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Options Trading Journal Template

A free options trading journal for Excel and Google Sheets that records why you opened each trade (strategy, strikes, expiry, days to expiry, delta, IV and your exit plan) and how it ended (closed, expired, assigned), then works out P/L and return on risk and reviews your decisions by strategy, by month and by whether you followed the plan.

Use it in Google Sheets: choose File → Import → Upload in Sheets and pick the .xlsx, or upload it to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets. No sign-up, no add-on, no broker connection.

Open	Underlying	Strategy	L/S	Strike(s)	Expiry	DTE	Qty	Premium	Delta	IV	Outcome	P/L	Return on risk
6 Jan	STK-A	Cash-secured put	Short	50	20 Feb	45	2	$1.40	-0.30	32%	Expired	$277.40	2.9%
12 Jan	STK-B	Long call	Long	120	20 Mar	67	1	$4.20	+0.48	38%	Closed	$268.70	64.0%
3 Feb	ETF-X	Bull put spread	Short	400/395	20 Mar	45	2	$1.15	-0.22	21%	Closed	$114.80	14.9%
23 Feb	STK-C	Long put	Long	80	15 May	81	2	$3.50	-0.42	45%	Closed	−$462.60	−66.1%
9 Mar	STK-A	Covered call	Short	55	17 Apr	39	2	$0.95	+0.28	29%	Assigned	−$32.60	−0.3%
14 Apr	STK-B	Bear call spread	Short	140/145	15 May	31	1	$1.60	+0.30	41%	Closed	−$232.60	−68.4%
4 May	ETF-X	Iron condor	Short	430/440	19 Jun	46	1	$2.80	+0.05	18%	Closed	$144.80	20.1%
18 May	STK-D	Long call	Long	25	19 Jun	32	5	$0.85	+0.40	62%	Expired	−$428.25	−100.8%
8 Jun	STK-A	Cash-secured put	Short	48	17 Jul	39	2	$1.05	-0.27	30%	Assigned	−$112.60	−1.2%
6 Jul	STK-C	Bear put spread	Long	85/80	21 Aug	46	2	$1.90	-0.35	36%	Closed	$334.80	88.1%
20 Jul	STK-B	Long put	Long	125	21 Aug	32	1	$3.10	-0.38	35%	Closed	−$171.30	−55.3%
10 Aug	ETF-X	Bull call spread	Long	420/430	18 Sep	39	2	$3.80	+0.45	20%	Closed	$714.80	94.1%
24 Aug	STK-D	Long straddle	Long	30	18 Sep	25	2	$2.40	+0.04	70%	Closed	−$185.20	−38.6%
14 Sep	STK-A	Bull put spread	Short	47/44	16 Oct	32	3	$0.90	-0.25	31%	Expired	$262.20	41.6%
5 Oct	STK-B	Cash-secured put	Short	120	20 Nov	46	1	$2.35	-0.24	33%	Open	(open)
19 Oct	ETF-X	Long call	Long	435	18 Dec	60	1	$9.80	+0.42	19%	Open	(open)

Chart: net P/L by month closed, from the Example Summary tab, which also draws it as a native chart.

Journal or tracker? This journal is for reviewing decisions: thesis, exit plan, Greeks at entry, mistakes and lessons, for any strategy including spreads and condors. To follow positions and premium income on covered calls, cash-secured puts and single calls or puts, use the options trading tracker.

What's inside the spreadsheet

The journal columns

How to use it

1. Before you place the order, fill the plan columns. Copy delta and implied volatility from your broker's option chain; the sheet does not calculate Greeks.
2. Enter premiums per share as positive numbers, the way they are quoted. Pick Long if you paid a net debit and Short if you received a net credit.
3. Spreads and condors take one row. Type both strikes of the spread; for an iron condor, the two strikes of the wider wing.
4. When the trade ends, fill the close date, outcome, exit premium (blank if it expired worthless), total fees, followed plan, mistake tag and a one-line lesson.
5. For a covered call or a naked call, type your own number in Max risk $ override. The sheet cannot define the risk of a short call on its own.
6. Review Summary monthly: return on risk by strategy, and results when you followed the plan vs when you did not.

Options terms the sheet relies on

• Contract multiplier. The SEC's Investor Bulletin "An Introduction to Options" (updated July 16, 2026) says: "An option contract generally represents 100 shares of the underlying stock." Its example: "a premium of $2.20 represents a payment of $220 per option contract ($2.20 x 100 shares)." FINRA's article on assignment uses the same rule: the strike price "multiplied by 100, since each contract represents 100 shares."
• Delta. The Options Industry Council (OIC) defines delta as "a measure of the relationship between an option premium and the underlying stock price."
• Implied volatility. OIC: "a measure of how much the marketplace expects the asset price to move based on the price of the option." Logging IV at entry lets you check later whether you tend to buy options when they are expensive.
• Assignment. Investor.gov: when a buyer exercises, the seller "receives a notice called an assignment" and must buy or sell the stock at the strike price.

