Software to track return on trades

[4REAL 109]

Hi all,

 

What software can you recommand to track/ calculate return on trades ?

Now I do it with excel, but when we start rolling it gets complicated.

 

Thanks

 

CJ

 

[luxmon 228]

4REAL,

 

Like you, I use a spreadsheet as I haven't found anything that doesn't cost significant money.  I made a GoogleDocs spreadsheet with separate tabs for straddles, calendars, and condors.  I have an adjustment column for each, and I just place the credit/debit and a comment describing the adjustment in the cell.  It's not that pretty, but for tracking live trades you can use the GoogleFinance function to track the price of the underlying real time and I have alerts to let me know when say the underlying is more than a certain % away from the strike price of a calendar.  

 

On the downside of GoogleDocs, I started this in June, and I'm noticing that as more and more trades are added, it gets slower and slower to refresh after I make updates to cells.  I may have to copy closed trades offline to lean it out again.  I'm also wary of the privacy of Google, but I don't keep any personal information in there besides the trade data.

 

I too would be interested in what other members might be using.

 

Tim

[Optrader 118]

I am also looking. Havent found anything that can import all my years trades and create a chart of how the whole portfolio performed and by per SYMBOL basis , how the P/L performed after the adjustment etc.

 

Its hard to keep track of trades in spreadsheet when we do so many.

 

I just remember how trades went bad and never to do it again. Also what works and what does not.  I went through a lot of learning experience.

 

But its hard for any software to do it as it may give you a P/L , but what about the IV at the time of trade ? that is tough one , without that , you may be looking at only delta adjustment , that will not really reveal why trade went wrong ? 

[Civicguy 15]

I use tradervue for all my forex and stock trading journal. I realised that it can use for tracking options so I have started to use it to import all my options trades from IB every day (including those I am starting to learn to trade from here). I have not done any adjustments so I am not sure how it will turn out (a link to explain adjustments ?). I am a newbie for options so not in a good position to advise if this web site is okay for options trades tracking and how its reporting is for options. I am still learning.

 

You do need to be at least a silver member to be using it for options trading though.

Edited October 31, 2014 by Civicguy

[Nevermind 12]

Has anyone a screenshot of an excel or is willing to provide a excel sheet to see how to track trades?

 

 

Thank you

[craigsmith 357]

Has anyone a screenshot of an excel or is willing to provide a excel sheet to see how to track trades?

 

 

Thank you

I would be interested in this as well. I'm trying to build my own spreadsheet (I suck at excel), but even just knowing what kind of information other members are tracking and find most valuable (important) when tracking trades would be a big help. Thanks!

[TDM 33]

I've tried tracking trades in a spreadsheet, with some luck and some issues. Here is the basic layout I've got, with columns for each:

 

Open Date, Strategy, Closing Date, Ticker, # of Contracts (Or more precisely, # of spreads), Open Price, Close Price, Margin/Risk, Commissions, P/L $, P/L %, Trading Notes

 

For adjustments, I manually add the net credit/debit to the position. So, if we open a straddle for $5, roll both legs sides for a 1.30 credit and a 1.00 debit, and sell for 5.10, I enter =(5+1.00-1.30) in the Open Price, and 5.10 in the close price.

 

Anything else I consider relevant goes into the notes column, which I've chosen to do as a comment to keep the chart concise, but allow the notes to be detailed.

 

A few issues I've had with this format are:

1. This is not an efficient or detailed way to track adjustments. Additionally, for double calendars, you have decide whether to enter as two separate trades, as one trade with the full # of contracts and averaged price, or as one trade with half the number of contracts and a summed price. 

 

2. It is difficult to balance including all relevant information and making the spreadsheet difficult to read. Underlying price, strike price, volatility are all relevant to track, but lead to a complex spreadsheet, especially with adjustments/double calendars/fills at different prices/etc.

 

3. I also trade other strategies besides those here at SO; this increases and changes the relevant information, so you either need multiple spreadsheets or something more complicated.

 

If anyone has suggestions based on how they track their performance, I would love to hear it. I'm actually considering writing a basic program to keep track of all of this information in a more sensible and easily-analyzed way, as well as automating the data entry.

 

-T

[craigsmith 357]

I've tried tracking trades in a spreadsheet, with some luck and some issues. Here is the basic layout I've got, with columns for each:

 

Open Date, Strategy, Closing Date, Ticker, # of Contracts (Or more precisely, # of spreads), Open Price, Close Price, Margin/Risk, Commissions, P/L $, P/L %, Trading Notes

 

For adjustments, I manually add the net credit/debit to the position. So, if we open a straddle for $5, roll both legs sides for a 1.30 credit and a 1.00 debit, and sell for 5.10, I enter =(5+1.00-1.30) in the Open Price, and 5.10 in the close price.

