Perpetual futures are not spot trading. You deal with funding rates, liquidation prices, leverage adjustments, and positions that can stay open indefinitely. Your journal needs to capture all of it.
Most generic trading journals miss the details that matter for perps. They track entry and exit but ignore the funding fees eating your profits overnight. They calculate P&L but miss how much leverage you used and whether it was appropriate.
This guide shows you exactly how to journal perpetual futures trades. Every field you need, why it matters, and how to set up a system that actually improves your trading.
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Funding fees: Every 8 hours, you pay or receive funding based on market positioning. Hold a long during a bullish market and you might pay 0.1% three times daily. Over a week, that is 2.1% of your position.
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Leverage: A 10x leveraged $1,000 position moves like $10,000. Your journal must track actual leverage, not just position size.
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No expiration: Unlike traditional futures, perps never expire. Positions can run indefinitely, making hold duration a critical metric.
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Liquidation risk: If price moves against you far enough, you get liquidated. Your journal should track how close positions came to liquidation.
24/7 markets: Crypto never closes. Your journal needs to handle trades at 3 AM Sunday.
Standard trading journals track:
- Entry price, exit price, P&L
- Maybe some notes
For perps, you also need:
- Funding fees paid or received
- Leverage used
- Liquidation distance at entry
- Mark price vs. entry price
- Hold duration across funding intervals
Without these, your P&L is incomplete and your analysis is flawed.
Every trade entry must include:
| Field |
What to Record |
Why It Matters |
| Asset |
BTC, ETH, SOL, etc. |
Filter performance by asset |
| Direction |
Long or Short |
Compare long vs short performance |
| Entry price |
Exact fill price |
Base for P&L calculation |
| Position size |
In base asset (e.g., 0.5 BTC) |
Track sizing patterns |
| Leverage |
1x, 5x, 10x, etc. |
Analyze if higher leverage helps or hurts |
| Entry time |
Timestamp with timezone |
Time-of-day analysis |
| Field |
What to Record |
Why It Matters |
| Exit price |
Exact fill price |
Complete P&L picture |
| Exit time |
Timestamp |
Calculate hold duration |
| Exit type |
Take profit, stop loss, manual, liquidation |
Identify how trades end |
| Fees |
Trading fees paid |
True cost of trading |
| Field |
What to Record |
Why It Matters |
| Funding paid/received |
Total funding during hold |
Real cost of overnight positions |
| Mark price at entry |
Often differs from fill |
Unrealized P&L reference |
| Liquidation price |
At entry |
Risk management check |
| Distance to liquidation |
Percentage from entry |
Were you too leveraged? |
| Funding rate at entry |
Current rate when opening |
Context for position cost |
| Field |
What to Record |
Why It Matters |
| Strategy/setup |
Breakout, reversal, funding arb, etc. |
Filter by approach |
| Reasoning |
Why you took the trade |
Learn from decisions |
| Market condition |
Trending, ranging, volatile |
Performance by regime |
| Emotion |
How you felt entering |
Psychology correlation |
Do not wait until after the trade. Log the entry as soon as you open the position.
Asset: ETH
Direction: Long
Entry: $3,245.50
Size: 2 ETH
Leverage: 5x
Margin: $1,298.20
Liquidation price: $2,596.40 (20% below entry)
Entry time: Oct 6, 2026, 14:32 UTC
Funding rate: +0.0082%
While the trade is fresh, write why you entered:
Reasoning: Funding flipped negative after 3 days of positive.
Price holding above $3,200 support. OI dropping suggests
shorts covering. Targeting $3,400 resistance.
Strategy: Funding rate reversion
Emotion: Confident (clear setup, waited for confirmation)
Setup quality: A (all criteria met)
If you adjust stops, take partial profits, or add to the position, log each action:
Adjustment 1: Moved stop from $3,150 to $3,220 (break-even)
Time: Oct 6, 14:58 UTC
Reason: Price made new high, protecting capital
When you close:
Exit price: $3,378.00
Exit time: Oct 6, 18:45 UTC
Exit type: Take profit (manual)
Fees: $6.75 entry + $6.80 exit = $13.55
Funding: -$2.14 (paid during 4 hours)
Gross P&L: ($3,378 - $3,245.50) × 2 ETH = $265.00
Fees: -$13.55
Funding: -$2.14
Net P&L: $249.31
Return on margin: 19.2%
After the market closes the position:
Post-trade: Hit target perfectly. Could have held longer
as price continued to $3,420. Consider wider targets
when funding reversion setups have strong momentum.
