Trading fees and costs can look small on individual trades but accumulate significantly in high-frequency strategies, wide-spread instruments or products with recurring costs. A journal should work with net results, not only gross P&L.
Which costs should be tracked?
- Entry and exit commissions.
- Spread when it materially affects execution.
- Slippage between expected and actual fill.
- Broker or exchange fees.
- Funding on crypto derivatives.
- Swap/rollover in Forex.
- Other product-specific costs.
Gross versus net P&L
Gross P&L describes the trade before costs; net P&L shows what remained after paying to execute it. Keeping both can reveal strategies that look positive before fees but lose their edge once real friction is included.
Analyse costs by market and strategy
Not all strategies have the same sensitivity. A system with small targets may be affected much more by spread and commissions than one pursuing larger moves. Grouping costs by market, setup, time or broker helps identify where friction is concentrated.
When automation makes sense
If cost can be derived from market, contract, broker or size, automation reduces manual errors and keeps history consistent. The actual executed value should still be editable for exceptions.