I am interested in using a journal that automatically loads all of the information and charts so I can spend more time analyzing data and statistics instead of spending time entering data. What is your experience with journaling software? Thanks.
“You only need five columns”
I have tracked over 1,000 trade entries at various times in the past and I do not use any fancy software to “track my trades”. I have done this for Forex, stocks, crypto, horse racing results and rugby fixtures. I have concluded what VP says in less than 15 minutes, by practice over the past 10 to 15 years.
Remember to keep your mind fixed on the end goal - making profit in Forex. There are so many distractions that can come from recording the most ridiculous data fields. I have used up to 30+ data fields in the past and concluded that only five are needed. Once you have those five data fields, and perhaps only for the first 10 to 20 trades, think more about how you are going to identify and eliminate errors from your trades. It takes me about a minute to write down these five things, BEFORE I enter a trade. It takes me another five minutes to scan through my list of “elimination rules” before I enter a trade. Analysis takes me up to 15 minutes per trade. Given that my goal is about one to four trades per week, it’s just not worth me setting up any further automation. The automation is in the creation of the strategy and the plan (the rules), and all the journal is there for is to record what my plan tells me is the right time to enter, and the post-trade analysis tells me where I went wrong. I do not go wrong if I lose money. I only go wrong if I did not adhere to ALL the rules and eliminate ALL the exceptions with hindsight, after the trade is completed.
I hope this saves you hundreds of hours of future time on distractions from the main goal.
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I’m a little old school and use pen and paper 
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Same here. I use the computer to print out the templates for the journal, but always doodle on the paper printouts. Recently, I have taken to photographing and saving images of the papers besides transferring the core data to the Excel journal.
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myfxbook.com is a good place to keep track of your trades. It links directly to your trading account and statistics are all automatically calculated as your open and close trades. It is free to use so worth checking out.
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Thanks for the heads up on this one. It is added to my “terms of reference” for my new trading plan.
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Thank you. I will read up on it and it sounds like it is just what I am looking for. Thanks again!