TradesViz vs Spreadsheet
TradesViz vs a Spreadsheet Trading Journal
Spreadsheets are great for the first 50 trades. They are honest. You learn your data. After that, the maintenance cost of every new broker, every new asset class, and every new metric grows faster than the insight you get back.
TL;DR
A spreadsheet wins on simplicity for the first month. After that, you spend more time fixing imports than reviewing trades. TradesViz auto-imports from 200+ brokers, models partials/scales/options spreads/futures micros correctly, computes MFE/MAE, R-multiple and best-exit price automatically, and gives you replay + simulator + 600+ analytics that no spreadsheet maintains by hand.
Spreadsheet vs TradesViz: side-by-side
A few capabilities can be hand-built in a spreadsheet with enough VBA or Apps Script. The point of this table is the maintenance cost, not whether something is technically possible.
| Capability | TradesViz | Excel / Google Sheets |
|---|---|---|
| Initial setup | Sign up + connect a broker. Trades appear in minutes. | Free. You build your own columns. |
| Auto-import from broker | 200+ brokers (CSV / API / scheduled sync). | Manual paste, manual cleanup per export format. |
| Broker format changes | Handled centrally; no action required. | You re-engineer the parser every time the export changes. |
| Multi-leg options spreads | Automatic strategy recognition (vertical, condor, straddle, calendar, etc.). | Each leg is a separate row. Strategy P&L requires a custom formula per spread. |
| Partial fills & scale-ins | Modeled as one trade with a lifecycle. | Either flattened into one row (lossy) or kept as N rows (hard to analyze). |
| Futures contract specs | Tick value, point value, micros vs majors built in. | You hard-code each contract’s multipliers. |
| MFE / MAE | Computed automatically from intraday data. | Requires 1-minute price data per trade + a formula. Almost never maintained. |
| Best-exit price | Automatic; surfaced on every trade. | Effectively impossible without a price history pipeline. |
| R-multiple | Automatic when you log your stop. | Manual formula per trade. |
| Trade replay | Replay any journaled trade on the original tape, second-by-second. | Not possible. |
| Simulator (stocks/futures/forex/options) | Built in, every sim trade auto-journaled. | Not possible. |
| Multi-account / multi-currency consolidation | Normalized to your base currency. | Manual conversion per row. |
| Prop-firm rule tracking | Daily loss, max drawdown, profit target, consistency rules, live. | You rebuild the rules from the firm’s PDF, every firm. |
| 600+ analytics & charts | Out of the box. | You build whatever you have time to build. |
| Mobile / shared access | Web + mobile, password reset, audit trail. | File sync conflicts, version drift. |
When to pick which
Stay on a spreadsheet if
You trade fewer than ~30 trades a month, on one broker, in one asset class, and you genuinely enjoy the maintenance. There is real value in hand-building a spreadsheet, it forces you to articulate your edge.
Move to TradesViz if
You trade more than one broker, more than one asset class, options spreads, futures with micros and majors, prop-firm accounts with rule constraints, or you have ever skipped a review week because the import was too painful.
The hidden cost of a spreadsheet trading journal
Spreadsheets do not fail loudly. They fail by accumulating small inaccuracies until the analytics are quietly wrong.
A scale-in gets entered as one fill instead of three. A vertical spread becomes two unrelated rows. A futures contract roll gets logged at the wrong tick value. Each one is small. Together they make your win-rate, your R-multiple and your by-strategy P&L unreliable. By the time you notice, you have been making decisions on bad numbers for months.
What you actually get back when you stop maintaining a spreadsheet
Time, mostly. The hour a week you spent cleaning the export. The Sunday session that turned into formula debugging. The "I’ll review it next week" that became "I’ll review it next month."
The bigger win is consistency. Once import is automatic, the review becomes automatic too. The journal stops being a chore you avoid and starts being something you actually open after every session.
Why we built this (and how to know if you should switch)
A note from PK, Founder of TradesViz
I built TradesViz after watching too many traders, myself included, abandon perfectly good spreadsheet journals because the maintenance cost finally outpaced the insight. Not because spreadsheets are bad. Because trading data gets messy fast, and a cell-by-cell tool was never going to model partial fills, multi-leg options or prop-firm rule constraints without becoming a software project of its own.
