other filters.
- Specific imports for 82 brokers, 5 autosync brokers, and general CSV/Excel import for any others.
- Import unlimited trades, from unlimited accounts.
- Supports stocks, options, futures, forex.
Customer Service
When I've contacted Tradervue support they were mostly helpful, although sometimes a little slower to respond. The last time was a few years ago, though, and I believe they've grown since then and added more customer service. They're available through email and chat.
Pricing
- Basic: $0/mo: Up to 30 trades per month, sharing, basic journaling and reporting on stocks, options, futures, and forex.
- Silver: $29/mo: Unlimited trades, enhanced journaling, advanced reporting, sharing, stocks, options, futures, forex.
- Gold: $ 49/mo: All of Silver plus risk tracking and reporting, exit analysis, advanced filters, commission and fee support, and liquidity reports.
I suggest trying the Gold Plan during your trial. Before the 7 days is up, you can cancel and you won't be charged, or you can downgrade to the Silver plan if you decide you don't need the Gold features.
5. Trademetria
My Verdict — Extensive Trade Analysis for Fundamental Traders
Starts at $29/mo for 100 orders per month. They also offer a free plan that allows 30 orders per month.
Trademetria brings features extensive reporting and journaling capabilities, along with fundamental research features not offered by most journals. You can use their journal on any device, and they offer automatic trade syncing with 13 providers and import compatibility with 161 brokers. They also have a general spreadsheet (csv/Excel) import that will support most other brokers. If they don't support your broker, they'll add it, and they offer API access.
The Best Part:
- Track up to 50 accounts with their Pro plan, perform fundamental analysis, and use their API access if that's your jam.
The Worst Part:
- I don't understand why their Basic plan only allows you to import 100 orders a month, while pro allows unlimited executions. But, I guess you get to save $10/mo if you never make more than 50 trades a month.
Check it out for the powerful reporting, fundamental analysis, and fair monthly pricing. You can save up to 40% by paying annually.
Trademetria offers a usage-based trial of up to 200 page views. Once you subscribe, no refunds are given.
Best For
Trademetria is best for traders who want powerful reporting along with fundamental research, autosync, and more.
Top Benefits
- Works on any device as it's based in the cloud like the others.
- Learn from what's working and what isn't and find it later using journal search.
- Gamify your trading by running your own trading challenges.
- Find opportunity through fundamental research.
- Learn from every trade by searching trades or days by text, tag, or dozens of other filters.
- Specific imports for 161 brokers, 13 autosync brokers, and they'll add your broker if you request it (they'll try to do it within one business day).
- Unlimited trades on the Pro plan
- Supports stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto, CFDs
Customer Service
I've contacted Trademetria for support and received great service from the founder and creator of the software. Quick, thorough, and helpful. Trademetria offers support through chat and email.
Pricing
- Free: $0/mo: Up to 30 orders per month, includes many features.
- Basic: $29.95/mo: 100 orders imported per month, all features included.
- Pro: $ 39.95/mo: Unlimited orders imported, all features included.
If you make less than 50 trades per month, go with the basic. If more than that, go with Pro. If you don't want to pay, make sure to cancel before you use it for 200 pageviews (you'll have to keep track).
Is a Trading Journal Worth it?
Trading Journals are definitely "worth it". Worth what though? Let's break it down.
- When you keep a trading journal, you'll spend some time keeping it.
- You'll probably also spend some money to get the powerful features that can help you improve your trading.
So you spend some time and some money, with the goal of saving yourself money and making more money. But that result may not be obvious or immediate. It may take time.
The truth is, the primary goal is to improve as a trader - to become more efficient, more disciplined, and more objective. If you stick to that, it can lead to losing less and making more.
You have to use your journal regularly and with a curious mind. You have to be willing to notice and accept your weaknesses. You have to analyze how you can reduce the effect of those weaknesses.
Sometimes you have to admit that something just isn't working and you have to cut it out. Other times, you have to recognize that something which was working isn't working anymore, and you might have to pause it until conditions change.
Bottom line: Using a trading journal should help you grow as a trader, and that can certainly be worth many times the investment of time and money you put into the process.
What is the Best Trading Journal for TradingView
Which trading journal is best for TradingView users may depend on what broker you're using along with it. Your sync or import might come from that broker, or from an export/sync from TradingView.
Tradersync and Tradesviz work with TradingView, although Tradesviz doesn't work with options trades from TradingView. Tradersync works for import of TV trades, while Tradesviz provides autosync with TV.
Trademetria also supports import of TradingView trades, and the others on this list may work with it depending on which broker you use.
What is the Best Trading Journal for TD Ameritrade?
The top trading journal for TD Ameritrade would be Tradersync, as it's the top overall, and provides autosync and import support for TD Ameritrade.
Tradesviz also offers autosync and import support for TD Ameritrade.
Tradervue, Edgewonk, and Trademetria support TD Ameritrade imports.
What are the Disadvantages of Trading Journals?
The biggest disadvantage of a trading journal is that you have to use it in order to get anything out of it. A lot of people don't journal regularly enough to learn anything from their trading. The whole point is to learn and grow, so you have to use it. It can't magically fix your trading problems on its own.
Another disadvantage of trading journals is really a disadvantage of all market and trading-related analysis: Past performance doesn't predict future results. Although you can learn so much about yourself and your trading from a journal, you must keep in mind that market conditions change. It doesn't give you predictive power, nothing can do that.
What is the Difference Between a Trading Plan and a Trading Journal?
Great question! A trading plan spells out what you plan to do in a given trading situation or trading day. What setups are you looking for? How many trades do you plan to take? What levels or patterns are you waiting for, etc.?
Ideally, you write your trading plan each day in your journal before you trade. When you journal during or after the session, you can reflect on how your plan played out, how well you stuck to it, and what steps you could take to improve future trading plans and trading plan discipline.
Why do I need a Trading Journal?
You need a trading journal because without one it will be very difficult to learn anything from your trading.
Without learning from your trading, you can't grow. And without growing, you won't make it very far as a trader.
The flip side of that is, if you use your journal:
- It can help you grow in ways you wouldn't have imagined.
- It can help you prepare for market conditions that you've seen before, that may have slipped your memory otherwise.
- It can help you remember the past without distortion (our memory distorts many things) so you can adjust based on facts and data, not hunches.
- It can help you identify slow leaks that drain your account like a dripping faucet without you noticing.
- It can help you learn to manage your emotions by recognizing when they arise and how they affect you.
- It can help you identify things that are working but could be improved.
- It can help you improve entry/exit plans, which can raise your win-rate or improve your risk-reward.
That's just a start. The more you put into it, the more you can get out of it.
How do You Keep a Good Trading Journal?
How you keep your trading journal is up to you, and your method may vary from others, and that's OK. But, here are some basic things every good trading journal practice has in common:
- Stick with the same method consistently. Whether it's in Excel or one of the online journals above, you'll get more efficient and effective with it if you're not always trying to learn a new piece of software.
- Write in it every day. If you have trading plans, write them before the session
- Enter your trades every day. Whether you do it during the session or after, do it while your memory is fresh.
- Tag and organize your trades.
- Don't just track results, track mental aspects of trading, too.
- Write out observations and notes on each trade.
- Write out a recap of the day, whether you traded or not.
- Review your journal regularly. Sunday nights or Monday mornings are good for this, if you trade Mon-Fri.