FAQ about our Trading Journal & Tools

TradeBench is one of the most full-featured free trading journals available. Unlike most competitors that charge $29-49/month, TradeBench offers trade planning with automatic position sizing, a full trading journal with chart screenshot support, performance reports, paper trading, and risk management tools – all at no cost. It is funded by sponsors, and users simply click one sponsor link per month in exchange for unlimited access. TradeBench has been online since 2011 and trusted by over 100,000 traders worldwide.

A spreadsheet can record trades, but TradeBench automates position sizing calculations using your live account value and personal risk parameters, pulls in real-time prices for open trades, generates performance reports with key metrics like profit factor and win rate, and lets you paste chart screenshots directly into your journal without file uploads. All of this would require complex formulas, manual data entry, and significant maintenance effort in Excel.

TradeBench reports include profit factor, win rate, average P&L, average hold time, commission costs, largest win, largest loss, and equity curve charts. You can filter reports by strategy, instrument type, custom labels, idea source, long vs. short, date range, and broker account. This helps you identify which setups, strategies, and market conditions produce your best results.

TradeBench uses three risk parameters you define: maximum risk per trade (entry vs. stop loss), maximum risk as a percentage of total account value, and maximum capital to commit per position. For each trade plan, the system evaluates all three limits, uses the most conservative one, and calculates exactly how many shares, contracts, or lots to trade. Your current account value, including unrealized P&L on open trades, is factored in automatically. Learn more about how position sizing is calculated.

Yes. TradeBench integrates with TradingView in two ways. First, open trade charts in TradeBench are powered by TradingView. Second, you can copy-paste chart screenshots directly from TradingView into your TradeBench journal entries and trade plans – no file upload needed. This makes it easy to capture exactly what your setup looked like at the time of the trade.

We recommend reviewing individual trades at least two to three weeks after closing them, when the emotions of being right or wrong have faded. This makes it easier to objectively assess what you did well and what could be improved. For overall performance, running reports monthly or quarterly helps you spot trends and adjust your approach.

Yes. You can import closed trades into TradeBench. You can also export your trade data to Excel at any time for backup or further analysis.

Yes. TradeBench supports both real and paper trading. Paper trade accounts use the same risk parameters as your real accounts, keeping the simulation realistic. Paper trade results are kept completely separate from your real trading performance.

TradeBench is a cost free online trading journal, trade planning, risk, and money management tool. We provide a structured approach to trading that can be used by day traders, swing traders, and medium-term to long-term traders.

A trading journal is a record of a trader’s past trades, thoughts, plans and actions. It can include information such as the date and time of the trade, the security traded, the price, the size of the position, and the outcome (profit or loss). It can also include notes on the trader’s thought process and reasoning behind the trade. Some traders use a trading journal as a tool for self-reflection and to identify patterns and mistakes in their trading behavior. It can be used to track performance and improve strategies. Some traders use a physical journal, while others use an online journal or spreadsheet.

Risk management is an essential aspect of trading, as it helps traders protect their capital and minimize potential losses. Trade planning with TradeBench includes risk management, allowing you to manually set or have our system calculate your entry price, stop price, and target price based on risk parameters that you can modify.

TradeBench is cost free to use and we have no paid plans / credit card. How can we do this? Read more on how we can provide our tools for free.

No, these websites misuse our name and appear scammy. We recommend avoiding their services.

We optimize and test TradeBench for devices with a screen resolution of 1280×768 pixels or higher, including most newer tablets running Android or Apple iOS, such as the iPad, iPad Air, or iPad Mini Retina. While you can use most of the TradeBench website and tools on your cellphone or older tablets, these devices are not officially supported. There is no app to download—simply open tradebench.com in your device’s internet browser.

Stocks, futures, forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs are supported. Options and binary options are not supported, although videos are available showing how to use TradeBench for options anyway.

We offer live or delayed data for most instruments. If an instrument cannot be looked up, you can still enter it and benefit from using TradeBench. In such cases, our system will use your entry price instead of the current (mark-to-market) price for open trade P&L calculations. For closed trades, it will use your actual entry and exit prices. So, if you can’t look up an instrument, simply enter it, and it will be supported this way.

Yes, TradeBench supports fractional shares.

TradeBench is not broker-specific, which means we support all brokers worldwide. You can use TradeBench for both real trading and paper trading by adding any real broker(s) you use, as well as any fictive “PaperTrade” brokers you’d like.

Paper trade brokers are treated separately from your real brokers, but the same risk settings are applied to both types of accounts to make paper trading as realistic as possible. In other words, the same risk settings apply to both real trading and paper trading without interfering with each other.

You can export your closed trades data as a file to keep a local backup or use the data in a spreadsheet for calculations not available in TradeBench. Please note that pasted screenshots (e.g., chart screenshots) are not automatically downloadable and must be downloaded manually, one by one.

Your data in TradeBench is yours. We can access it only to help you or troubleshoot issues, and only if you require support. Sharing: You can choose to share your data (e.g., trades or trading journals) with friends, a trading coach, or anyone else. By default, your data is private, and you must actively choose to share it before it’s shared with anyone. You can read more in our Terms & Conditions.

We take security very seriously and continuously work to maintain the most secure setup possible. This includes code audits, security tests, using HTTPS, CloudFlare protection, and more. TradeBench is hosted on reliable servers running on Amazon infrastructure, known for its high security and availability. We have maintained a historical average monthly uptime of over 99.9%, and continuous backups are taken. Additionally, you can easily export your closed trades data from TradeBench to your computer to keep a local backup or to work with your trade data in i.e. Microsoft Excel. You can export your closed trade data at any time for additional backup. Our service and backups are subject to our Terms & Conditions.

Please contact us and we will do our best to help answer your question.