Honest take: if you’re happy on a spreadsheet, stay. If you’ve been telling yourself “I’ll redo my journal next month” for three months, that’s the signal. The migration is one CSV upload or one broker connection away.
- PK, Founder of TradesViz
FAQ
Is TradesViz really better than a free spreadsheet?
For the first ~50 trades, no, a spreadsheet is fine and forces you to think about your data. Past that, the maintenance cost compounds and the analytics quietly drift. TradesViz auto-imports from 200+ brokers, models partials/spreads/futures correctly, and gives you MFE/MAE, R-multiple, replay and a simulator that no spreadsheet maintains by hand.
Can I import my existing spreadsheet?
Yes. The generic CSV importer accepts any spreadsheet with date, symbol, side, quantity, price columns. We also support direct imports from popular templates like Edgewonk and TradeZella.
What about Google Sheets specifically?
Same answer as Excel. Google Sheets adds collaboration but the structural problems, multi-leg modeling, MFE/MAE, replay, are identical. Export to CSV and import once.
Is there a free trial so I can test before switching?
Yes, no credit card required. Connect a broker or upload a CSV and you’ll see your real trades inside TradesViz within minutes.
Stop maintaining columns. Start reviewing trades.
Connect a broker or upload your spreadsheet, your trades are in TradesViz in minutes.
Start free trialAll-in-One Platform for All Traders
TradesViz is designed to be used by traders just starting out all the way to professional traders. The level of customizability and versatility is unmatched by any similar platform.
Replay, Simulate and Backtest Trades
You can simulate Stocks, forex, futures and even options on TradesViz. On top of this, you can even replay your trade second-by-second and backtest options using options executions simulator.
Trade Plans & Mistakes Analysis
Add trade plans to each trade and trading day to see what rules you break and how they affect your trading. Zoom in on your trading behaviour from a data-driven perspective.
Charting customizability
Add multiple static image charts, setup custom TradingView charts with your executions, MFE/MAE targets and more automatically plotted for all your imported trades!
Unlimited Reports and Analytics with AI
Gone are the days of fixed charts you cannot Customize. With AI Q&A, you can now ask any question about your data and get charts, tables and even add them as custom widgets to your dashboard!
Dedicated Note Taking + AI
Write notes, tag your notes, search your notes and even ask the AI to generate trade summaries as notes for your trades. TradesViz has a dedicated note tab for all notes management.
Advanced Statistics
MFE/MAE, R/R ratios, Best/EOD Exit, Multi-Timeframe exit, Market-TA-Comparison, Running PnL analytics, Options greeks analysis and more - all of these on top of existing PnL charts make ~600+ charts on TradesViz.
Not just another journal. We pushed the boundaries of journaling.
With a team of data scientists, researchers and veteran traders TradesViz is built with a singular focus of improving trading performance in a data-driven way.
160+ Blog Posts of In-depth Journaling Guides + Always-on Support
We didn't skip the most important part out: Education. We update and launch new educational blog posts every few weeks + Post plenty of tips, tricks, trading news/info and journaling knowledge on our Twitter/X feed!
Dashboard Overview
Trade Management
Group Apply
Trade Explore Tab
Day Explore Tab
Equity Curve & Account Balance
Calendar Tab
Custom Dashboard & AI Widgets
Trades Table
Filters & Toggles
Trade/Day Plans & Analysis
Artificial Intelligence Q&A and Custom Widgets
How to setup Interactive Brokers (IBKR) Flex Query for Auto-sync
Not just a trading journal -
A Trading Partner for all markets!
TradesViz is a unified trading analysis platform that offers not just the world's best trade journaling capabilities, but also other tools that are tightly integrated to provide a 360 degree support (via tools) to traders looking forward to mastering the market.
- Trading Simulator & Multi-Chart Simulator
- Options Flow & Screener
- Technical Analysis Backtester
- Fundamental Analysis/SEC13F Visualization
- Seasonality Analysis
- Side-by-Side Strategy Comparison
Value worth of $300+ per month is available to all traders of TradesViz at less than 1/10th the cost.
