Trading Journals, Ledgers and Daily Reports

Review trade fills, realized profit/loss, fees and running virtual cash balances.

Understand the idea.

A trading journal explains your decision; a trade ledger records its execution. The money ledger records cash movements, while daily reports group accounted fills by the India trading date. Realized profit/loss belongs to the closed or reduced part of a position; an open position also has floating profit/loss. Fees affect net results even when a position remains open. A cash balance can fall when buying an asset without an equivalent trading loss, because capital is committed to the position. Compare gross realized results, charges and remaining exposure separately. The new detailed accounting begins with fills after its deployment; older fills are labelled when their detailed breakdown is unavailable.

Practice checklist

• Compare gross and net P&L
• Reconcile cash with the money ledger
• Keep notes about the trade decision