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Swing Trading Journal Template

A free swing trading journal for Excel and Google Sheets that tracks each multi-day trade from entry to final exit: initial risk, up to two partial exits, net P/L after fees, R-multiple, holding days, earnings dates, optional MAE/MFE and the total risk still open across your positions (heat). A summary tab adds expectancy, win/loss stats, results by setup and by month, and an equity curve.

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.

#	Trade	Setup	Entry	Exit	Days held	Shares	Scale-outs	Risk $	Net P/L	R	Open risk
1	TKR-A Long	Breakout	06 Jul	14 Jul	6	100	1	$200.00	$358.00	+1.79R
2	TKR-B Long	Pullback	08 Jul	10 Jul	2	200		$200.00	−$212.00	−1.06R
3	TKR-C Short	Failed breakout	13 Jul	17 Jul	4	150	1	$195.00	$358.00	+1.84R
4	TKR-D Long	Base breakout	15 Jul	24 Jul	7	120		$192.00	−$590.00	−3.07R
5	TKR-E Long	Trend continuation	20 Jul	31 Jul	9	80	2	$200.00	$381.50	+1.91R
6	TKR-F Long	Pullback	22 Jul	22 Jul	0 (same day)	300		$195.00	−$212.00	−1.09R
… 17 more closed trades (rows 7–23 in the file) …
24	TKR-H Long	Breakout	19 Oct	–		100	1	$200.00	open	–	$50.00
25	TKR-A Long	Pullback	22 Oct	–		100		$200.00	open	–	$200.00
26	TKR-C Short	Failed breakout	26 Oct	–		150		$195.00	open	–	$0.00
Open heat: $250.00 of $22,057.50 current equity											1.13%

Chart: equity after each closed trade, from the Example Summary tab. The workbook draws the same curve as a native chart, plus a bar chart of net P/L by month.

Swing or day trading? This template is for positions held overnight, for days or weeks: dates instead of times, holding days, scale-outs, earnings dates and open heat. For intraday trades with sessions and a daily loss limit, use the day trading journal template. For a general log with plan adherence and emotions, see the trading journal template.

What's inside the spreadsheet

The swing-specific fields

How to use it

1. On Journal, type your account size in C3 and the most you are willing to have at risk across open trades in C4 (as a % of equity).
2. When you enter a trade, add a row: ticker, Long or Short, setup, catalyst, next earnings date if one falls in the next weeks, entry date, shares, entry price, initial stop and target. A position size calculator gives the shares for a set dollar risk.
3. Sell part of the position? Type the shares and price under Scale-out 1 (then 2). Trail the stop? Type the new level under Current stop.
4. When the rest is sold, type the final exit date and price and the total fees. If you track them, add the lowest and highest price reached while you held the trade (MAE/MFE prices).
5. Leave the grey columns alone. Before adding a new trade, check Open heat % and the heat check in J3:J4.
6. Once a week, read Summary: expectancy, which setups and months made or lost money, and how the equity curve moved.

Overnight and gap risk

A swing trade stays open while the market is closed. News, earnings or a market-wide move can make a stock open far away from the previous close, past your stop. Investor.gov explains that a stop order becomes a market order once the stop price is reached, and that "the price at which your trade is executed may differ from the stop price, especially in a fast-moving market where stock prices can change rapidly."

That is why the journal keeps the planned stop (for R) separate from the actual exit price, and why a loss can be bigger than −1R. In the example, trade 4 bought 120 TKR-D at $60.00 with a stop at $58.40 ($192.00 risk), held through an earnings report on 23 Jul and was sold the next day at $55.10: −$590.00, or −3.07R. It is the only closed example trade held through earnings, and the Summary counts such trades and their P/L separately.

Swing trades and the 2026 pattern day trader change

Investor.gov's glossary defines a day trade as "the purchase and sale, or the sale and purchase, of the same security on the same day in a margin account". It lists as an exception "a long security position held overnight and sold the next day prior to any new purchase of the same security". A swing trade held overnight is therefore not a day trade. The journal's "Overnight?" column marks any same-day round trip, so those stand out.

Rule change in 2026. FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10 (April 20, 2026) says FINRA "has adopted new intraday margin standards to replace in their entirety the outdated day trading margin requirements, including the day trade count requirements for designating a customer as a “pattern day trader” and the $25,000 pattern day trader minimum equity requirement." The effective date was June 4, 2026, and firms may phase in the change until October 20, 2027. FINRA's investor article "Frequent Intraday Trading: Understanding the Basics" adds that to trade on margin "you must maintain a minimum of $2,000 in equity in your margin account", and brokers may require more. Check your own broker's terms.