Highest value per dollar on the market
At TradesViz we focus on value and utility provided to traders. That's why we're still #1 when it comes to the value and features offered on an online trading journal.
Our guarantee: You will not find a better, more versatile, constantly up-to-date trading journal even at 2x or 3x our price. View Full Pricing.
Basic
For beginner traders to get started with journaling.
- Import 3000 executions/ month
- 50+ Performance Visualizations
- Basic auto-generated charts
- All basic trade management features and trade charts
Pro
All asset type import + 100s of charts & powerful grid features.
- Unlimited imports + All asset type support
- 400+ Performance Visualizations
- Multiple auto-generated + Interactive stock charts
- Multiple trading accounts
- Artificial Intelligence Question & Answer
- Artificial Intelligence Trade Summary
Platinum
All-in-one journaling, simulation and advanced analysis platform.
- Every feature in Pro
- Real-time Screener
- Unlimited Custom Dashboards
- Advanced Options flow analysis + Options flow scanner + Options Payoff Charts
- Multi-Timeframe/EOD/Best Exit Analysis charts
- Trading Simulator (Stock + Options + Futures + Forex + Prop Firm)
- Pivot/Grid Charting (Most powerful analytics feature online)
- Trade/Day Plans & Checklist analysis
- Backtesting (70+ Indicators/Any Symbol)
- Dividend Tracker
What Trading Experts Say
TradesViz is the only trading journal in the world to be recognized internationallyby the popular Benzinga FinTech Awards Competition as a
Finalist in Best Data Analysis tool and Best Portfolio Tracker categories!
TradesViz is the most useful trading journal on the market for finding and quantifying your edge. An all in one trading journal tool for traders.
Trader, Author, and founder of NewTraderU.com
PK and the whole team at TradesViz.com have put together an outstanding product with exceptional features. PK provides the most excellent support in the chat help. And if something really isn't working quite right or as expected, they get busy to make it better. I originally signed up for TradesViz to have the simulator function which also gave me the statistical analysis I could use to improve my trading. I had been using a simulator which had almost no analysis. When TradesViz added the simulator function I gave it a try. At first I had a hard time making it work, but with patient explanation from PK and with some tweaking on functionality from the coders on the backend, they have delivered a super trading simulator. The trade analysis part of TradesViz is second to none. I've gained the insight into my trading weaknesses and strengths to be able to trade much better in my live account. This is the service you need!
I definitely recommend Tradesviz especially for new traders the way it tracks your stats is no short of amazing especially for me personally by best exit and and of the stats that tell you how long you usually are in drawdown and you are usually in profit. If you want to build confidence in your strategy and edge this journal is the way to go for sure!
TradesViz has made a huge difference in my trading and has positively impacted my trading for the better in psychology and profit.
I use it DAILY and have noticed the vast improvements being made, not only in profit but also in my mental approach to trading.
This is a must-have tool and is more important than any indicator you could ever use.
I've subscribed, at different times, to various reporting programs, and trialed several others.
Yours is night and day over them all. I particularly appreciate the degree of available customization and your quick, ever-patient response to support requests.
I have a small trading account. Thank you for offering such a sophisticated program at an affordable price.
TradesViz is a true leader in Trade Journaling Software. They offer extensive statistical data at an amazing price that almost seems too good to be true. You have access to an amazing support team that seems to be active at all hours of the day. My support agent helped me through a complex import issue and had it solved within 24 hours. I can't tell you how blown away I am with their software and their service. I'm more than happy with my experience and so excited to see what new features they bring to the table as they continue to grow their business. If you're on the fence, I encourage you to jump right over and take it for a spin with their risk-free trial. Thanks to all the TradesViz team members who continue to make my Trade Journaling efficient and effective.
Day Trader
GREAT PRODUCT AND EVEN BETTER CUSTOMER SUPPORT!
I have been using TradesViz for a few months and it is a fantastic tool. Prior to subscribing, I was spending hours on xls trying different tables and layouts and only getting frustrated (or overcomplicating things!). Now I have everything in one place (I have multiple trading accounts), and I have probably only explored 10% of the tools and data analytics!
BUT, what has really impressed me is the support: I have NEVER in the last 10 years had such instant, professional support from a company at (almost) anytime of the day or night!
