I've been using Excel and MS Money to track my trades found many deficiencies as I would like additional features like: - Enter information like reason for the trade, stops - Automatic calculation of risk $/$ - Ability to attach a snapshot of my chart drawings... Is anyone aware of such a tool ? Thanks.
you want is doable in Excel and Word. How do you (or anyone, for that matter) calculate risk v. reward? To me that is a proper calculation for a style of trading i.e. swing trading. Do a search on this site for a thread called, "For the equity trader." I did a spreadsheet there that automatically calculates a risk and reward for retracements. That might give you an idea how to proceed with the R/R aspect of things. Finally, if you want a presentation type journal save screenshots of your trades in your charting software or saved from the web using the various online charting services (stockcharts.com) as *.gif files in Paint and paste them into a Word document.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19878&highlight=for+the+equity+trader I don't know why all those words are in red.
Look at: Trader's Log http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~traderslog/ Electronic Trade Journal, does automatic screen shots via hot key and prompts for trade prices. http://www.jdmx.com/ Both products are improving but not yet industrial strength (IMHO). Still, better than Excel and M$Money. Good luck, Ramora
van Tharp describes, in one of these books, (i believe the one on electronic day trading), calculating one's %R http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/103-4190846-7025431 I remember browsing him at a bookstore, and thought his risk-management ratio might be a useful tool to help me assess my risk performance