Advanced · Lesson 5 of 9 · 6 min read
Keeping a trading journal
Your journal is the honest record of what you actually do, not what you meant to do. Reviewing it is how traders find and fix their mistakes.
Why keep one
Memory is kind to us: we remember the clever wins and forget the silly losses. A journal shows the real picture, such as which setups work for you, which times of day you trade badly, and whether you follow your own plan.
Judge yourself on following your plan, not on whether each trade won. A well-planned trade can lose and a careless one can win.
What to record for every trade
| Record | Why |
|---|---|
| Market, direction, date and time | Shows which markets and hours suit you |
| Setup and reason for the trade | Shows which setups really work |
| Entry, stop, target and size | Checks your risk was 1% or less |
| Result in R | Compares trades fairly, whatever the size |
| A picture of the chart | Lets you see it again later with fresh eyes |
| How you felt, and whether you followed the plan | Shows the habits behind your results |
R means how many times your risk you won or lost: risk £20 and make £40 and that is +2R. A loss at your stop is −1R.
The weekly review
- Look at every trade from the week, wins and losses.
- Mark each one: did it follow the plan, yes or no?
- Find your best and worst setup, market and time of day.
- Pick one thing to improve next week. Just one.
After a month of logging, a trader sees 28 trades. The 14 taken in the London session made +6R in total. The 9 taken late at night lost −7R, and 6 of those broke the plan.
One simple change, no trading after 9pm, would have turned a losing month into a winning one. Without the journal, this pattern would have stayed hidden.
Common mistakes
- Only logging the winners, or logging days later from memory.
- Recording results but not the reasons or feelings.
- Never reviewing: a journal nobody reads cannot help.
- Trying to fix five things at once.
Check yourself
1. You risk £25 and make £75. What is that in R?
+3R.
2. A trade followed your plan perfectly but lost. Was it a bad trade?
No. Good trades can lose; what matters is following the plan.
3. How many things should you try to improve after a weekly review?
One.
Try it on BTM
For education only, not financial advice. Trading carries a high risk of losing money, especially with leverage. Only trade with money you can afford to lose.
For educational purposes only. Nothing here is financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results, and trading carries a high risk of losing money, so only trade with money you can afford to lose. Read the risk warning.