Everything You Need to Know About Trader’s Diary

Everything You Need to Know About Trader’s Diary

Hello Traders :raised_hand:

We launched Trader’s Diary a few months ago and the appreciation that it’s received from our community of Super Traders has been delightful to see. We’re happy that we were able to build another useful and effective feature for our users, and to see that Trader’s Diary now is an integral part of Trader’s daily routine.

Considering many of our users now use Trader’s Diary, we’ve been receiving requests to create a walkthrough on how the Trader’s Diary really works under the radar. That’s why I’m writing this post today to help you understand how Trader’s Diary works.

Overview of the Trader’s Diary

Trader’s Diary allows you to view your Daily P&L and Monthly realised P&L. The two different views of the Trader’s Diary as as below:

Daily view & Monthly view:

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A Day/Month in a Trader’s Diary can be of three colours:

  • Red: Loss is realized on that day/month
  • Orange: Open positions (only) made on that day/month
  • Green: Profit is realized on that day/month

A day may also show zero P&L even though there are a number of trades (Jan 19 and Jan 31 for example in the above screen-shot) because those trades are open.

Explaining Trader’s Diary further in detail:

I’ll be picking a real-life example to show the calculations. But first, let me lay out all the key terms involved in Trader’s Diary:

  • Buy Value = Total buy value of all the open and closed positions
  • Sell Value = Total sell value of all the open and closed positions
  • Realized Profit = Sum of gross profit of closed orders
  • Charges = STT + GST + SD + SEBI Turnover Fees of all the open and closed positions
  • Brokerage = Brokerage applied on all the open and closed positions
  • Net Realized P&L = Realized P&L – Charges – Brokerage

Scenario 1

Trader A took 450 intraday positions in BANKNIFTY Options, making a gross profit of ₹837.50. He spent ₹229.19 as charges towards STT + GST + SD + SEBI and ₹260 as brokerage for open and closed trades. Thus, his Net Realized P&L is ₹837.50 – ₹229.19 – ₹260 = ₹348.31

Trader’s Diary:

Scenario 2

Trader B bought 1 Lot BANKNIFTY44000CE on 29/11/22 @ ₹10.65 and sold it on 01/12/2022 @ ₹6.25. The trade can be summarised below.

On 29/11/22: He spent ₹3.77 as charges towards STT + GST + SD + SEBI and ₹20 as brokerage. So, his Trader’s Diary will show ₹266.25 as buy value and no sell value (as it was only a buy position). So, his Net Realized P&L is ₹0 – ₹3.77 – ₹20 = – ₹23.77

On 01/12/22: He spent ₹3.70 as charges towards STT + GST + SD + SEBI and ₹20 as brokerage. So, his Trader’s Diary will show ₹156.25 as sell value and no buy value (as it was only a sell position for the day). The P&L of this carried forward trade is calculated internally (₹266.25 – ₹156.25 = – ₹110). So, his Net Realized P&L = – ₹110 – ₹3.70 – ₹20 = – ₹133.70

Trader’s Diary on 29/11/2022 and on 01/12/2022:

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Scenario 3

Trader C brought 10 equity shares of ADANIPORTS on 30/11/22 @ ₹878.65 and sold it on the same day @ ₹881. The trade can be summarised below. He spent ₹3.69 as charges towards STT + GST + SD + SEBI and ₹5.28 as brokerage for the trade.

So, his Trader’s Diary will show ₹8786.50 as buy value and ₹8810.00 as sell value. So, his Net Realized P&L is ₹23.50 – ₹3.69 – ₹5.28 = ₹14.53

Trader’s Diary:

Scenario 4

Trader D did multiple trades across EQ, F&O, and MCX segments in the month of November 2022. Below is the attached excel sheet containing the Trade History (Trade Dump) and Traders Diary and corresponding P&L Statement (generated from Dhan).

Excel Link

PDF P&L Link

Here, you can see that if the open positions are NOT taken into account, the Trader’s Diary, Trade History and P&L Statement all three are in sync.

