Tracking Your Path to Success

Why Keep a Journal?

Any trader who is serious about establishing a future in this industry must keep a journal. You can't look back and see what steps you took to accomplish particular goals, like returns, if you don't keep a notebook. By ensuring that trades are executed as automatically and error-free as possible, journaling also helps you stay accountable to your trading plan and guidelines. You keep accountability by reviewing your decision-making process and keeping a journal for every action. This allows you to look over your own shoulder.

What Do I Journal?

I make sure to record any element that could affect my trading performance when I'm journaling my trades. The main components I include in my trading journal are broken down as follows:

1. Trade Specifics:

• Time and Date: The opening and closing times of the trades.
• Instrument: The item being exchanged, such as a stock or currency pair.
• Position Size: The quantity of traded asset.
• Entry and Exit Points: The prices used to enter and exit a trade.

2. Justification

• Trade Setup: The trade-inducing approach or pattern.
• Market Conditions: Particular circumstances at the time of the trade as well as the general market trend.
• Technical Indicators: Any indications or indicators that are utilized to help decide whether to trade.

3. Feelings:

• Pre-Trade Emotions: Attitude and sentiments prior to engaging in a trade.
• Feelings During deal: Feelings during the course of the trade.
• Post-Trade Reflection: Emotions following the close of the trade.

4. Analysis of Outcomes:

• Profit/Loss: The trade's monetary outcome.
• Mistakes: Any mistakes committed during the trade and the knowledge gained.
• Adjustments: Depending on the results, modifications to the trading plan.

5. Extra Information

• External Factors: Breaking news, economic reports, and other outside occurrences.
• Screenshots: Charts and setups at entry and departure positions are visually documented.
• Follow-up: Arrangements to examine the trades again at a later time to look for any lasting insights.

By maintaining an extensive log of these components, I can see trends, improve my trading strategy, and make wiser choices. Writing in a journal involves more than just jotting down events; it also entails comprehending why they occurred and formulating future improvement plans.

How Do I Keep a Journal?

I've tried everything: Word documents, Excel sheets, notebooks, and other Excel variations—but none of them have managed to keep me organized over time. I became disoriented and quit examining my statistics after 10-20 trades.

So I went to my personal accountability partner, for a better answer since I needed one. He discovered Edgewonk, a fantastic application for thorough journaling that allows you to document all filled trades, and missed trades. Your trading plans can be saved and linked to MetaTrader or other applications to enable automatic journaling.

In one quick look, I can see what to continue and what to avoid right away when I journal, which only takes five minutes a day. E.g. I now know not to trade after drinking... :)

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." — Benjamin Franklin

BONUS: Building Positive Habits

Creating good habits that lead to long-term success is one of the biggest advantages of keeping a trading notebook. You develop a habit of analysis and reflection by keeping a regular journal of your transactions, and this is necessary for ongoing progress. By keeping you organized, this methodical approach lessens the possibility that you will make rash, emotionally-driven decisions.

Journaling helps you develop a habit of self-evaluation over time, which enables you to recognize and reinforce effective tactics while changing harmful ones.