 

Anything else I consider relevant goes into the notes column, which I've chosen to do as a comment to keep the chart concise, but allow the notes to be detailed.

 

A few issues I've had with this format are:

1. This is not an efficient or detailed way to track adjustments. Additionally, for double calendars, you have decide whether to enter as two separate trades, as one trade with the full # of contracts and averaged price, or as one trade with half the number of contracts and a summed price. 

 

2. It is difficult to balance including all relevant information and making the spreadsheet difficult to read. Underlying price, strike price, volatility are all relevant to track, but lead to a complex spreadsheet, especially with adjustments/double calendars/fills at different prices/etc.

 

3. I also trade other strategies besides those here at SO; this increases and changes the relevant information, so you either need multiple spreadsheets or something more complicated.

 

If anyone has suggestions based on how they track their performance, I would love to hear it. I'm actually considering writing a basic program to keep track of all of this information in a more sensible and easily-analyzed way, as well as automating the data entry.

 

-T

Thanks for the information. It's good to get an idea of what others are doing. I totally agree with point #2. What is the "relevant" information, and is there something we can track to give us an additional "edge". My spreadsheet is up to 25 columns, and I'm just wondering if it's overkill. I have all the columns you mention, plus: DTE, last day to trade, stock IV, implied move, calendar trade IV skew, etc, etc, etc.

 

And, I haven't even gotten to the point to figure out how to handle adjustments.

 

This style of trading is totally new to me (I've only trade options directionally, and always seemed to buy and sell at the exact wrong moment), so a lot of this information is totally "greek" to me (pun intended). I'm just trying to figure out if it's even worth it to track this stuff, and try to figure our if there is an edge later, or if I'm wasting my time by going in TOO DEEP into the information.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to answer. It's really good to get help from other members and throw ideas around.

[tmurray 0]

I'm new to OS. I struggled with the this for a while. I spent 6 months trying to build an excel spread to log my trades. It turned out to be ok but wasn't enough. I got tried of banging my head on the table fighting with all the formulas. I'm using trading-journal-spreadsheet now. So far it's worked out fine it does everything I need

[Kim 7,475]

I'm using ONE software. For what you get, I think it's very reasonably priced and provides excellent value for money.

 

OptionNET Explorer discounted offer

[Nevermind 12]

Hi Guys, I am using TradingDiaryPro + ONE. Works ok for me.

[pboongird 34]

On 4/16/2015 at 10:16 AM, craigsmith said:

Thanks for the information. It's good to get an idea of what others are doing. I totally agree with point #2. What is the "relevant" information, and is there something we can track to give us an additional "edge". My spreadsheet is up to 25 columns, and I'm just wondering if it's overkill. I have all the columns you mention, plus: DTE, last day to trade, stock IV, implied move, calendar trade IV skew, etc, etc, etc.

 

And, I haven't even gotten to the point to figure out how to handle adjustments.

 

This style of trading is totally new to me (I've only trade options directionally, and always seemed to buy and sell at the exact wrong moment), so a lot of this information is totally "greek" to me (pun intended). I'm just trying to figure out if it's even worth it to track this stuff, and try to figure our if there is an edge later, or if I'm wasting my time by going in TOO DEEP into the information.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to answer. It's really good to get help from other members and throw ideas around.

1

@craigsmith I have found this dated thread and it would be great if you could share your current tracking spreadsheet? What works and what doesn't over the years? Do you still have 25 columns in your spreadsheet? What additional parameters that really gives you the "edge" and how do you get to use them?

 

[craigsmith 357]

9 minutes ago, pboongird said:

@craigsmith I have found this dated thread and it would be great if you could share your current tracking spreadsheet? What works and what doesn't over the years? Do you still have 25 columns in your spreadsheet? What additional parameters that really gives you the "edge" and how do you get to use them?

 

Wow... that was a long time ago. This is what I ultimately settled on:

 

 

There are a couple of simple formulas that calculate some of the fields. You can see I have fields for "stock implied volatility" and "implied move" which aren't filled in, I just found that really didn't help or add anything for my analysis. This spreadsheet works great for calendars and straddles, but most other type trades don't really "fit" easily, like the hedged straddles. I actually just write that down and keep up with it during the trade and all adjustments on paper. I re-subscribed to the ONE software in January, and I LOVE it for the way it tracks trades and adjustments, but the most powerful part is the backtesting and modeling you can do. I'm considering using only ONE and abandoning the spreadsheet.