Forex Trading Journal for MT4: A Free Template and Weekly Review Guide
A useful forex trading journal connects three things: the decision you made, the result recorded by your broker, and the evidence you will review before making the next decision. For MT4 users, the practical starting point is a consistent record of closed trades, their costs and the original plan. A screenshot of a profitable week cannot answer those questions by itself.
The free workbook below provides that structure. It calculates realised net profit or loss, flags incomplete records, and produces a weekly review. It also keeps missing initial risk visible, so an attractive average cannot quietly treat unknown risk as zero.
Download the free MT4 trading journal template
Free journal files · no registration required
Download Excel journal (.xlsx)Download blank input CSVThe Excel file includes instructions, 200 input rows, a weekly review and a separate synthetic example. The CSV contains input headers only. Save a private working copy before adding account data.
Copy the CSV headers manually
"Record ID","Ticket ID","Group ID","Row basis","Open time","Close time","Symbol","Side","Closed lots","Setup version","Session","Profit excl fees","Commission signed","Swap signed","Other trade adj signed","Initial risk","Risk evidence","Risk verified","Plan followed","Decision notes","Source file / row","Fee mapping verified" ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Choose the XLSX workbook for the calculations and weekly review. The CSV companion is a blank input layout for your own workflow; it does not contain the workbook's formulas or multiple sheets. Neither file connects to MT4 automatically.
| Sheet | How to use it |
|---|---|
| Instructions | Set one account, its currency, the source timestamp timezone and your fee mapping. |
| Trades | Enter up to 200 closed records in rows 8–207. Grey columns calculate the result and validation status. |
| Review | Select a Monday, reconcile the period and write the next review decision. |
| Example | Study six synthetic records, including missing risk and a position closed in portions. These records never enter your Review totals. |
Keep the original downloaded file and make a working copy for each account. Separate live, demo and backtest records. Their results answer different questions, and mixing them makes the history harder to interpret.
For a historical EA test, the MT4 backtest report guide explains how to interpret modelling quality and drawdown.
Set up the record before filling the spreadsheet
On Instructions, enter an account label, account currency and the timezone used by your source timestamps. The workbook performs no currency or timezone conversion. If the source timezone changes, document the change and normalise the affected records before comparing sessions.
Retain an untouched statement or report for every batch you enter. MT4 desktop's Account History documentation describes its report export as HTML. That report supplies execution records; your contemporaneous plan supplies the reasoning and original risk. Save both references so a later review can distinguish what you knew before entry from what became clear afterwards.
Give each closed record its own Record ID and retain the broker's Ticket ID as text. A ticket identifies a source record; it is not a number to calculate with. The workbook flags duplicate Record IDs, but you still need to check overlapping imports yourself. Two different IDs do not make a duplicated trade legitimate.
What to record for each closed trade
Begin with fields that let you explain and verify the result. Add optional observations only when you will use them in a defined review. A journal with five consistent decision notes is more useful than twenty columns completed from memory.
| Information | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Record ID, Ticket ID and source file or row | Trace the entry back to evidence and detect repeated imports. |
| Open and close timestamps, symbol, side and closed lots | Describe the executed record and put it in the correct review period. |
| Setup version and session | Compare records made under the same written rules. |
| Profit excluding mapped fees, commission, swap and other trade adjustments | Calculate net P/L using one explicit accounting basis. |
| Original planned risk, evidence and verification | Calculate net R only when its denominator is known. |
| Plan followed and decision notes | Separate execution of the process from the monetary outcome. |
| Row basis and optional Group ID | Distinguish an unsplit trade from portions of one position. |
Use a stable setup label such as “Breakout v1” and explain that version in your plan. If you change the entry, exit or sizing rule, create a new version. The journal then preserves the distinction discussed in our guide to the forex system switching trap: a review needs a coherent set of decisions before it can tell you much about a method.
Calculate net P/L without charging the same cost twice
The workbook uses this convention, with every amount in the account currency:
Net P/L = profit excluding separately mapped fees + signed commission + signed swap + signed other trade adjustments.
A charge is negative and a credit is positive. Enter an explicit zero only after checking that there is no applicable amount. Leaving commission blank means that its treatment is unresolved; it does not mean that the trade was commission free.
For example, a synthetic price result of 50, commission of −3, swap of −1 and other adjustments of 0 produces a net result of 46. If your source already presents 46 as an inclusive result, reconstruct the exclusive component as 46 − (−3) − (−1) = 50 before entering those charges separately.
This distinction matters because MetaQuotes documents OrderProfit() as excluding swaps and commissions. That function definition does not establish the meaning of every broker statement heading. Check your actual columns, a sample record and the report total before marking Fee mapping verified as Yes.
