If you’re a visual person you might want to give Obsidian a try. It’s another great learning tool, based on a system called Zettelkasten, that’s explained in more detail here. It basically enables you to plot things like tasks, ideas, lessons in a mindmap of sorts that looks like this:
Edit: Link to the Obsidian explanation on the Zettelkasten method:
While it the screenshot looks complicated (because it has a lot of accumulated tasks/ideas) it’s a simple system to use.
I just downloaded it today and will configure it later. Also got a few books that explain mind maps and stuff to help me make better use of this tool down the line. I personally need it for the kind of reading I have plans for so the time spent learning the tool, I expect, will pay a lot of dividends later.
If I do well to figure it out I’ll probably create another thread for it.
Sometimes I do make mind maps for ideas (again non-trading related) but I find it to be just as disorganized as my own thoughts lol. I will read the link you posted though and will be on the lookout for your review.
Right now I’m sticking to Notion. In the past I was using Evernote which just became an unmanageable bulk of links and text… which is now what Notion is becoming haha.
On the subject of productivity, what do you use to manage your day to day tasks?
First time doing anything outside work. Usually my head for stuff at home. At work I used to use sharepoint for planning tasks, sharing stuff and planning things out on team calendars. Pen and paper to break down those tasks to smaller items and plan the time around it.
Yeah used to use physical notebooks until I moved and hated the fact that I owned so many physical things. Decided to just stick to anything I can update using my phone and computer.
Attached below is the end to end workflow from placing a trade (MT5) to creating & logging a journal entry. Roll-up tables have been a delight to work with. I am able to log and journal my trades despite managing upto 8 simultaneous live trades (max I’ve tried so far).
The first instance I type stuff is me creating new journal entry
The second instance, after opening the new entry, is me linking it to my high level analysis for the currency pair. This high level analysis is what I use to a) validate the direction of current trade & b) review trades at a later date
The place I attach the snapshot is also a place I use to include thoughts and additional situation specific notes
The summaries and initial currency pair screen (for the daily trades) are a daily/weekly routine, that’s done before logging any trades. The process of logging the entry is as mechanical as I can make it so it’s not too mentally taxing or distracting, but at the same time captures enough details to make analysis/reviews possible at a later date.
I was making a nice Notion template to log all my trades BUT didn’t like Notion anymore to journal my trades so I am developing my own trading journal and will develop a EA to save my trades when I closed it or they close itself if touch tp/sl in a database and then I will just upload the picture to study it.
Yea, there are definitely trade offs. It’s additional work. Not only do I create a journal entry but monitor it later for closure and additional closing details.
Advantages for me atm are:
The ability to include metrics or information that are custom to my trading style. For e.g. I want to broadly categorize trades that I scale vs those I don’t. Or capturing details of my mental state as free form text where I include the picture, in the same way I include remarks and charts for my analysis.
Routine building and discipline: I don’t open any trades till I’m done with any pending currency analysis. Plus I don’t open any new trades unless I journal a previous one. Incorporating all of those into a workflow is probably the biggest advantage of using a tool like notion.
I imagine folks who already have working solutions won’t have much reason to get into Notion because this is additional work. New traders I bet will find adapting a solution like this more beneficial. All the best with the EA!
I’ve managed to make use of the new feature for new views late last year and combine both views in one table. For excel users it’s like using a new tab/sheet in your workbook.
On top of that I included two new views for shortlisted potential trades and another view for those with live trades. I try to scale into trades and have to repeatedly go back to the same currency pairs to open new journal entries, which is where the live trades view comes in handy.
Simple utilization of the new table view feature that helps make life more easier. Pretty sure other notion users can find better use cases for this feature. Hopefully this will help spur some ideas.
I know you have more experience than me by just looking at your journal. So, I humble come to you for insight.
I developed an EA to save my executed trade automatically into Notion. So, I would like to know… although the features you’ll see on the video… what other features would you like to see? Thanks in advance!
(Don’t know why I cannot put links in here but, link is below -just remove the []-
http[s://]www[.]youtube[.]com/watch?v=tRCWcE4Hpcw
