Trade Journal

How to log, edit, and analyze your trades

Trade Journal

The Trade Journal is the heart of TraderVault. Here you log, review, and analyze all your trades.

Viewing Your Trades

Trade List

The main journal view shows all trades in a table:

Column Description
Date When the trade was opened (or closed)
Symbol Stock ticker (e.g., AAPL, TSLA)
Side Long or Short
Qty Number of shares
Entry Entry price per share
Exit Exit price (blank if still open)
P&L Profit/loss amount
Status Open, Closed, or Partial

Filtering Trades

Use the filter bar to narrow down trades:

  • Status: Open, Closed, All
  • Side: Long, Short, All
  • Date Range: Custom start/end dates
  • Symbol: Search for specific ticker
  • Tags: Filter by your custom tags

Sorting

Click any column header to sort: - Click once for ascending - Click again for descending - Default: Most recent first

Logging a New Trade

Step 1: Click "+ New Trade"

Find the button in the top right of the journal page or dashboard.

Step 2: Fill in Trade Details

Required Fields:

Field Description Example
Symbol Stock ticker AAPL
Side Long or Short Long
Quantity Number of shares 100
Entry Price Price per share at entry 175.50
Entry Date When you opened the position 2024-12-01

Optional Fields:

Field Description
Exit Price Fill in when you close the trade
Exit Date When you closed
Stop Loss Your planned stop loss price
Take Profit Your target price
Playbook Which strategy you used
Tags Custom labels (momentum, earnings, etc.)
Notes Your thoughts, analysis, screenshots

Step 3: Save

Click Save Trade to add it to your journal.

Editing a Trade

  1. Click on any trade row to open it
  2. Click Edit or the pencil icon
  3. Make your changes
  4. Click Save

Common edits: - Adding exit price when you close - Updating notes after review - Adding tags for categorization

Closing a Trade

When you exit a position:

  1. Find the open trade in your journal
  2. Click to open trade details
  3. Enter the Exit Price and Exit Date
  4. Click Save

The trade status changes from "Open" to "Closed" and P&L is calculated.

Partial Closes

If you scale out (close part of your position):

  1. Edit the trade
  2. Reduce the quantity to remaining shares
  3. Log a new trade for the closed portion with exit details

Or use the Split Trade feature (if available) to automatically create two entries.

Trade Notes

Notes are crucial for learning. Use them to record:

  • Entry reasoning: Why did you take this trade?
  • Setup: What pattern or signal triggered you?
  • Emotions: How were you feeling? Confident? Anxious?
  • Market context: What was SPY doing? Any news?
  • Mistakes: What would you do differently?
  • Lessons: What did you learn?

Adding Screenshots

In the notes field, you can: 1. Paste images directly (Ctrl+V) 2. Drag and drop image files 3. Link to external images

Screenshots of your charts at entry/exit are invaluable for review.

Tags

Tags help you categorize and analyze trades:

Creating Tags

  1. When editing a trade, click the Tags field
  2. Type a new tag name and press Enter
  3. The tag is created and applied

Suggested Tags

Category Tags
Strategy momentum, breakout, reversal, gap-fill
Setup earnings, news, technical, sector-play
Quality A-setup, B-setup, C-setup, revenge-trade
Outcome stopped-out, hit-target, scaled-out
Mistakes fomo, too-early, wrong-size, no-plan

Using Tags for Analysis

  1. Go to Analytics page
  2. Filter by specific tags
  3. Compare performance across different setups

Importing Trades

From CSV

  1. Go to Settings > Import
  2. Download the CSV template
  3. Fill in your trades
  4. Upload the file
  5. Review and confirm

From Broker

See Broker Connections Guide for automatic sync.

Exporting Trades

  1. Go to Journal page
  2. Apply any filters you want
  3. Click Export button
  4. Choose format (CSV or PDF)
  5. Download file

Exports include all visible columns and trade notes.

Trade Details View

Click any trade to see full details:

  • All entry/exit information
  • P&L calculation breakdown
  • R-multiple (if stop loss was set)
  • Associated playbook
  • Full notes and screenshots
  • Edit and delete options

Best Practices

  1. Log immediately - Enter trades right after execution while details are fresh
  2. Always add notes - Even a sentence helps during review
  3. Use tags consistently - Create a tag system and stick to it
  4. Review weekly - Look back at the week's trades every weekend
  5. Learn from losers - Your losing trades often teach more than winners