For UK and Irish spread betting traders, JournalPlus is the best trading journal in 2026 — it handles £/point stake sizing natively, produces clean net P&L analytics without the tax-lot clutter that dominates stock journals, and costs a one-time £125 rather than a recurring monthly fee. Spread betting is one of the few trading instruments where the journaling challenge is almost entirely about performance and cost analysis rather than tax compliance, which fundamentally changes what features matter in a journal.
How We Evaluated
We tested five trading journals against the specific workflows of UK and Irish spread betting traders over three months, placing trades across FTSE 100, EUR/USD, and gold. Each product was scored on four criteria: native support for £/point stake sizing (weight 10), ability to log spread and overnight financing costs separately (weight 9), quality of net P&L analytics by instrument (weight 8), and total two-year cost of ownership (weight 7). Products built for US equity or options traders — which is most of the market — were assessed on how much adaptation work was required, and that friction counted against them in our ranking.
The Best Trading Journals for Spread Betting
1. JournalPlus — Best Overall for Spread Betting
JournalPlus is built around stake-based position sizing, which makes it a natural fit for spread betting where every position is expressed in £/point rather than a number of shares. The platform’s P&L analytics are designed around net returns — exactly what spread bettors need, since there is no CGT calculation, no tax-lot matching, and no Stamp Duty to account for. A one-time payment of $159 (~£125) means you pay less than six months of most subscription-based alternatives, and the investment compounds as you keep using it.
Key Features:
- Native £/point stake field on every trade entry
- Net P&L dashboard with breakdowns by instrument, direction, and session
- Mobile app for immediate post-trade logging
- CSV import for bulk trade upload from broker exports
Pricing: $159 one-time (~£125)
Pros:
- Native £/point stake field — no workarounds or custom columns needed
- P&L analytics built around net returns, not tax lots or share counts
- One-time payment; cheaper than one year of most subscription rivals
- Clean mobile app for logging trades immediately after entry
Cons:
- No direct broker import from IG, CMC, or City Index — manual entry or CSV upload only
- No built-in overnight financing calculator; must log charges manually
Verdict: JournalPlus is the strongest all-round choice for spread betting traders. It handles the core workflow correctly from the start, and the one-time pricing makes the value case straightforward.
2. Edgewonk — Best for Behavioural Analytics
Edgewonk is one of the most analytically sophisticated trading journals available, with deep R-multiple tracking, expectancy calculations, and a “tilt meter” for measuring psychological discipline. For spread bettors willing to configure custom fields for spread cost and overnight financing, it can produce genuinely powerful edge analysis. The trade-off is annual cost (~€169/year, approximately £145) and the absence of a native £/point field, which requires a custom column workaround from day one.
Key Features:
- Custom trade fields for any data point including spread cost and financing
- R-multiple and expectancy tracking by market segment
- Behavioural journaling with tilt score and discipline metrics
- Detailed statistics on average hold time, session performance, and instrument breakdown
Pricing: €169/year (~£145/year)
Pros:
- Highly customisable trade fields — add spread cost and financing columns easily
- Strong R-multiple and expectancy analytics useful for evaluating edge by market
- Tilt meter and psychological journaling features for discipline tracking
Cons:
- Annual subscription; over two years costs ~£290 vs JournalPlus one-time £125
- No native £/point field; requires a custom column workaround
- No broker import from UK spread betting providers
Verdict: Edgewonk is the right choice for experienced spread bettors who prioritise deep behavioural analytics and are willing to invest setup time and an annual fee to get them.
3. TraderSync — Best for Multi-Asset Traders
TraderSync is a well-designed journal with AI-assisted trade review and a strong analytics dashboard. Its breadth is both its strength and its weakness for spread bettors: it covers forex, futures, equities, and options, but spread betting as a distinct instrument type is not natively supported. Stake-based sizing requires adaptation, and the US-centric tax reporting features are entirely irrelevant. At $29.95/month (approximately £24), two years of use costs roughly £575 — over four times the JournalPlus one-time price.
Key Features:
- AI trade review with pattern-level feedback
- Multi-account and multi-broker support
- Performance breakdown by instrument, time of day, and setup type
- Mobile and web access
Pricing: From $29.95/month (~£24/month)
Pros:
- Robust analytics dashboard with performance breakdowns by instrument and session
- AI trade review summaries help identify pattern-level weaknesses
- Supports multiple account types including forex and futures
Cons:
- No native spread betting stake sizing — share-based model requires manual adjustment
- Monthly cost adds up: $360/year (~£285) for the standard plan
- Tax reporting features are US-centric and irrelevant for UK spread bettors
Verdict: TraderSync offers strong analytics for active multi-asset traders, but the lack of native spread betting support and the recurring cost make it hard to recommend over JournalPlus for UK-focused spread bettors.
