How Journalit works in Obsidian
Set it up once. After that, each trading day follows the same loop: log the trade, keep the context, review the day, and check what the numbers say. Everything on this list is in the free plan.
Step 1: Install Obsidian, then Journalit
Obsidian is a free notes app for Mac, Windows and Linux. Install it, then add Journalit from its Community Plugins directory. A short setup asks for your first trading account. Signing in is optional: you only need it for features that use Journalit's online services, such as Trade Import previews and Trade Sync.
Want to look around before adding real trades? Open the sample journal: fictional trades and reviews you can reset or remove at any time.
Step 2: Log the trade
Add a trade from the ribbon or command palette. Enter the symbol, direction, entry and exit (or the P&L directly), then tag the setup and any mistakes. It works for stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto and CFDs, from any platform.
Step 3: Keep the charts and your reasoning with it
Every trade becomes a note with its result, entry and exit, your thesis, setups and mistakes. Add chart screenshots so you can see what you saw when you took it.
Step 4: Review the day
The Daily Report Card lists the day's trades and shows which ones still need a review. Each review asks different questions for wins and losses. Weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly reviews build on the same notes.
Step 5: See where you make and lose money
Dashboards break your results down by setup, session, symbol, account and habit. Track several accounts separately or combine them.
Step 6: Find out which setups actually work
Each setup keeps its playbook and rules next to its results. Compare two setups side by side to see which one earns its place, and where each makes or loses money.
Step 7: Keep every account in one place
Add as many accounts as you trade, including evaluations, funded and demo accounts. The overview shows how they have grown together, and each account has its own dashboard.
Pro adds Trade Import and automatic Trade Sync, so trades arrive without typing them in. Everything above works without it.
How trades live inside your Obsidian vault
No database, no markdown skills needed. Every trade is a normal note you can open, read, and edit like any other.
Reviews that read like a conversation
Guided prompts, checkboxes, and space to write.
Open a trade and answer plain questions: did you follow the plan, how did it feel, what will you do differently. Screenshots and metrics sit right next to your words. You can also review these notes with Claude or ChatGPT via MCP, with approval controls for changes.
Just folders and files in your vault
Journalit/
Trades/
Reviews/
Daily Report Cards/
Weekly Reviews/
Monthly Reviews/
Screenshots/
Strategies/
Every trade is a Markdown file you can open
This is a real Journalit trade note: the folder it sits in, the Markdown inside it, and how Journalit shows it in Obsidian.
The files in your vault
!Journalit/
2026/Q2/04/W17/
trades/
ESM26-2026-04-24-T1.md
NVDA-2026-04-22-T1.md
US30-2026-04-20-T1.md
DRC-2026-04-21.md
W17-Review.md
Setups/
VWAP Reclaim.md
Trades sit in week folders next to that day's report card and the weekly review. Rename, back up, sync or version them like any other notes.
The Markdown inside one trade
---
type: trade
tradeStatus: CLOSED
direction: long
instrument: ESM26
assetType: futures
entries:
- time: 2026-04-24T14:18:00.000Z
price: 5312.25
size: 2
- time: 2026-04-24T14:23:00.000Z
price: 5313
size: 1
exits:
- time: 2026-04-24T14:36:00.000Z
price: 5317.75
size: 1
- time: 2026-04-24T14:44:00.000Z
price: 5320.75
size: 2
pnl: 637.5
commission: 4.2
currency: USD
stopLosses:
- price: 5305.5
setup:
- VWAP Reclaim
tags:
- execution-clean
- partials
thesis: Post-news reclaim on ES gave a clean squeeze back into value.
---
# Trade Notes
Trimmed: a real note has more fields, such as the R multiple, the account and your custom journal fields. Your own writing goes under Trade Notes.
No account, no network needed
- Manual trades and accounts, unlimited
- Dashboards, analytics and the trade log
- Daily, weekly and monthly reviews and templates
- Setups, mistakes and tags
- Prop challenges with rules you enter
- Everything above offline, with no Journalit account
Needs a Journalit account
- Previewing a broker file in Trade Import (free with an account)
- Committing an import, Trade Sync and AI column mapping (Pro)
- The Economic Calendar (Pro)
- Prop-firm profiles that fill in a firm’s rules (Pro)
Pro is $19/mo or $180/yr. Cancelling it leaves every note where it is.
Manual Obsidian template vs Journalit plugin
A hand-made Obsidian template works for written notes. Journalit adds trade records, reviews and analytics you would otherwise build and maintain yourself, with its templates built in.
Manual template
- • Written notes and screenshots, nothing more.
- • You maintain fields, folders, and review pages yourself.
- • Good for deciding if Obsidian fits your workflow.
Journalit plugin
- • Notes, dashboards, analytics, and imports in one vault.
- • Trade records, review templates, and mistake tracking built in.
- • Add Trade Import or Trade Sync for supported brokers when you outgrow manual entry.
Dataview or Journalit?
Dataview is a free Obsidian plugin that queries your notes like a database. Many traders start with it, and it also works on Journalit's trade notes.
Plain Dataview is enough when
- You type each trade by hand into a note layout you designed.
- Tables, lists and simple sums of your own fields answer your questions.
