Trading Journal

Hi all,

I know that to be a successful trader , one should have a trading journal which then can record all trades and improve the system. 

I would like to ask your opinion on what should be recorded in the journal. 

What I have in mind is something like below :   

Why take the trade , why the stop loss is set at a particular level. 
Why select the Take profit target . 
How many lots traded, Profit / loss 
Time trade open till close. 


Is there anything else that I have miss out ? :confused: 

Regards,
BabyTrader

And Happy Trading to all. :smiley:

Yeah. Happy trading too…

You have included most of the important parts. I would like to add Risk/Reward ratio and a snapshot of the trade before/after profits/loss.

I always take a snapshot too. Give each of your trades a unique number and name the snapshot with the trade number so you can look it up in the future. I always go back and look at the snapshot a month after the trade was taken and then look at the chart now (I mainly trade D an H4). I’ve learned so much by doing this. It’s incredible how often you’ll look at the chart again some time later (when all the emotion has gone) and see that you’d do things differently now.

Even better, use a tool like Camtasia to take a video and narrate your thought process going into, managing and coming out of a trade. I’ve started doing this and it’s a very powerful tool.

Happy trading!

All of the above but you’re missing a HUGE part of it!

Make sure you log your emotions and mental state during these trades. Trust me, it’ll pay off!

I’m pretty sure you have covered most of the helpful stuff. You’ll probably adjust them as you go along. What do you think of making a post-trade analysis? Asking myself what I could have done better usually does good things to my trades. :slight_smile:

Great idea. Or if you dont have Camtasia there is a slightly cheaper recording option called [B]Snag-It[/B] I use this to screen capture my charts but it has a video option as well and is only around $50 I think it is.

I use Snipping Tool and DuckCapture for my charts. Both are free.