The formulas, explained

Exact formulas from row 7 of Journal. Inputs: B side, E earnings date, F entry date, G shares, H entry, I initial stop, J target, K current stop, L/M scale-out 1 shares/price, N/O scale-out 2, P exit date, Q exit price, R fees, S MAE price, T MFE price.

Expectancy here is the average R of closed trades. The Summary also shows it in dollars and checks it the long way: win rate × average win + loss rate × average loss. Both give $89.46 per trade in the example. For background, see Understanding expectancy. The equity table uses an "exit order" helper column on Journal, so trades closed in a different order than they were opened still plot in date order.

Worked example from the sample data

A trade with two partial exits

Trade 5: 80 TKR-E bought at $75.00, initial stop $72.50, so the risk is ($75.00 − $72.50) × 80 = $200.00. The trader sold 40 at $79.00, 20 at $81.00 and the last 20 at $80.20, paying $2.50 in fees:

40 × 4.00 + 20 × 6.00 + 20 × 5.20 − 2.50 = $381.50 → $381.50 / $200.00 = +1.91R, held 9 days. MAE −0.44R, MFE +2.80R: the price went 0.44R against the trade before reaching 2.8R of open profit.

Open heat on 29 Oct

The TKR-H position also has an earnings date (5 Nov) after entry, so it is flagged "Earnings inside trade? Yes" while it stays open: a reminder that a gap could exit it below its stop.

The 23 closed trades together

Average win +1.38R, average loss −1.32R, profit factor 1.99. The average loss is worse than −1R because of the earnings gap in trade 4 and fees.

The data is made up and 23 trades are far too few to judge a setup. Read tables like these as questions to test over months of your own trades, not as findings. Winners were held longer than losers here (6.7 vs 3.1 days): your own numbers may differ.

Common mistakes

• Moving the initial stop. R is measured against the stop you planned at entry. Put a trailed stop in Current stop, not in Initial stop.
• Typing scale-outs that add up to more than you bought. Status turns red: "Check shares". Scale-out shares plus the final exit must equal the shares bought.
• Leaving out the earnings date. Without it the sheet cannot flag trades held through a report that can move the price overnight.
• Counting open trades as wins. P/L is only booked when the final exit is filled in. Open positions show risk, not results.
• Forgetting holidays. Holding days skip weekends but not exchange holidays until you list them on Lists.
• Judging by win rate alone. A lower win rate with bigger winners can still have positive expectancy. See why win rate alone doesn't matter.

FAQ

What should a swing trading journal include?

For each trade: ticker, long or short, setup, catalyst, entry date and price, shares, initial stop, target, any partial exits, final exit date and price, and fees. From those a journal can work out initial risk, net P/L, R-multiple and holding days. For open trades it adds the risk still on the table (heat). A summary then shows expectancy, win rate, average win and loss, and results by setup and by month.

How do you calculate the R-multiple when you scale out of a trade?

Add up the P/L of every exit (each partial and the final exit), subtract fees, then divide by the initial risk: |entry − initial stop| × total shares. In the example, 80 TKR-E shares bought at $75.00 with a $72.50 stop risk $200.00. Selling 40 at $79.00, 20 at $81.00 and the last 20 at $80.20, minus $2.50 fees, nets $381.50, so the trade is +1.91R.

What is portfolio heat in swing trading?

Heat is the total amount you would lose if every open position hit its current stop at once, usually shown as a percentage of the account. The template works it out for each open trade (shares still held × distance from entry to current stop, or zero once the stop is at or past entry) and compares the total with the maximum you set.

How long is a swing trade held?

There is no official definition. Swing trades are held overnight, often for several days or weeks, while day trades open and close in the same session. The journal measures your own holding days with NETWORKDAYS, so you can compare winners and losers instead of relying on a rule of thumb.

Does the pattern day trader rule apply to swing trades?

A position held overnight and closed on a later day is not a day trade under the definition Investor.gov gives. In addition, FINRA Regulatory Notice 26-10 says FINRA replaced the day trading margin requirements, including the pattern day trader day trade count and the $25,000 minimum equity, effective June 4, 2026, with firms allowed to phase in until October 20, 2027. Margin accounts still need at least $2,000 in equity, and brokers can set stricter rules, so check your broker.

Can I use this swing trading journal in Google Sheets?

Yes. In Google Sheets choose File → Import → Upload and pick the .xlsx, or upload it to Drive and open it with Google Sheets. The formulas use functions found in Excel 2016+, Google Sheets and LibreOffice (NETWORKDAYS, COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, AVERAGEIFS, INDEX/MATCH, EDATE).

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Educational template only, not financial, tax or investment advice. Trading involves risk of loss, and holding positions overnight exposes them to price gaps; trading on margin can lose more than you deposit. Example data is fictional: tickers TKR-A to TKR-H and all prices, fees and results are made up. FINRA and Investor.gov material was retrieved on 29 October 2026.