A trade that shows +$500 gross P&L might be only +$380 after funding on a multi-day swing. Ignore funding and your performance metrics lie to you.
Option 1: Manual calculation
Check funding history on your exchange. Sum all funding payments between entry and exit times. Add (if received) or subtract (if paid) from gross P&L.
Option 2: Exchange export
Most exchanges export funding fees in trade history CSVs. Match funding entries to your position by timestamp.
Option 3: Automated journal
Platforms like Thrive sync with exchanges and calculate funding automatically. No manual work required.
After logging many trades, analyze:
- How much have funding fees cost you total?
- Are you consistently on the wrong side of funding?
- Do your winning trades pay funding or receive it?
- Should you avoid holding through funding intervals?
Create a Google Sheet or Excel file with columns for each field above.
- Pros: Free, customizable, you control the data
- Cons: Manual entry, no automatic calculations, no visualizations
Spreadsheet template structure:
- Sheet 1: Trade log with all fields
- Sheet 2: Summary calculations (win rate, profit factor)
- Sheet 3: Funding fee tracker
Create a free account at Thrive for manual trade logging with:
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Built-in P&L calculation
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Basic performance analytics
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Emotion and strategy tags
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No exchange sync (that requires Pro)
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Pros: Purpose-built for trading, basic analytics included
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Cons: Manual entry on free tier, advanced features require upgrade
Build a custom database in Notion with properties matching the fields above.
- Pros: Free, flexible, mobile app
- Cons: No trading-specific calculations, all manual
Logging trades is step one. Reviewing them is where improvement happens.
Every weekend, spend 30 minutes analyzing your week:
- Total trades: ___
- Wins: ___ Losses: ___
- Win rate: ___%
- Gross P&L: $___
- Total funding paid: $___
- Net P&L: $___
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Best performing asset this week
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Worst performing asset this week
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Best time of day for entries
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Worst time of day for entries
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Most profitable strategy
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Most costly emotional state
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Questions to answer:
- Did I follow my rules?
- What mistake cost me the most?
- What should I do differently next week?
Once a month, do a comprehensive review:
- Equity curve analysis
- Drawdown periods and causes
- Strategy performance comparison
- Funding fee total and trend
- Hold duration optimization
- Leverage appropriateness
It is tempting to "forget" bad trades. Do not. Your losses contain your best lessons.
Memory degrades. Log entry data immediately when you open a position. Do not wait until the trade is closed.
If your journal does not track funding fees, your P&L is wrong. Period.
"Good trade" tells you nothing. "Entered on funding flip confirmation at support, held through initial drawdown" tells you everything.
A journal you never review is just a diary. The value comes from analysis.
Upgrade from free tools when:
- Manual entry takes more than 15 minutes daily
- You cannot easily calculate your metrics
- You want exchange auto-sync
- You want AI analysis of your patterns
- You are profitable enough that tool cost is negligible
Thrive Pro ($99/month, paid plan) includes:
- Auto-sync from 29+ exchanges
- Automatic funding fee calculation
- AI coaching on your patterns
- Real-time market signals
- 12+ one-click performance reports
- Day replay for trade review
If you are serious about perps trading, the time savings alone justify the cost.
Start paid plan
You do not need perfect tools to start. Open a spreadsheet or create a free Thrive account.
Log your next trade with all the fields above. Then log the next one. And the next.
After 30-50 trades, patterns emerge. After 100 trades, you know your strengths and weaknesses. After 500 trades, you have statistical confidence in what works.
The traders who journal systematically outperform those who do not. This is not opinion. It is observable across every trading community.
Your journal is your edge detector. Start building it today.
Ready to start journaling your perpetual futures trades?
Create a free account to log trades with basic analytics. No credit card required.
Create free account
Want exchange sync, automatic funding tracking, and AI coaching?
Start a paid plan of Pro. $0 due today, then $99/month.
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Entry logging: 1-2 minutes. Exit logging with notes: 3-5 minutes. Weekly review: 30 minutes. Total weekly time: 1-2 hours for an active trader.
Yes. Paper trading is practice. Practice with proper journaling builds the habit and provides data when you go live.
Log it as soon as you remember. Late data is better than missing data. If you consistently forget, set phone reminders or use auto-sync tools.
For basic patterns: 30-50 trades. For statistical significance: 100+ trades per filter (per asset, per strategy, etc.).
Spreadsheets and Thrive work on mobile browsers. It is not ideal for complex entry but works for quick updates.
Your reasoning for each trade. Everything else is data. Reasoning reveals your decision process, which is where improvement happens.
