How to Build an Advanced Notion Trading Journal

If you've been following my YouTube series on building an Advanced Notion Trading Journal, this article is your complete companion guide.

Instead of filling the videos with long formulas and technical explanations, I've collected everything here in one place.

In this guide you'll find:

• Every Notion formula used in the journal
• An explanation of how each formula works
• Examples of how to customize them
• Conditional colouring settings
• Common mistakes and fixes
• Tips if you're building your own version instead of copying mine

Watch the Course

This journal is built step-by-step in my YouTube video course. Follow along with the videos below:

Part 1: Building the Trading Journal

Part 2: Risk-to-Reward Tracker

What You'll Build

By the end of the course you'll have a trading journal capable of automatically tracking:

• 📅 Calendar trade logging
• 📈 Performance graph
• 📊 Monthly statistics
• 📆 Quarterly statistics
• 📁 Yearly statistics
• 💰 P&L Tracking
• 🎯 Win Rate
• 📉 Risk-to-Reward Performance
• 🧠 Strategy Breakdown
• 💹 Symbol Breakdown
• 📷 Trade Screenshots
• ✅ Mistake Tracking
• ⚡ Automatic Calculations

Everything is built using Notion Free, meaning you don't need any paid software.

Why I Built This Journal

Most trading journals only tell you what happened.

They'll tell you:

• You won.
• You lost.
• Your win rate.

But they don't answer the questions that actually improve your trading.

Questions like:

• What if I always targeted 1:2?
• What if I only took trades with my best strategy?
• Which symbol actually makes me money?
• Which month do I perform the best?
• Am I leaving money on the table?

That's exactly what this journal solves.

The Journal Structure

The journal uses multiple linked databases.

Instead of storing everything inside one table, every trade connects to multiple databases.

• Trade Logs
• Months
• Quarters
• Years
• Symbols
• Strategies
• Risk-to-Reward

Using Relations, Rollups, and Formulas, Notion automatically calculates all your statistics.

Understanding the PNL Tracker

The most important property inside the journal is PNL Tracker.

This is NOT your actual profit.

Instead, it records the highest Risk-to-Reward the trade reached before reversing.

For example:

This single property makes the entire Risk-to-Reward tracker possible.

Risk-to-Reward Win Formulas

These formulas answer one simple question:

Would this trade have won if I always targeted a fixed Risk-to-Reward?

Win 1:1 Formula

and(
  prop("PNL Tracker") != 0,
  prop("PNL Tracker") >= 0.01
)

What it does

Checks whether your trade reached at least 1R.

If it did, the formula returns True.

Otherwise it returns False.

Example

Win 1:2 Formula

and(
  prop("PNL Tracker") != 0,
  prop("PNL Tracker") >= 0.02
)

This checks whether the trade reached 2R.

Example

Win 1:3 Formula

and(
  prop("PNL Tracker") != 0,
  prop("PNL Tracker") >= 0.03
)

Exactly the same logic. Simply change the required Risk-to-Reward level.

Want More Risk-to-Reward Targets?

Simply continue the same pattern.

Win 1:4

and(
  prop("PNL Tracker") != 0,
  prop("PNL Tracker") >= 0.04
)

Win 1:5

and(
  prop("PNL Tracker") != 0,
  prop("PNL Tracker") >= 0.05
)

Win 1:10

and(
  prop("PNL Tracker") != 0,
  prop("PNL Tracker") >= 0.10
)

You can continue this forever.

Simulated P&L Formulas

Once Notion knows whether a trade reached a particular RR target, we can simulate what your account would have looked like.

This is where the real power comes from.

PNL 1:1

if(prop("Win 1:1"), 0.01, -0.01)

If the trade reached 1R

Return:

+1%

Otherwise

-1%

PNL 1:2

if(prop("Win 1:2"), 0.02, -0.01)

If the trade reached 2R

Return

+2%

Otherwise

-1%

PNL 1:3

if(prop("Win 1:3"), 0.03, -0.01)

Exactly the same idea.

Continue the Pattern

PNL 1:4

if(prop("Win 1:4"), 0.04, -0.01)

PNL 1:5

if(prop("Win 1:5"), 0.05, -0.01)

PNL 1:10

if(prop("Win 1:10"), 0.10, -0.01)

The formulas never change. Only the percentage changes.

Why This Works

Imagine these four trades.

Now compare every fixed target.

Without changing your trading, you instantly know which target performs best.

That's something most trading journals can't do.

Conditional Colouring

Notion recently introduced Conditional Colours, making it much easier to review your journal.

I recommend using the following settings.

Losses

Condition

PNL < 0

Background
🔴 Red

Winning Trades

Condition

PNL > 0

Background
🟢 Green

Break Even

Condition

PNL is Empty

Background
⚪ Gray

Now your calendar becomes much easier to review at a glance.

Customizing These Formulas

Your journal doesn't need to match mine exactly.

Maybe your property names are different.

Instead of

prop("PNL Tracker")

you might have

prop("Highest RR")

Simply replace the property name.

Everything else stays exactly the same.

If You Trade Futures, Crypto or Stocks

The journal isn't limited to Forex.

You can track:

• Forex
• Crypto
• Stocks
• Indices
• Futures
• Options

The only thing that changes is your Symbols database.

Everything else works exactly the same.

Common Problems

Formula returns False

Check that your PNL Tracker is actually recording the highest RR reached.

Rollup isn't updating

Your Relation is probably not linked correctly.

Every trade must be linked to the corresponding database.

Property Not Found

The property name inside the formula must exactly match the property inside your database.

Even a missing space will cause an error.

Win Rate isn't changing

Check that your Rollup is calculating Percent Checked instead of Count.

Final Thoughts

A trading journal shouldn't just record your trades.

It should help you answer questions.

Questions that improve your trading.

By combining Relations, Rollups and Formulas, Notion becomes much more than a note-taking app—it becomes a complete trading analytics platform.

I hope this guide helps you build your own trading journal and understand how every formula works.

If you're following the YouTube course, be sure to bookmark this page, as I'll continue adding new formulas and tutorials as the series grows.

Happy Journaling! 📈

FAQs

and(
  prop("PNL Tracker") != 0,
  prop("PNL Tracker") >= 0.20
)

if(prop("Win 1:20"), 0.20, -0.01)