Clearly this is a team that is passionate about their product and that will always translates into innovation and better experience & value to the customer.
Well done to the team!!
After only a short time of using TradesViz, I can confirm that this platform is exactly what I have been looking for. It takes the chore out of journaling – the number of stats, data, and information available on my trades is a complete game-changer. The importing process via MT4 file is extremely easy and the automated charts with entries are amazing. The whole process is extremely easy and helps to keep me accountable for my trading by having a professional system to manage my business. The platform is very comprehensive and takes a bit of time to get used to, but they have many videos on their YouTube to help with this as well as their support team.
Their support is exemplary and gets back to all my queries in well under 30 minutes with comprehensive answers and solutions to my questions.
This platform is absolutely essential for any trader and I would highly recommend it to any of my trader friends looking for a journal. If you don’t have this platform, you are seriously missing a trick here…
Thanks, PK from TradesViz for being extremely helpful and patient in resolving my syncing issue. Certainly one of the best online support I have ever experienced. Even though it took a while for me to get my settings right, I never felt rushed...I appreciate that. Hope to stay with you guys for a long time. Certainly would like to learn how to utilize most of the features on TradeViz.
In my opinion, the TradesViz platform is truly the Ferrari of journaling software available today. Once you are under the hood, you begin to realize that in fact what sets it so far apart is all the advanced analysis at your fingertips. Such as the ability to combine multiple portfolios, live charting, and much more. Their support is world-class, in my case personally, I needed integration with Trend Spider’s backtesting engine. What I imagined might take weeks was literally accomplished overnight. Factor in rock bottom prices and you have all you need for whatever you're searching for. Newer traders will find that one of the most basic recipes for success is meticulous record keeping, simply observing your account profit and loss go up, or just down as the case may be, is the first step on the road to ruin if your serious about trading.
Trader
I'm writing this testimonial as appreciation for this surprisingly pleasant
conversation.
Upon my initial support request, TradesViz's support was impressively swift. A response appeared every single time as soon as I closed my email tab. Not only did I receive incredibly helpful information about features I wasn't aware of, but the team was also genuinely enthusiastic about discussing my feature requests and ideas about the industry. Truly awesome people!
In terms of raw analytics, comparison, and filtering capabilities, there is no match for TradesViz. I also don't know of any other trading journals that offer so much for the price, their free version has pretty much everything you would need if you trade stocks and offer so many of the paid features that are on other websites for free. They have templates for almost every broker and if it's not there, their support team is only 1 email or message away and will work with you to include your broker on their platform. By far the best support I have gotten from any trading journal as they are open to feedback and feature requests and are very active on their chat for any questions. A trading journal built by traders, for traders.
Professional Futures Day Trader
I wish I had TradesViz when I started to trade ten years ago. I had to learn the hard way. It provides everything you need to maximize your wins and minimize your losses.
There’s a learning curve but once you get past that your trading will surely be taken to the next level.
Founder of ChartLearning.com
As a full-time trader, the first pivot point in my trading results came after I started to learn from Mark Minervini - this is when I stopped losing $$$. The second pivot point came after I started to analyze my results - this is when I started to be consistently profitable $$$.
I love that TradesViz works for Options, Stocks, Crypto! It has automated and manual uploads. It has all the important metrics and analysis that you will need and it is fully customizable.
I have tried pretty much most of the products out there, and TradesViz wins by a mile - highly recommend it! Thanks to PK and the team!
Thanks, @MightySoldiers for turning me on to @tradesviz. I'm loving the customized dashboard. The level of detail and ability to really dig deep on metrics is unparalleled. This tool has helped me so much in defining my trading strategy and where my edge is.
Trader
I was looking for a solution to journal my trades on multiple platforms to keep track of my PNL. I stumbled upon TradesViz and I have nothing but positive to say about their service. Not only does their product make it so easy to see how you are doing on your trades with the various graphs and filtering options, getting your account synced is super intuitive. Best of all their customer service is top-notch. Every time I have asked a question, they have responded within a few hours with a solution, and sometimes that involved programming custom solutions for me to make my life easier. It's a no-brainer for me to pay for the yearly service. Do it, you won't regret it.
E-commerce Analyst and Trader





