Forex trading journal Excel template: free CSV and formulas

A plain CSV you can open in Excel or Google Sheets, what each column is for, and the formulas that make it useful.

What this forex trading journal Excel template is

Most search results for a forex trading journal Excel template are either paid listings or pages that promise a download and deliver nothing. This page gives you a plain CSV file you can open in Excel (or Google Sheets or LibreOffice) right now, plus an explanation of every column and the formulas worth adding. It has 13 columns and three rows of hypothetical example data, each starting with “Example only”, so delete them once you understand the layout. No sign-up, no email, no payment.

Download the CSV (forex-trading-journal-template.csv). It is a small text file you can read in any editor before opening it.

Open it in Excel, then use Save As to keep it as an .xlsx workbook so formatting and formulas are preserved. A CSV itself cannot store formatting. The R multiple column already contains a simple division formula in the example rows.

The columns, one by one

Column	What to enter	Tip
Date	The date you opened the trade	Use one date format everywhere so sorting works.
Pair	EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY and so on	Turn the column into a dropdown list with Data Validation.
Direction	Buy or Sell	Also a dropdown.
Lots	Position size as MT5 shows it	0.50 is half a standard lot.
Entry, Exit, Stop loss	Prices	Copy them from the MT5 History tab.
Planned risk (money)	What you would lose if the stop was hit, in account currency	Decide it before entry. It is the base of the R multiple.
Net profit	The result after commission and swap	Use the net figure so totals match your account.
R multiple	Net profit divided by planned risk	Formula: =I2/H2, filled down the column.
Setup	Name of the pattern or plan	“None written” is a valid, useful entry.
Followed plan	Yes or No	The single most revealing column.
Lesson	One sentence	Something you can act on, not a mood.

Formulas worth adding below the table

Add a small summary block above or beside the log. These are standard Excel functions; adjust the ranges to match your sheet.

Number of trades: =COUNTA(B2:B500)
Net profit total: =SUM(I2:I500)
Win rate: =COUNTIF(I2:I500,">0")/COUNT(I2:I500)
Average R: =AVERAGE(J2:J500)
Profit when you followed the plan: =SUMIF(L2:L500,"Yes",I2:I500)
Profit when you did not: =SUMIF(L2:L500,"No",I2:I500)

The last two lines are the reason to keep the Followed plan column. Compare them honestly after a few weeks. A small sample proves little, so treat what you find as a question to test. The metrics guide explains win rate, profit factor and expectancy, and the expectancy calculator does the arithmetic.

Where the numbers come from in MT5

In MetaTrader 5, open the Toolbox, choose the History tab, pick Positions in the right-click menu and set the period. Read the Positions view rather than Deals, because a position that was closed in several parts shows as one line there. The full walkthrough, including exporting a report, is in how to export MT5 trade history. Check that commission and swap are included in the profit figure you copy; if they are separate columns, add them first.

How long an Excel journal stays practical

A spreadsheet is a good start. It is free, it lives on your own computer and it teaches you what you want to track. The weak point is upkeep: every trade has to be typed or pasted, partial closes have to be combined by hand, and the sheet falls behind on busy weeks. Many people stop at that point. If you trade a handful of times a week, Excel may be all you need. If you trade daily, compare options on AI Trading Journal vs an Excel spreadsheet and the free MT5 trading journal template page.

Limits of this template

It does not connect to MT5; every row is typed or pasted.
It does not convert pips or currencies; the profit column is in your account currency.
It is not a backtesting tool and gives no signals or advice.
The example rows are hypothetical and shown only to demonstrate the format.

The automatic alternative

If you use MetaTrader 5 on Windows, AI Trading Journal fills your own journal on your PC with each closed position about every 5 minutes, one entry per position with partial closes combined (and copies it to your Notion workspace if you connect Notion). It is read-only, so it cannot place or change trades, and it never overwrites the notes you add. It costs $19.99 once or 19.99 USDT after a 7-day free trial, with no subscription, and one licence runs on one device at a time. It works with MT5 on Windows only, your MT5 login stays on your PC, and trades go into your own journal on your PC, not through our servers. See the forex trading journal page for what it records.

