So, fidelity offers downloadable CSV data for transactions but you have different rows for buy , sell in that extract. So, I don't currently track PnL per trade but only overall since you simply add up the column to get your overall values. That is obviously a poor way of doing things but I don't know enough Excel to associate a buy vs sell in this context as it looks like it would involve some scripting to find the associated buy for any sell transaction. I would like something that gives me PnL per trade so I can monitor progress at a finer granularity.
excuse me, what is P&L? it's the first time i see this word on this forum . . . . whatever it may mean, it's probably not very important because the self-proclaimed star traders on this forum have ignored it good question, though!!!! interesting to find out . . .i'm all ears . . . Varima Garch
When I started trading, I could not even read a stock symbol. Seriously. PnL is profit and loss. Focus on it, and it will make ur life miserable. Focus instead on Risk. How much money are u going to lose per trade.
You have to track your profit and loss for every trade for tax purposes. I created a spreadsheet that looks similar to a Schedule D, so come tax time, all I have to do is copy the data from my spreadsheet straight to my Schedule D.
Yes doing something that has entry and exit prices on the same line will make schedule D harder it's just that that way it's much harder to implement automating entry from the downloaded CSV data. It essentially needs to be transposed in order for that to work. Anybody have anything that transposes this data?
i use an excel spreadsheet to manually track my trades/profit/loss on a daily basis. i usually try and avoid daily PnL tracking and only usually fill it in at months end but its easy enough to write in via formula with a spreadsheet.
too add to what i previously stated...its also a good habit to track your trades manually, seperate from your broker in case there is ever a problem. i have a little book next to my pc i write trades down daily as they happen. occaisonally i check them against my statements to verify accuracy. it sounds like a pain but like i said a good habit and very easy to actually do once you get started. it also allows you to examine in detail your daily stats.