Trading P&L tracker: daily, weekly and monthly (Excel, Notion, automatic)
Tracking profit and loss properly means using net results and keeping every trade. Here are three ways to do it, with formulas.
What a P&L tracker should actually track
A trading P&L tracker answers a simple question: how much did I make or lose, and over what period? Done properly it separates three things people often mix up: the result of each trade, the result of each day, and the running total of the account.
| Level | What to record | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Per trade | Profit, commission and swap, added together | The true net result of the trade |
| Per day | Sum of trades closed that day, number of trades, starting and ending balance | Spot good and bad days and streaks |
| Per week and month | Sum of daily results | Trends and consistency |
| Cumulative | Running total or equity curve | The big picture and drawdown |
| By symbol and session | Sum of net result for each group | Where the money comes from |
Use net, not gross
In MetaTrader 5 a deal's profit field does not include commission and swap; they are separate. A tracker that adds only profit overstates your results. Always use profit plus commission plus swap. The History tab and saved reports show the totals for you. See MT5 trading statistics for the field details.
Option 1: a spreadsheet
Set up one row per closed trade with columns for close date, symbol, profit, commission and swap. Then add:
| Column or cell | Formula (adapt the cell references) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Net result | =F2+G2+H2 | Profit plus commission plus swap for the trade |
| Running total | =SUM($I$2:I2) | Cumulative net result |
| Day total | =SUMIFS(I:I,J:J,K2) | Net result for the date in K2 (J is the close date) |
| Month total | =SUMIFS(I:I,J:J,">="&DATE(2026,10,1),J:J,"<"&DATE(2026,11,1)) | Net result for October 2026 |
| Win rate | =COUNTIF(I:I,">0")/COUNT(I:I) | Share of trades with a positive net result |
A ready-made version is in the free MT5 trading journal template, and you can get the data out of MT5 with this export guide. The catch is that you copy every trade in by hand.
Option 2: Notion
Notion can hold a P&L tracker as two linked databases, one for trades and one for days, with rollups that sum each day and a calendar view of the daily database. Start with the free Notion trading journal template and see the Notion trading dashboard guide. Notion cannot read MT5, so trades still have to be entered.
Option 3: automatic
AI Trading Journal reads your closed MT5 trades and saves them in your own journal on your PC (with an optional copy in your own Notion workspace) about every 5 minutes. Its daily recap row shows net P&L, number of trades, win rate, starting and ending balance and maximum drawdown, and its desktop dashboard shows cumulative and daily P&L. You add notes; it keeps the numbers complete. It is Windows-only and MT5-only, with a 7-day free trial and a one-time $19.99.
Mistakes that make a P&L tracker lie
- Ignoring commission and swap. Small costs add up over hundreds of trades.
- Counting open trades. A tracker based on closed trades ignores floating profit and loss; know which you are looking at.
- Mixing demo and live. Keep separate trackers for each.
- Skipping losing days. A tracker with only the good days is a scrapbook.
- Comparing days across accounts of different sizes. Use percentages as well as amounts.
From P&L to improvement
P&L alone does not tell you why. Pair it with win rate, profit factor and expectancy (the expectancy calculator helps), and look at drawdown. When you are ready to dig into the reasons, read trading performance analysis.
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.
A worked example with six trades (hypothetical)
The columns are profit, commission, swap, the net result (the sum of the three) and the running total. The formulas in the table above produce exactly these figures:
| Trade | Profit | Commission | Swap | Net result | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | +120.00 | -4.00 | -1.50 | +114.50 | +114.50 |
| 2 | -85.00 | -4.00 | 0.00 | -89.00 | +25.50 |
| 3 | +60.00 | -2.00 | -0.50 | +57.50 | +83.00 |
| 4 | -40.00 | -2.00 | 0.00 | -42.00 | +41.00 |
| 5 | +210.00 | -6.00 | -3.00 | +201.00 | +242.00 |
| 6 | -95.00 | -4.00 | 0.00 | -99.00 | +143.00 |
Gross profit over the six trades is +170.00. After commission and swap the net result is +143.00, a difference of 27.00, or about 16% of the gross figure. On six trades it is small. Over hundreds of trades, costs at that rate are a large share of what you earn, which is why the tracker should always work from net numbers.
Amounts and percentages
A result of +$300 means something different on a $1,000 account than on a $50,000 one. Add a column for the day's result as a percentage of the starting balance, and use it when you compare days, weeks or accounts. It also protects you from judging a month by the size of the account rather than by the quality of the trading, and it makes drawdown comparisons across accounts fair.
Weekly and monthly roll-ups in Notion
- Keep the daily database with Date and Net P&L, and add a property for the week (a formula that returns the week of the date) and one for the month.
- Group the daily view by week or month and show the sum of Net P&L, so the totals appear without any extra formulas.
- Add a count of days with a loss in each group, to see how consistent the period was.
- Check one month against your broker's statement or the MT5 history to make sure the tracker is complete.
Reconciling the tracker
Once a month, compare the tracker's total with the change in your account balance over the same period, adjusted for deposits and withdrawals. If they differ, the cause is usually a missing trade, a trade counted twice, commission or swap left out, or a withdrawal treated as a loss. Fix the difference before you rely on that month's figures. The record-keeping guide shows a simple way to reconcile, and the P&L calendar guide shows how to see the days at a glance.
Frequently asked questions
How do I track my trading P&L?
What is the best trading P&L tracker?
Should P&L include commission and swap?
Can I track P&L automatically from MT5?
Related guides
- A local trading journal for MT5
- P&L calendar for MT5
- Trade notes, ratings and screenshots
- Trading progress and goals
- Back up your journal and move it to a new PC
- An offline trading journal for Windows
- How to set monthly trading goals
- Import your whole MT5 history
- How to tag trades
- Trade screenshots for your journal
- All trading journal comparisons
Track your P&L 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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