Risk. Investor.gov warns that with options "it is possible to lose all of your initial investment, and sometimes more", and that "Option writers may carry an even higher level of risk since certain types of options contracts can expose writers to unlimited potential losses." Before trading listed options, brokers provide the OCC's options disclosure document, Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options (current version June 2024).

The formulas, explained

Exact formulas from the file, row 7 of Journal. Columns: A open date, D call/put, E long/short, F and G strikes, H expiry, J contracts, K multiplier (blank uses C3 = 100), L entry premium, Q close date, R outcome, S exit premium, T fees, U risk override.

Max risk reads left to right: your override if you typed one; else the premium paid for a long; else (width − credit) for a short with two strikes; else (strike − credit) for a short put. A short call with one strike stays blank until you type a number.

Worked example from the sample data

Cash-secured put that expired

On 6 Jan, sell 2 STK-A 50 puts expiring 20 Feb (45 DTE) for $1.40. Premium received: $1.40 × 100 × 2 = $280.00. Max risk: ($50 − $1.40) × 100 × 2 = $9,720.00. The put expires worthless, so P/L = $280.00 − $2.60 fees = $277.40, a return on risk of 2.85%.

Bull put spread closed early

Sell the ETF-X 400/395 put spread for a $1.15 credit, 2 contracts. Max risk: (5 − 1.15) × 100 × 2 = $770.00. Bought back at $0.55: (1.15 − 0.55) × 100 × 2 − $5.20 = $114.80, return on risk 14.9%, held 27 days.

Assignment

A 48 put sold for $1.05 is assigned with STK-A at $46.40. The exit premium is the intrinsic value, 48 − 46.40 = 1.60. Option P/L: (1.05 − 1.60) × 100 × 2 − $2.60 = −$112.60. The covered call on STK-A uses the override: $10,210.00 (stock cost $52.00 × 200 minus the $190 premium), so its −$32.60 option-leg loss is −0.32% of capital at risk.

Summary by strategy

Return on risk shows what the dollar P/L hides: the cash-secured puts made money but tied up $19,110.00 of risk for a 0.86% return, while each spread's result, gain or loss, was large compared with its risk.

Plan followed vs not

The example data is fictional and was written to show how the table reads. With your own trades, a gap between these two rows is the clearest result a journal can give you. Overall, the 14 closed example trades made $492.35 after $54.60 fees.

Common mistakes

• Typing the premium in dollars per contract. Enter $2.20, not $220. The sheet multiplies by 100 and by contracts.
• Using a minus sign for credits. Keep premiums positive and choose Long or Short. The sign is handled in the formula.
• Logging each leg of a spread on its own row. One row per trade keeps return on risk correct.
• Leaving the thesis blank. Without it, the review can only tell you what happened, not whether your reason was right.
• Comparing P/L across strategies. A $277 cash-secured put and a $268 long call are very different trades. Compare return on risk.
• Forgetting assignment fees and the shares. The P/L here is the option leg only. Track assigned shares in the stock portfolio tracker.

FAQ

What should an options trading journal include?

Before the trade: underlying, strategy, call or put, long or short, strike(s), expiry, days to expiry, contracts, premium, delta and implied volatility, plus your reason for the trade and your exit plan. After it: close date, outcome (closed, expired, assigned, exercised, rolled), exit premium, fees, whether you followed the plan, a mistake tag and one lesson.

How do you calculate profit on an options trade?

For a trade you bought: (exit premium − entry premium) × 100 × contracts − fees. For a trade you sold: (entry premium − exit premium) × 100 × contracts − fees. Premiums are quoted per share, and a standard US equity option generally covers 100 shares. An option that expires worthless has an exit premium of 0.

How many shares does one options contract cover?

Investor.gov says an option contract generally represents 100 shares of the underlying stock, so a $2.20 premium means $220 per contract. Adjusted contracts (after splits or mergers, for example) can differ, which is why the template has a multiplier column.

What is return on risk for an options trade?

It is P/L divided by the most the trade could lose. For a bought option that is the premium paid. For a credit spread it is (strike width − credit) × 100 × contracts. In the example, a bull put spread with 5-point width and a $1.15 credit risks $770.00 on 2 contracts and made $114.80, a return on risk of 14.9%.

How do I log an assigned option in a trading journal?

Close the row with outcome Assigned and enter the option's intrinsic value at assignment as the exit premium. In the example, a 48 put was assigned with the stock at 46.40, so the exit premium is 1.60 and the option leg lost $112.60 after fees. Track the shares you now own in a portfolio tracker.

Can I use this options trading journal in Google Sheets?

Yes. Choose File → Import → Upload in Google Sheets and pick the .xlsx, or upload it to Drive and open it with Google Sheets. The formulas are SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, EDATE and IF, which work in Excel 2016+, Google Sheets and LibreOffice.

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Educational template only, not financial, tax or investment advice. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Example data is fictional: STK-A to STK-D, ETF-X and all prices, Greeks, dates and results are made up. Investor.gov, FINRA and OIC quotes were retrieved on 27 October 2026.