A Traders Universe - Stock, Futures & Forex Trading System Development for Creating Wealth

Traders of Stocks, Options, Forex, CFD's, Futures and more, could you use a Trade Tracker?

For stock market traders, forex traders and most other instruments, trade tracker will enable you to keep records of your trades, keep an eye on your equity curve and also your trading costs.

Another method for using trade tracker is to back-test any trading systems you may want to try. You just need to enter in your entry and exit details, your brokerage costs and the trade tracker will take care of the rest.

Here are some examples of the trade tracker for stock traders. Stock ticker codes are entered in the first column, followed by either a 'L' for long or an 'S' for short. Margin requirement is then added. If you aren't trading on margin, you enter 100%. If you happen to trade CFD's, or even Forex then you enter in the percentage of you margin requirement, such as 1, 2, 5 or 10%. Some Forex brokers are offering 1:400 leverage on currency trades, meaning you would enter .25.

The date is entered as 'day' / 'month'/ and then year. The spreadsheet will adjust the dates automatically to to work out the number of days in the trade. For day traders, enter in the same date for entry and exit. The quantity and price are pretty straight forward. From there your Gross Profit (Loss) is automatically calculated for you.

Commissions can be entered in as a percentage rate under 'Comm. Rate%' or as a dollar figure under 'Total Comm'. If you are trading on margin, ask your broker the interest rate you are being charged. As for CFD's, when going short you are actually paid interest, and in this case, it would be entered as a minus, for example -4.00. After entering your commission and interest charges, a total is calculated which in turn calculates a Net Profit (Loss). There is also a ROI% calculated for you which takes the profit/loss over the period you were in the trade and annualises it for you.

Finally, in the last column, you will see your capital or equity as a running total. After entering in your initial capital in the top box, it will calculate your resulting capital after each trade. If you enter in a trade, it is suggested you always put in the current date in the exit date column, followed by the closing price. This ensures your equity column is kept up to date. On the page titled 'TT Equity Curve' you will see your equity over time as a graph, such as the example above.

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