How to create equity curve in Google Sheets?

Tutorial

Here is a very basic tutorial for people unfamiliar with creating a chart that compares their portfolio's equity curve with that of an index. The process is manual, & not automated.

Step 1

Create a new Google sheet as shown below. While I update this monthly, you can decide to update the sheet on a weekly basis. Just see your total equity value at the end of the month, & the monthly closing value of your benchmark index, & input these values in columns D & F, respectively.

Step 2

For columns D, E, F & G, we add the formulae to calculate the percentage change for every month as compared to the starting month. .

Step 3

Similarly for columns B &C, we add the formulae to calculate the ₹ value change (starting from 100) for every month as compared to the starting month.

Step 4

For the chart, we just need to select the first 3 columns. From the menu, we insert a chart, & do some appearance adjustments & we are done! Just update the values every month (or week) & it'll stay fresh.

Please don't laugh if you think if it was too simple to be deserving of a 'tutorial'. I'm already quite embarrassed.

Please don't ask for a readymade Google Sheet link if you find it too tough to understand. I tried my best to help you learn it.

If this makes some sense, & you would like me to do a similar (larger) tutorial series on how to create an entire trading journal in Coda, do share your thoughts in the comments. p.s. Have a look at my equity curve for this financial year (no dummy data here):

At the time of posting this, I made 42% on my portfolio, which, while it outperforms the Smallcap 250, still falls short of the desired standard. Around 75 trades in all & a win rate of 35%, I booked at pre-fixed intervals & intervened too much.

Hope you liked it.