4. Tradervue — Best Free Starting Point
Tradervue has a genuine free tier that allows unlimited trades, making it a reasonable first journal for new spread bettors who are not yet ready to commit to a paid product. Its trade replay and note-taking features are solid. The significant limitation is that Tradervue is built almost entirely around US equity and options workflows — spread betting has no dedicated support, P&L calculations assume share counts, and the community skews heavily toward US retail traders.
Key Features:
- Free tier with unlimited trade logging
- Trade-by-trade replay with chart overlay
- Notes and tagging system for setup categorisation
- Community sharing features
Pricing: Free tier; Silver $29/month (~£23/month)
Pros:
- Free tier allows basic journaling with unlimited trades
- Detailed trade-by-trade replay and notes
- Long-established platform with a large community
Cons:
- Designed squarely for US equity and options traders — spread betting is unsupported natively
- No £/point sizing; P&L calculations assume share-count entries
- Free tier limits advanced analytics; paid tier costs as much as rivals with better spread betting fit
Verdict: Tradervue’s free tier is a reasonable short-term option, but most spread bettors will outgrow its limitations within a few months and need to migrate to a more appropriate tool.
5. Google Sheets (Custom Spreadsheet) — Best Free Option
A well-built Google Sheet remains the most flexible spread betting journal available. You can create exactly the columns you need — £/point stake, entry spread quoted vs typical, overnight financing per night, gross P&L, net P&L — with no compromises. The GOOGLEFINANCE() function can pull live FTSE 100 or EUR/USD prices to automate some calculations. The cost is zero. The trade-off is that building a useful template takes several hours, maintaining discipline around manual entry is genuinely difficult, and there are no automated pattern analytics or visualisations without custom scripting.
Key Features:
- Fully custom column structure for any spread betting metric
- GOOGLEFINANCE() integration for live price data
- Free with a Google account
- Shareable and accessible from any device
Pricing: Free
Pros:
- Fully customisable — build exactly the columns you need
- Free forever with a Google account
- Can pull live FTSE/FX data via GOOGLEFINANCE() for automated P&L updates
Cons:
- Requires significant setup time and spreadsheet skill to build a useful template
- No automated analytics, charts, or pattern detection without custom scripting
- Manual data entry discipline required — easy to fall behind on logging
Verdict: The right choice for technically confident traders on a strict budget, or as a companion tool for tracking specific metrics that a dedicated journal does not capture natively.
Comparison Table
| Product | Pricing | Best For | Key Strength | Rating |
|---|
| JournalPlus | £125 one-time | Overall spread betting | Native £/point sizing | 4.7/5 |
| Edgewonk | ~£145/year | Behavioural analytics | R-multiple depth | 4.3/5 |
| TraderSync | ~£24/month | Multi-asset traders | AI trade review | 3.9/5 |
| Tradervue | Free / ~£23/month | Starting out | Free tier access | 3.4/5 |
| Google Sheets | Free | Budget-conscious | Full customisation | 3.5/5 |
What to Look For in a Spread Betting Trading Journal
Native £/point stake sizing. Most journals are built for share-count or lot-based entry. If a journal forces you to enter a “quantity” field in shares, you will need a workaround from day one — either a custom field or a hack like treating £/point as the quantity and accepting broken P&L calculations. This friction adds up over hundreds of trades.
Separate spread and financing cost fields. Without logging these, your stated P&L is wrong. Consider a concrete example: a UK trader with a £20,000 account goes long FTSE 100 at 7,820 via IG Markets at £10/point. Stop is at 7,770 (50 points = £500 risk, 2.5% of account), target at 7,920 (100 points = £1,000, 1:2 R:R). Entry spread is 1 point (£10). The trader holds for 2 nights at roughly 5% annualised financing on the £78,000 notional position — that is approximately £21.40. FTSE hits 7,920: gross P&L is £1,000, minus £10 spread cost, minus £21.40 financing = net £968.60. Without separate cost fields, the trader records a clean £1,000 win and overstates their edge by 3.1% on a single trade. Over a year of similar positions, untracked financing alone could represent £500-£800 in invisible costs.
