Hi there, I am new to forex trading using EA,s.
I have created my own spreadsheet in IOS which has data from a live bot and its duplicate demo along side it, takes me 2 minutes a day to fill in and I can see the whole month at a glance, I can also use it to plan ahead for changing of lot sizes etc, perfect for a beginner, ofc myfxbook is the Daddy which I also use.
PM me if you want a demo of it. Happy to jump on a zoom to show it you and then send it over if its of use 
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I keep a separate trade log (on gsheet) and journal (on notion)
On the trade log I try to put every information about the position ( date, time, market,S/L,SETUP, Location, Momentum, Structure Timeframe, Entry Price, Stop Loss, RR, Position size, Chart entry link, Stop Set?, Target set? W/L, P/L $, Portfolio evolution,Chart exit link,Mistakes) and have the purpouse of getting some statistics (ordering, filtering and further processing cells data)
The journal is more verbal, I put my emotions and what I learned or noticed on the market day by day
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Is your notion journal with a template or something you cooked up?
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What is an EA? My strategy is looking for trends, using crossovers of moving averages, crossovers of MACD and RSI. Mostly, I find that the MACD, RSI and all crossovers are not forward-looking, meaning that they don’t really help. Also, I find that trendline often but against support and resistance lines. I end up not taking a lot of trades because I don’t want to overtrade or find a trade that isn’t really there. When I do trade, even with these indicators, it seems like a toss up. I am beginning, after many years of trading, to believe this is more gambling although I have put years of online and webinar classes to learn it.
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Nothing fancy I’m keep it simple for now, is just a list of subpages (one for each day) where I’ve 4 main topics to fill: (my feeling, what I saw on market, what I learned, action taken)
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How many trades do you think you take in a day? Per week?
Have you tried using price action or reading up on naked charts? Just a thought. If your currently strategy isn’t working, time for something new.
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I’m a fan of price action. However, in my opinion, if someone’s strategy is failing, one must think if the problem lies with the strategy or the trader.
Of course, that opens the conversation of when is it time to move on to a new strategy…that’s a whole other bag of potatoes.
When scalping on average 4/6 trade everyday
I thank you for the info. I did read up on naked trading. I think a lot of it has to do with realizing that the indicators are not forward-looking which is what I was saying. I’m not sure if I will keep trading forex at this point, but it’s hard to give up on something you’ve spent so much time to educate yourself about. 2021 was a profitable year for me so I know being profitable is possible, I’m just not sure I want to keep at it. Thanks for your thoughts! I will take the indicators off and see how I view things. I have traded stocks and forex for years now, just not with a lot of money.
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Duncan,
EA is an abbreviation for “expert advisor” which is simply what we metatraders call a program that Autotrades.
The basic indicators DO NOT WORK, because they are based on moving averages.
A moving average of the past is quite simply an average of the past and is not an average of anything in the future.
The term “naked trading” simply refers to trading a chart that is not dressed up with indicators.
The term “price action” basically means that when you see the price moving, you place trades based on that movement.
No, I do not keep a written journal.
I have been writing C language programs for 32 years, and I have been writing metatrader code since it was released in 2005.
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Got it downloaded. This journal is pretty cool! Love the stats tab. I’m gonna take some time and try to backfill all my trades from this year. That’ll be some work!
Yea I couldn’t find any notion templates anywhere for free. But it’s cool, a google spreadsheet is just fine.
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Nice, in my opinion it’s worth to take the time and work to do that.
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I think it will also get me in the habit of actually thinking about why I got into a trade. And not just “candle turn green”.
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I’ve found myself in that situation many a time. I thought I was following my strategy, but I was actually just forcing it.
How do you feel after entering such a trade?
Well I only really come back to think about it when I lose the trade. A winning trade makes me think that everything I did to get to that point was right.
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I just cant get it,if all platforms and all brokers provide now ‘‘trading history’’ why do you need a trading journal?For what? You think that would make you profitable? The answer is NO,it wont.
I never had trading journal…for me the best trading journal is PRICE itself.
You open a trade,put take profit to ratio 1:10 (just becasue you want it) and price goes to 1:2 and then reverses and stopps you out,and then you write down on your journal and then what? Instead of learning from markets why price reversed ,why it went only to 1:2 ratio,you just open your jurnal and write smth,witch is miningless just accept it,no matter what you write in your journal,it has nothing to do with real market. Your letters will never get to market
None of us have trading journal,and we never had ( us means me and 4 more people,we learned together and trade together as well)
9 years ago i was inside a small hedge fund in ,capital of my country,and those who traded-they had no journal as well. Funny thing i find ,those who make money they do simple things,those who dont earn from it complicate it so much…and they have beed lied through social media so easily…and they believe it…
Logging trades, is more than just writing down what happened. It’s about recording whatever is significant for you. Were you feeling scared when you get a particular signal? You might not remember or even see the pattern until you write these things down and do analysis.
If your broker’s platform offers trading history, then there are several elements that you don’t have to journal.
I agree that whatever you need to learn, you’ll find it in the charts. But it’s helpful to record other internal elements that are not in the charts: the emotional aspect, in particular.
haha true. We often complicate things unnecessarily. I’m definitely guilty of that. That’s when you gotta put on your thinking cap and ask yourself some questions. ¨Is there a better way to do this?¨
Can I ask what kind of strategy you trade? Like scalping or higher time frame. I get it if you’re a scalper. You have like a specific set of rules that you follow. I think even in this case you could still journal and review it especially if you lose the trade. But with scalping, there’s less time for price to be affected. But with something like a 4hr or daily strategy, I think trade journals help you remember why you entered/exited a trade and you can learn from that, so maybe you can do it again or not do if you were wrong.
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