The three files
Trading journal template (CSV) — a spreadsheet with the fields that earn their place, and three example rows showing the format. Opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or anything else.
Trading plan (Markdown) — one page. What you trade, your setups by name, risk rules, and the rules for after a loss. Plain text, so it opens anywhere and you can paste it into whatever you already use.
Session checklist (Markdown) — before the session, before each entry, after the session. Short enough to actually run.
No email, no account, no redirect. The links above are the files.
Why the journal template has these columns and not more
Most templates ask for thirty fields. They are abandoned in a month, because recording costs four minutes per trade and nothing in the file ever answers a question.
These columns were chosen by one test: could a month of this change a decision? The reasoning behind each is on what to record.
The result splits into two halves. The first — symbol, side, size, times, prices, costs — is what your broker's export already contains, and typing it by hand is both slower and less accurate than importing it. The second — setup name, planned stop and target, the reason, and whether you were in control — exists nowhere but in your own hand, and only if written before the outcome.
The part that makes it more than a spreadsheet
The columns are compatible with the import pipeline this site already runs. Fill the template in, save it as CSV, and drop it into any of the analyzers: they will read it exactly as they read a broker export.
That means a hand-kept journal gets the same treatment as an imported one — what your busy days cost, whether you speed up after a loss, whether your sample is large enough to distinguish an edge from a good run.
One detail worth knowing, because it is the reason the template has separate cost columns: it uses Gross P/L plus Commission and Swap, not a single net figure. A net column would make the tools treat costs as already included and report your fee total as zero. Splitting them means your commissions are counted, and the reason that matters is in net P&L.
If you already have history with a broker
Do not type it in. Export it — the file is more accurate than your memory, and it takes one step instead of an evening.
Use the template going forward for the half an export cannot hold: what you meant to do.
Licence
Copy them, change them, use them commercially, remove our name. No attribution required and no strings. They are text files.