Performance segmentation by instrument. FTSE 100 spread betting has very different volatility characteristics from EUR/USD or gold. A journal that lets you filter analytics by market — showing separate win rates, average R-multiples, and average hold times per instrument — is far more useful than one with only aggregate statistics.
Overnight financing awareness. Spread bet financing is charged at the benchmark GBP rate (SONIA) plus a broker markup of typically 2-3% per annum. On a £10/point FTSE 100 position with notional value around £78,000, each overnight adds roughly £10-11 in financing at current rates. A journal that cannot capture this per-trade will consistently overstate performance for any trader who holds positions overnight.
No CGT overhead. HMRC classifies spread betting as gambling under the Betting and Gaming Duties Act — there is no CGT, no Stamp Duty, and no income tax on winnings. Irish Revenue applies the same treatment (unlike CFDs in Ireland, which attract 33% CGT). A journal that pushes tax-lot tracking, wash-sale warnings, or Schedule D exports is adding workflow that spread bettors simply do not need. Choose a tool that does not force these features on you.
Honest two-year cost comparison. Subscription journals look affordable per month but compound quickly. At £24/month, a two-year TraderSync subscription costs £576. Edgewonk at £145/year costs £290 over two years. JournalPlus is £125 once. For a trader managing a £20,000 account, spending £450 more over two years on journaling software is a measurable drag on overall returns.
Our Pick
JournalPlus is the best trading journal for spread betting traders in 2026. It handles £/point stake sizing without workarounds, produces net P&L analytics without the tax-lot overhead that clutters journals designed for equity traders, and costs £125 once. For a UK spread bettor running a £20,000 account, the software cost represents 0.6% of capital — paid once, not annually.
For traders who want deeper behavioural analytics and are willing to pay annually, Edgewonk is the strongest runner-up; its customisability makes the spread and financing workarounds manageable. Traders just starting out with spread betting and not ready to commit to any cost should begin with a custom Google Sheet and explore our spreadsheet trading journals guide before choosing a dedicated product.
Traders focused on the forex markets within their spread betting activity will find that JournalPlus and Edgewonk both handle currency pair analysis well. If you are comparing spread betting against CFD trading, see our guide on CFD trading journals for a direct comparison of the journaling requirements for each instrument type.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do spread bettors need to track trades for tax purposes in the UK?
No. HMRC classifies spread betting as gambling under the Betting and Gaming Duties Act, meaning winnings are free from Capital Gains Tax, Stamp Duty, and income tax. The journaling purpose is performance analysis and cost tracking, not tax compliance.
Is spread betting also tax-free in Ireland?
Yes. Irish Revenue treats spread betting identically to HMRC — it is CGT-exempt. Note that CFDs in Ireland are subject to 33% CGT, which makes spread betting structurally different from a journaling and record-keeping perspective.
What fields should a spread betting journal include?
At minimum: instrument, direction, £/point stake, entry price, exit price, spread cost at entry, overnight financing charges per night held, and net P&L in pounds. Stop and target prices are useful for tracking R-multiples and evaluating whether your planned risk/reward is being achieved in practice.
How do overnight financing charges affect spread betting profitability?
Overnight financing is charged at roughly the benchmark rate (SONIA for GBP positions) plus 2-3% per annum on the full notional position value. A £10/point FTSE 100 position at 7,800 has a notional value of approximately £78,000. At 5% annualised, that is roughly £10.70 per night — easy to ignore on a single trade, but material across a year of regularly held overnight positions.
Can JournalPlus import trades directly from IG Markets or CMC Markets?
Not via a live broker connection. JournalPlus supports CSV upload and manual entry. Traders can export their trade history from IG’s platform and import it via CSV, but there is no automated sync. This is a genuine limitation shared by most journals in this space.
How do I compare spread costs across IG, CMC, and City Index in a journal?
Log the actual quoted spread at the moment of entry alongside each provider’s published typical spread for that instrument. For FTSE 100: IG typically quotes 1 point during market hours, CMC 1 point, City Index 1-1.5 points. On a £10/point stake, that extra 0.5 points at City Index costs £5 per round trip. Across 200 trades per year, that divergence represents £1,000 in additional broker drag — a number that only becomes visible when you log spread cost systematically.
Is a spreadsheet good enough for tracking spread betting trades?
For traders with fewer than 50 trades per month, a well-built Google Sheet can work effectively and costs nothing. Above that volume, the manual entry burden and absence of automated pattern analytics make a dedicated journal meaningfully more valuable. Most traders find the crossover point around the time their account reaches £10,000 and they begin treating spread betting as a serious ongoing activity rather than an experiment.