The profit component based on actual fills already carries the effect of those fill prices. Do not also subtract an estimated spread or slippage amount from the same realised result. Our trading cost calculator can help examine a spread and roundtrip commission assumption before trading or testing; it excludes swaps and slippage and is not a substitute for the realised statement.
Preserve original risk so net R means something
Net R expresses a result relative to the original planned monetary risk: net P/L divided by verified initial risk. The synthetic result of 46 with a documented original risk of 25 equals 1.84R. A later stop adjustment or the amount eventually lost cannot establish what the original plan risked.
Record the risk amount and its basis before entry: the planned position size, stop, account currency and relevant calculation assumptions. A saved plan or calculation reference belongs in Risk evidence. The position size calculator can support that preparation; preserve the inputs you used. Planned risk is a comparison reference, not a guarantee of the eventual loss.
For mobile order entry, the MT4 Android trading guide explains how to verify the accepted ticket. Keep that execution check alongside your original plan.
If the evidence is missing, leave initial risk blank and mark it unverified. The workbook keeps the monetary result when the rest of the row is valid, but withholds net R and explains why. It also rejects zero or negative risk. This is preferable to rebuilding a flattering denominator after seeing the outcome.
For a wider explanation of the planning decisions behind that record, read managing risk and stop loss orders. The journal documents the plan; it does not choose an appropriate position size for you.
Handle partial closes as related records
Use Whole trade only for an unsplit completed trade. If a position was closed in portions, mark every portion, including the final one, as Partial close. Keep each realised record and optionally give related portions the same Group ID. The workbook includes their net P/L and record counts, while leaving their individual net R blank.
For an additional review of the completed idea, add all related net results and divide by one verified original risk amount. In the synthetic Example sheet, two portions produce 18.50 and −13.50. Their combined result is 5; against one original risk of 25, the idea produced 0.20R. Giving every portion the full original risk and then averaging its R would answer a different question.
Group ID does not merge rows automatically. If the portions span two weeks, each week's realised P/L includes the portions closed in that week. Keep the completed idea's grouped review separately, after establishing that all its portions and costs are present.
Run a weekly review in a consistent order
1. Establish that the period is complete
Select a Monday on Review. The workbook includes close timestamps from that date at 00:00 up to, but not including, the following Monday, using your recorded source timezone. Resolve the Input issues count and compare the included rows with the original report. Only rows marked Ready enter the monetary metrics.
Enter an independent statement amount for closed net P/L on the same dates and fee basis. Then reconcile opening and closing balances with journal P/L, signed deposits and withdrawals, and other actual balance movements. Deposits are not trading profit, and open-position floating P/L does not belong in this balance calculation. An unexplained difference calls for checking the records before interpreting performance.
The balance check assumes that trade costs and balance entries share the same posting period. If a fee was booked in a different period, reconcile that timing separately. Do not type an unexplained amount into Other balance movements just to make the difference disappear.
2. Read the denominator beside each metric
The winning share counts positive closed records divided by all included records, including breakevens. A partial close is one record. Mean net R uses only eligible whole trades with verified risk; it excludes partial closes and missing-risk rows. These two metrics therefore do not necessarily describe the same sample.
The Example sheet makes the difference visible. Its six invented records total 15 account-currency units. Three are positive, producing a 50% winning record share, while only three whole trades qualify for net R. Their average is 0.255R. These figures demonstrate the formulas and represent no actual strategy performance.
3. Turn observations into one review decision
Read the notes beside both winning and losing records. Did the entry meet the written rule? Was the decision documented at the time? Did an execution or data problem prevent a fair comparison? A winning deviation and a losing planned trade should not receive the same process judgement merely because of their cash results.
Use the three note areas to record what followed the plan, what needs more evidence and what you will examine next. “Check whether the spread assumption matched the recorded session” is a reviewable decision. “Trade better next week” is too vague to assess later.
Keep the journal useful as the sample grows
A small or incomplete sample can describe what you recorded without establishing a durable advantage. Our articles on probability in forex trading and trading psychology provide context for interpreting runs of outcomes and maintaining a consistent process. Record uncertainty instead of forcing a conclusion from one week.
Keep within the template's 200 rows unless you deliberately extend every formula, validation and Review range together. When moving data, transfer input columns by their headers and preserve the grey calculated columns. The CSV's column order omits those calculations, so pasting its entire row across Trades would misalign the fields.
Once a review identifies a clear, testable change, write a new rule version and examine it in a separate test record. How to Backtest a Forex Strategy in MT4 explains that next step. Keep the historical test distinct from the execution journal so you can compare the assumptions with what later occurred.
Documentation reviewed: 13 October 2026. This workbook is an editorial journal design. Its formulas were checked with synthetic inputs; it is not an MT4 report or a broker-verified account statement.
Continue with Trading Psychology and Testing for related lessons.
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