Note that gross P&L is taken into consideration for ease in calculation and understanding.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. Will Trader’s Diary Be In Sync with the P&L Statement?
    Yes, but only if dates are chosen such that no open position exists in that duration. You can check scenario 4 on this front.

  2. How do I check my P&L like any other broker would have shown?
    For checking P&L, generate the P&L statement. It will be sent on your registered e-mail ID.

  3. What time is the Trader’s Diary updated?
    The Trader’s Diary is updated at 9 AM everyday. So for your EOD P&L, please check the Trader’s Diary next day at 9 AM.

  4. Will the Trader’s Diary be in sync with my Ledger?
    A Ledger is detailed Cash-Flow of your finances (including pay-ins, pay-outs, charges, MTMs, etc.) which are not part of Trader’s Diary and hence the P&L report as well.

  5. I have an open position on a script from the past but I do an Intraday trade on the same script. How will P&L be computed in this case?
    In an intraday trade case, the previous open position will not be affected and intraday profit or loss will be captured for that day only.

  6. If I have some positions open and some closed (in profit or loss), which colour code will be assigned to that day?
    If any trade is closed (current or previous) on a given day, the colour will correspond to Red/Green depending on the profit or loss made in the trade. Even if the day has an open position, it will not be coded as Orange.

  7. If I have a future open position, will it be Marked to Market as in the contract note?
    Trader’s Diary, as mentioned, is strictly based on realised positions only. Hence, MTM is not taken into account in Trader’s Diary calculations.

  8. Will my Trader’s Diary match the contract note?
    Yes, only if you have no open positions for the day.

I hope you now know how Trader’s Diary works from the inside out. If you have more questions, feel free to write to us at feedback@dhan.co

Regards,
Shrimohan Jhawar

6 Likes

Hello Shrimohan,

Thanks for this tool and detailed explanation,

I wonder if this is possible, when I open specific date details, I can see all transactions of buy and sell orders, but if we can see the Profit and loss of each trade will be very useful, just like the positions we do see during the day, red or green positions.

Because if we want to review the diary on next day, I can not get many ideas based on transactions but based on each script which is in profit or loss, then we can review why we made profit or loss and then I enter my comments,

I hope I explained my requirements correctly,

1 Like

Hi @Jigar tradewise wise P&L is not supported at this time on the frontend. We may launch this as well in the near future. However, you can connect with Customer Support Team to get Trader’s Diary with tradewise P&L which follows FIFO methodology.

I @iamshrimohan have a doubt in traders diary

Suppose there was a far otm position which expired at 0 . So only 1 trade is done, the equivalent trade is not done since it expired worthless

In this case how to see the traders diary entry with respect to the profit /loss

Hi @pavz this action will not be captured in the current build of the Trader’s Diary as it fetches only executed trades. Since the contra trade is not available, the position will remain open.

You can chose the “Notes” section of the Trader’s Diary to mark those trades and for such trades, consider the sale price as the net profit or buy price as the net loss.

1 Like

@iamshrimohan Dairy needs bug fix and enhancement. Please look into these

  1. The custom date range in web shows incorrect PnL and charges.
  2. Alteast a year PnL would be appreciated. Three months is very limited. Zerodha allows multi year PnL view in one click from their backend (console) and its a great feature to have.
  3. Custom date range option addition in mobile app would be nice
1 Like

Hi @t7support

  1. The P&L would be correct if you choose date range such that no open positions exists in the date range. Check this and do let me know incase you face any issues.
  2. Noted your feedback, we will surely implement this.
  3. We will check if that is feasible and if so, would get it done. Usually on the web, we have a wider horizon to play around which is not feasible always on the Mobile application front.

Thanks.

  1. Correct. I didn’t factor in the open position thing earlier.
  2. Thanks, would be very useful to us.
  3. We can easily show vertically in a top down way like zerodha console does on mobile.
1 Like

Hi @iamshrimohan there have been trades in account but seeing number of trades as 0 ( March 3)

Also, there were trades in stock options and currency, but see only currency being shown

Hi @pavz do share the UCC on DM, I’ll check it right away