Forex Journaling for Newbies

Beginner Questions
1

Hello everyone,!!!

I’m curious because I’m trying to set up a journal. I’ve tried probably 10 times and every single time I end up quitting. So a few questions:

  1. Where do you keep a journal? (Handwritten, Excel, Notepad, Blogger, ??? )
  2. If you had to recommend one important aspect of a trade that you think should be journaled what would it be? (For example, for every trade set-up you journal, record the reason(s) why or why you didn’t accept the trade. Or, On a scale of 1-10 how confident are you. )

I for example until now have been keeping my journals in Notepad because it’s easy to take screenshots. And one aspect of trading I always have journaled in the past is the level of symmetry in my patterns (I’m a pattern trader)

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. One of my goals is to establish a useful forex journal and I think it would help all of us starting out to hear some advice from the seasoned traders out there!!!

2

  1. I (a newbie myself) have dedicated a thread in this forum to my journal. It’s quite useful because other people can give their input. Also if other people can see it, you have a kind of ‘pressure’ to keep updating it. You can also upload screenshots fairly easy (I think up to 3 per post).

  2. I have previously recorded the reasons for my trade. In the future I want to include:

  • Risk taken (% of equity)
  • Feelings (elated, etc.)
  • Multiple Time Frames
    I don’t take trades I am not confident in, so I can’t comment on that.
3

The only journal you are likely to find useful is if you take screenshots and make notes on them or with them, a whole log with just lines of notes and a list of trades will turn out quite meaningless.