A free trading journal with the full feature set
Many trading journals are free only until you need the analytics, a second account or a few hundred trades. Haunted has no paid tier for the journal at all. Here is what that includes, what it does not do, and how to get started without losing your existing history.
What free means in Haunted
Free here is not a trial and not a stripped-down plan that pushes you towards an upgrade. The trading journal has no paid version: trade logging, analytics, accounts, the backtest journal, ideas and documents are available to every registered user. You sign up with email or Google, no card is requested, and nothing expires after two weeks. This matters more than it seems. A journal is only useful after months of consistent entries, and switching tools halfway because a subscription ran out or a limit kicked in breaks the continuity of your data. A tool you can keep using indefinitely is the safer place to build that history.
What is included in the free trading journal
Each trade is logged with its outcome, net P/L, R:R, risk, session, model, tags, notes and screenshots pasted straight from the clipboard, and one trade can be split across several accounts. Analytics include a scorecard across six dimensions, breakdowns by session, pair, model and account, an equity curve, drawdown, expectancy and a calendar heatmap. Prop and personal accounts are tracked with drawdown limits, profit targets, challenge stages and payout history. On top of that there is a backtest journal for recording historical test trades and analysing them separately from live results, an ideas section for planning trades before they happen, documents for trading plans and reviews, read-only share links and personal API keys.
Free trading journal vs spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is free too, and for the first weeks it is perfectly fine. The cost shows up later, in time rather than money. You build the formulas for R and expectancy yourself, maintain separate tabs for every account, store screenshots somewhere else and rebuild charts each time you want a new breakdown. On a phone the table is barely usable. A free online journal gives you the same zero price with the structure already done: consistent fields, automatic calculations and breakdowns that update as you log. If you already have a spreadsheet, you do not have to start from scratch, because Haunted imports trades from CSV.
Online in the browser, on desktop and phone
Haunted is a web app, so there is nothing to install and no version to keep updated. It opens in any modern browser on Windows, macOS or Linux, and the same account works on your phone, which is handy for logging a trade right after closing it or checking your stats away from the desk. Your data lives in your account rather than in a local file, so a broken laptop or a lost spreadsheet does not take your history with it. The journal is private by default. Nothing becomes public unless you create a read-only share link for a single trade or the whole journal, and such links can have an expiry date and be revoked at any time.
How to start in ten minutes
Register with email or Google. Create your accounts first, for example a personal account and each prop challenge with its drawdown limit and target, because trades are attached to accounts. If you already keep a journal, import it from a CSV export or from Notion so your history and statistics continue without a gap. Then decide on a short list of models and tags you will use consistently, since breakdowns are only as good as the labels behind them. Log your next trade the same day you close it, with a screenshot and a couple of lines of notes. After the first week open the analytics and look at the breakdown by session; it is usually the first place where patterns appear.
What the free journal does not do
Being clear about limits saves time. Haunted does not connect to brokers and does not pull trades automatically, and there is no import from MT4, MT5 or cTrader. Trades are entered manually or brought in from CSV and Notion. Many traders treat this as a feature rather than a gap: writing the entry yourself forces you to state the reason, the risk and the outcome, which is the part of journaling that actually changes behaviour. The backtest section is a journal for backtest trades, not an engine that runs strategies on historical data. You do the test on your charting platform and record each trade in Haunted to get honest statistics on it.
FAQ
Is Haunted really a free trading journal?
Yes. There is no paid tier for the journal, no trial that expires and no card required at sign-up. Trade logging, analytics, prop and personal accounts, the backtest journal, ideas and documents are all available to every registered user.
Do I need to download or install anything?
No. Haunted runs in the browser on desktop and on phone. You sign in with email or Google and your journal is available on any device, with data stored in your account rather than in a local file.
Can I move my existing trades into Haunted?
Yes. Trades can be imported from a CSV file, which covers most Excel and Google Sheets journals, and from Notion. After import your history appears in the analytics together with new trades, so you do not lose the statistics you already have.
Is the free journal suitable for prop firm challenges?
Yes. Prop accounts are tracked with drawdown limits, profit targets, challenge stages and payout history, alongside personal accounts. One trade can be split across several accounts if you copy the same position to multiple challenges.
Does the free version sync with my broker?
No. Haunted has no broker auto-sync and no MT4, MT5 or cTrader import. Trades are logged manually or imported from CSV and Notion. Manual entry keeps your reasoning, risk and notes in every record, which is what makes the later review useful.
Can other people see my journal?
Only if you choose to share it. The journal is private by default. You can create a read-only link to a single trade or the whole journal, set an expiry date, and revoke the link whenever you want.