Gold trading journal template for XAUUSD: free CSV and checklist

The columns a gold trader should log that a forex sheet misses, a free CSV, a pre-trade checklist and a review routine.

Why gold needs its own journal template

A generic trading journal template treats every instrument the same. Gold (XAUUSD) does not behave like a currency pair: prices move in dollars rather than pips, spreads and slippage can widen around news, and the same lot size risks a different amount on different brokers. A gold trading journal template should therefore record a few things that a forex sheet does not. This page explains them and gives you a free CSV to start from. It is a record-keeping layout, not a strategy, and nothing here is trading advice.

Download the gold journal CSV (gold-trading-journal-template.csv). Open it in Excel, Google Sheets or import it into Notion. The two rows are hypothetical examples marked “Example only”; delete them when you start.

The columns that matter for XAUUSD

Column	Why gold traders log it
Session	London, New York or Asia. Gold's behaviour often differs by session, and your own results may too.
Stop distance (price)	Gold stops are best written in dollars of price movement, such as 4.00, not pips, which brokers define differently.
Planned risk (money)	Stop distance times lots times your broker's contract size. Write it before entry.
Spread at entry	A wide spread eats into the first move. A column makes it visible.
News in next 30 min	Yes or No. Check whether your worst trades cluster around scheduled releases.
Net profit and R multiple	Net profit after commission and swap, divided by planned risk.
Setup, Followed plan, Emotion, Lesson	The same four fields as any journal. They are the ones that change behaviour.

Check your broker's contract size before copying lot arithmetic

On many MT5 brokers one standard lot of gold is 100 ounces, so 0.10 lots is 10 ounces and a $4.00 move is about $40. That is the arithmetic used in the hypothetical examples here. But contract size is set by the broker. Open the symbol in MT5 (right-click the symbol in Market Watch and choose Specification) and read Contract size and tick value before you rely on any calculation. Your position size calculator and profit and loss calculator are only as correct as the contract size you give them.

A pre-trade checklist you can paste above the table

Which session is it, and is this one of the sessions I planned to trade?
Is a scheduled news release due in the next 30 minutes?
What is the spread right now compared with its usual level?
Where is my stop in price, and what does that cost in money at this lot size?
Does the setup match one I have written down? If not, skip it.
Have I just taken a loss? If yes, wait ten minutes.

Tick the checklist before entry and record the answers in the table afterwards. The point is not the checklist itself but the pattern in the answers: you may find your gold losses cluster in one session or near news.

How to review a gold journal

Group trades by session and compare the totals and the average R.
Split trades into news and no-news and compare.
Compare Followed plan Yes against No. This is usually the largest difference.
Look at the spread column on your losing trades. Was it wider than usual?
Read the Lesson column for repeats. A lesson written three times is a rule you have not yet followed.

Keep the sample size in mind: a few weeks of gold trades is too few to prove anything, so treat early patterns as questions to test. The weekly review checklist gives an order to read the numbers in, and the longer gold trading journal page covers what to log for XAUUSD in more depth.

Limits of a template

A CSV is structure only. It does not talk to MetaTrader 5, so every trade is entered by hand, and a gold trader who scalps several times a day will fall behind quickly. Partial closes also need to be combined manually. You can paste figures exported from MT5 (see how to export MT5 trade history), but you still have to do it regularly.

Filling a gold journal automatically

If you trade gold on MetaTrader 5 on Windows, AI Trading Journal saves each closed position in your own journal on your PC (with an optional copy in your own Notion workspace) about every 5 minutes, one row per position with partial closes combined. You add the session, setup, emotion and lesson yourself, and your notes are never overwritten. It is read-only, costs $19.99 once or 19.99 USDT after a 7-day free trial, has no subscription and runs on one device at a time. It is Windows and MT5 only. Your MT5 login stays on your PC and trades go into your own journal on your PC, not through our servers. See MT5 trading journal for details.

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 all numbers are hypothetical.

Two reference pages for the numbers in your gold template: gold pip value in dollars and XAUUSD lot size by account size.

Related gold tools: the XAUUSD pip value calculator and XAUUSD leverage explained help you fill the size and risk columns of a gold template.

Frequently asked questions

What should a gold trading journal include?

Date, session, direction, lots, entry, exit, stop distance, planned risk in money, spread, news flag, net profit, R multiple, setup, whether you followed your plan, emotion and a lesson.

Is the gold trading journal template free?

Yes. Download the CSV and open it in Excel, Google Sheets or import it into Notion. No sign-up or payment.

Why write the stop in price instead of pips?

Brokers define a pip for gold differently, so a stop written in dollars of price movement is unambiguous.

How much does 0.10 lots of gold risk?

It depends on the broker's contract size. On a 100-ounce contract a $4.00 move on 0.10 lots is about $40, but read the symbol specification in MT5 to confirm.

Can MT5 fill the journal automatically?

A CSV 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

Journal your gold trades automatically from MT5

Free for 7 days, no card required. After that, a one-time $19.99 purchase. No subscription. Also on the Microsoft Store.

One-time $19.99, no monthly fee · your MT5 login never leaves your PC · trades go into your own journal on your PC, not through our servers.

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