- You are happy to maintain the fields, folders and queries yourself as your journal grows.
What Journalit adds
- Structured trade notes: entries, exits, partial closes, fees and stops, with P&L and R multiple worked out for you.
- Dashboards, analytics and daily and weekly reviews linked to the trades, without writing queries. Free.
- Prop challenges that track rules on every trade. Free with rules you enter; Pro fills them from firm profiles.
- Broker imports and Trade Sync instead of typing trades in. Pro, $19/mo or $180/yr.
Use both: Dataview reads Journalit's notes
Journalit writes ordinary frontmatter, so a Dataview query can list your trades with the same field names shown above:
```dataview
TABLE instrument, direction, pnl, setup
FROM "!Journalit"
WHERE type = "trade" AND tradeStatus = "CLOSED"
SORT file.name DESC
LIMIT 20
```Journalit, Trader Journal or Tradebook
Three trading journal plugins in the Obsidian community list, all keeping trades as Markdown in your vault. They differ in price, how trades get in, prop-firm tracking and network use.
| Journalit | Trader Journal | Tradebook | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A trading journal plugin with trade notes, dashboards, reviews, imports and broker sync | A setup, plan and trade journal for live and backtest trades, with a dashboard and calendar | A futures journal built around Tradovate files and prop-firm accounts |
| Price | Free core. Pro is $19/mo or $180/yr for imports, sync, the Economic Calendar and prop-firm profiles | Free | Free, with optional donations |
| Source code | Source available, proprietary licence | Open source (0BSD licence) | Open source (MIT licence) |
| Getting trades in | Manual entry on the free plan. Pro adds Trade Import (18 built-in broker formats, or any CSV or Excel file with column mapping) and Trade Sync (MetaTrader 4, Tradovate, Rithmic, cTrader and Hyperliquid (watch-only)) | Manual entry through its forms; no import or sync | Manual entry, or Tradovate Orders, Fills and Cash History CSV files; no other brokers and no sync |
| Prop-firm accounts | Prop challenges with phase rules you enter, free. Pro fills the rules from maintained firm profiles. Prop accounts are unlimited | Not described in its README | Evaluation, funded and demo accounts with rules, limits, deposits and payouts. It reports against the rules and never enforces them |
| Network use | Manual journaling needs no account and works offline. Checks GitHub for plugin updates by default. Import, sync, AI column mapping and the Economic Calendar use Journalit's servers after sign-in | Data stays on your device by default. An optional economic calendar, off by default, fetches a public weekly feed | Makes no network requests |
| Where trades are stored | One Markdown note per trade in your vault | One daily Markdown note per symbol in your vault | Markdown notes in your vault |
- Tradebook is the better fit if you trade futures on Tradovate and want a journal that never touches the network, with open-source code you can audit. It also reads fees from Tradovate Cash History in a file import, which Journalit only gets through sync.
- Trader Journal is the better fit if you want a free, open-source setup and plan workflow with backtest records and a free economic calendar, and you are happy to type every trade in by hand.
- Journalit is the better fit if you want broker imports or sync, analytics and review templates, or prop-firm rules filled in for you, and you accept that those Pro features use Journalit servers.
Checked 24 Oct 2026 from each plugin's own README and the Obsidian community plugin list: Trader Journal README (version 1.5.1); Tradebook README (version 1.0.1); Journalit facts are from the Trade Sync and Trade Import pages.
The free plan is the full journal
Journalling, analytics, and reviews are all included for free, and your journal stays on your own device. Pro only adds Trade Import and automatic trade sync.
Built-in review workflows
Trade notes, Daily Report Cards, and weekly to yearly review templates.
Analytics and Trade Log
Performance by account, setup, and mistake, without leaving Obsidian.
Notes and screenshots
Written context and charts next to every trade.
Customise everything
Prompts, layouts, fields, tags, and review logic. Set it up the way you actually trade.
Related: what stays free, best free trading journals, Notion vs Obsidian, and journals for review notes.
Go Pro only when you want Trade Import and automatic trade sync
Free covers journalling and analysis. Pro adds Trade Import, automatic trade sync, the Economic Calendar, and prop-firm profiles.
Trade import
Import broker CSV exports directly, or let AI-assisted mapping handle the messy ones.
MetaTrader 4 sync
Set up MT4 once and new trades sync in hourly with duplicate detection. MT5 trades import from an HTML statement. Not real-time, and English MetaTrader reports only for now.
Frequently asked questions
Pricing
Journalit is free for journalling, analytics, reviews, and templates. Pro unlocks Trade Import, automatic trade sync, the Economic Calendar, and prop-firm profiles.
Free
Manual journaling, flexible reviews, and analytics on your device.
INCLUDES
- Unlimited trades & accounts
- Journal stored on your device
- Custom fields & properties
- Rich markdown notes
- Analytics dashboard
Pro
Billed annually at $180/year
or $19/month billed monthly
Skip the spreadsheet cleanup. Sync and import trades into the journal you already review.
EVERYTHING IN FREE, PLUS
- Automatic Trade Sync for supported brokers
- Trade Import for broker exports and statements
- Economic Calendar with weekly event imports
- Prop-firm profiles that prefill challenge rules
- Multi-account sync support
- Priority support