A spreadsheet is where most traders start a journal, because it costs nothing and does exactly what you tell it. TradeRecall's journal costs nothing too, and the columns, the import and the statistics are already built.
Free, no card. Plus a bonus: the full version for your first 30 days.
What each one needs from you. “Free” is TradeRecall's free journal, which does not expire; “full” is the full version, yours for the first 30 days.
| Feature | TradeRecall | Excel |
|---|---|---|
| Getting the trades in | ||
| Trades from your platform | Free: import the file your platform exports. Full: live from Sierra Chart, NinjaTrader, Quantower, MetaTrader and cTrader | Typed or pasted, row by row |
| Trades entered by hand | Free | Free |
| Several accounts, sim and live | Each account kept apart, sim and live never mixed | A sheet or a column per account, kept by you |
| What a row cannot hold | ||
| Stop and target moves | Full: every move, with its time and price | One cell for the stop, typed afterwards |
| Chart picture | Full: taken by itself on your chart in the platform at every fill and every stop or target move; on NinjaTrader, Quantower, MetaTrader and cTrader also at every order placed or cancelled | A screenshot you save and link yourself |
| Why you took it | Free: a note you type. Full: said out loud during the trade and kept in it | A comment cell, written later |
| Numbers and cost | ||
| Win rate and expectancy | Free: per setup and per mistake, for the trades you tagged | Your own formulas |
| Price | Free journal; the full version $300 once, or $33 a month for 12 months, then it's yours | Free if you already have Excel |
| Where it is kept | On your computer | On your computer, or OneDrive if you save it there |
A template gives you the columns; the trades still have to be typed or pasted in. TradeRecall's free journal starts where a template stops: you import the file your platform already exports (Sierra Chart, NinjaTrader, Quantower, TradingView and others), and the trades are in, with their win rate and expectancy per setup. You need an email address for the free key, and no card. Free trading journal
Anything that happened during the trade and was gone by the close: each move of your stop, the chart at the moment you entered, and what you were thinking. The full version of TradeRecall records those while you trade; you have it for 30 days from your first trade, and after that you buy it once for $300, or pay $33 a month 12 times; the free journal stays either way. Voice trading journal
Yes. Nothing in TradeRecall depends on your spreadsheet: you can keep the old sheet for the months before and let TradeRecall take the new trades.
Yes. Export is part of the free journal, and so is a backup of the whole journal.
No. Entering trades and notes by hand, importing files, the standard reports and export stay free for good. After the first 30 days, the licence is needed only for the automatic part: live fills, chart pictures, voice, tags from your voice notes and three of its reports.
This page was checked on 27 October 2026. If something on it is wrong, tell us at support at traderecall.app and we will fix it.
TradeRecall is a trading journal for futures, forex and CFD traders that records every fill live from Sierra Chart, NinjaTrader, Quantower, MetaTrader and cTrader, puts what you say during a trade on that trade, and keeps everything on your computer.
