Options trading journal: what to track and how to import your trades
An options journal needs more than entry and exit. The same trade idea can win or lose depending on expiry, strike and what you paid for time. Here's what to record, the mistakes that show up most, and how to get your options trades in without typing them.
The short version
Log every options trade as its own series (underlying, expiry, strike, call or put), with the reason you picked that expiry and strike, the risk in dollars, and whether you closed it by plan. Then review by strategy and by days to expiry. Most options losses come from a few repeat habits, not from bad ideas.
- You only log the underlying, not the strike and expiry
- You can't say which of your strategies makes money
- You don't know what you lose on trades held into expiry
- Your journal shows P&L but not risk
- Each option series is its own line, so strikes never mix
- You can see results by strategy and by expiry
- Every trade has a defined dollar risk next to its result
- You know which habit costs you most
What to record for every options trade
| Field | Example | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Underlying and series | SPY 20 SEP 26 560 call | Different strikes are different trades |
| Strategy | Long call, vertical, iron condor | So you can see which strategies pay |
| Days to expiry at entry | 14 | Short-dated and longer-dated trades behave differently |
| Contracts and premium | 2 at $2.10 | Your real size: 2 × 100 × $2.10 = $420 |
| Max risk | $420 (debit) or the spread width minus credit | The number to size from |
| Exit reason | Target, stop, time, expiry | Shows whether you follow your exit plan |
| Followed the plan? | Yes / no | The field that finds your expensive habits |
| Mistake | Held into expiry | Same words every time, so you can count it |
The options mistakes that show up most
- Holding into expiry hoping it comes back. Time decay speeds up at the end, so the hope trade often loses the most.
- Buying very short-dated options for a slow move. The idea is right, the timing kills it.
- Sizing by number of contracts instead of dollars at risk. Ten cheap contracts can risk more than two expensive ones.
- Rolling a loser out in time to avoid taking the loss. A roll is a new trade and should meet your rules on its own.
- Selling premium without a defined exit. One bad week can take a year of small wins.
None of these show up in a P&L total. They show up when every trade carries a mistake tag and a plan yes or no, and you add up what each tag cost over a month.
Importing options trades into Actal
- thinkorswim: export the Account Statement. Every option is read as its own series, for example "SPY 20 SEP 26 560 CALL", at 100 per point. Options on futures use the future's point value.
- Interactive Brokers: run a Flex Query on Trades. Options and futures options use the Multiplier IBKR puts in the file, and each contract is its own instrument.
- Other brokers (tastytrade, Webull and others): use the column mapper with your broker's CSV. If the file has no multiplier, Actal asks for the point value of the symbol: enter 100 for standard stock options.
Multi-leg orders come in as their legs, each on its own series, so a vertical shows as the long leg and the short leg. Every trade is then checked against your rules, and the stats show results by market, size, hold time and trade number of the day.
A weekly options review in 15 minutes
- Split the week by strategy. Which one made money, which one lost?
- Split by days to expiry at entry. Are your short-dated trades worth it?
- Add up what each mistake tag cost. The biggest one is next week's focus.
- Check your largest loss against your max risk. If it was bigger, find out why.
Who wrote this
I'm Joakim. I trade index futures and coach traders at Jusell Trading Academy. Options traders make the same behaviour mistakes futures traders do, holding losers and sizing up after losses, they just hide them better behind strikes and expiries. The fields above are what makes them visible.
Questions people ask
Drop in one export. In a minute Actal grades the trades it can, prices the mistakes you tagged, and tells you the first thing to fix. Free during beta, no card.
Full-time index futures trader. Coaches traders one-on-one at Jusell Trading Academy, five students at a time, since 2020. No platform was built for developing traders, so he had his own coaching software built; old students loved it and kept coming back, and Actal is that software turned into a proper journal for what matters.