An honest note on privacy. Notion is itself a cloud service, so your trades do sit on Notion's servers, in your own workspace, under your own account and token. What AI Trading Journal removes is the extra middleman: there is no separate journal vendor holding your trades and no broker login sent to a website. No tool is risk-free, so protect your accounts, including Notion if you connect it, with a strong password and two-step verification.

This page is general education. It is not trading or investment advice, and every example number is hypothetical.

A worked month in the sheet (hypothetical)

Numbers make a template easier to judge than a column list, so here is a made-up month of ten trades, each with $50 of planned risk. The results in the Net profit column are +100, -50, +75, -50, -50, +120, -50, +60, -25 and +45 dollars. Dividing each by $50 gives R multiples of 2.0, -1.0, 1.5, -1.0, -1.0, 2.4, -1.0, 1.2, -0.5 and 0.9.

Summary cell	Result	How the sheet gets it
Number of trades	10	COUNTA of the Pair column
Net profit total	$175	SUM of Net profit
Win rate	50%	5 winners out of 10
Average R	0.35	3.5 total R divided by 10
Profit when plan followed	$250	SUMIF on Followed plan = Yes (trades 4 and 9 were marked No)
Profit when plan not followed	-$75	SUMIF on Followed plan = No

The interesting line is the last pair. In this invented month the two trades that broke the plan lost $75, while the eight that followed it made $250. Two trades prove nothing, but the layout shows what the Followed plan column is for: it turns a vague feeling about discipline into two numbers you can watch over several months.

Spreadsheet mistakes that quietly corrupt the numbers

Mixed date formats. If some rows are typed as 05/01 and others as 2026-01-05, sorting and monthly filters silently misplace trades. Pick one format and apply it to the whole column before pasting.
Text that looks like numbers. A profit pasted as text will be ignored by SUM. A green triangle in the cell corner, or a left-aligned figure, is the warning sign.
Decimal commas. In regional settings that use a comma for decimals, a CSV with dots can open as text or as the wrong value. If lots show as dates or huge numbers, import the file through the data import dialog and choose the separator yourself.
Ranges that stop too early. A formula that sums rows 2 to 50 misses trade 51. Use a generous range such as 2 to 500, or turn the log into an Excel table so formulas grow with it.
Planned risk filled in afterwards. If the planned-risk cell is typed after the result is known, the R multiple measures hindsight. Write it at entry.
Partial closes entered as separate trades. One position closed in two parts is one decision. Enter it once, with the combined net result, or your trade count and win rate drift.

A fifteen-minute monthly review with this sheet

The sheet earns its keep at the end of the month. Sort the log by net profit and read the three biggest losers and the three biggest winners together with their Lesson cells. Then filter on Followed plan = No and read those rows one after another. Finally, filter by Setup and compare the average R of each named setup, ignoring any setup with fewer than about ten trades because the average will jump around. Write one change for next month at the top of the sheet in a single sentence. The weekly trading review checklist covers the shorter weekly version, and the monthly trading performance report page shows what a fuller month-end summary looks like.

Which version of the template to pick

This forex CSV has pair, direction, planned risk and R multiple columns and suits a trader who thinks in risk units. If you prefer a layout built around MT5 history columns and a P&L calendar, the free MT5 trading journal template is the closer fit, and the MT5 trade log template is a plainer log without the plan columns. For gold with session and news columns, use the gold trading journal template. They solve different problems, so choose by what you want to review rather than downloading all of them.

Frequently asked questions

Is this forex trading journal Excel template free?

Yes. Download the CSV, open it in Excel and save it as a workbook. There is no sign-up or payment.

Does it work in Google Sheets?

Yes. Import the CSV file into a new sheet. The simple R multiple formula works the same way.

Which columns matter most?

Planned risk, net profit, setup and Followed plan. Together they let you compare results by rule-following rather than by luck.

Why use net profit?

Net profit includes commission and swap, so the sheet matches your real account change. If MT5 lists them separately, add them to the profit first.

Can a journal fill itself from MT5?

A spreadsheet cannot. AI Trading Journal does it for MT5 on Windows by saving closed positions in your own journal on your PC (with an optional copy in your own Notion workspace) about every 5 minutes. It is $19.99 once after a 7-day trial.

Related guides

Stop typing trades: let MT5 fill your journal

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