Do You Keep a Trading Journal ?

[Jack Francisco 10]

Keeping a trading journal is really important .. Every expert trader always keep a record about their trade ... like in a day how many trade they opened what was their result and why , how much was their winning and loosing ratio arc and they analyze those results in every week month ans year ...

 

if we also keep our trading journal then we can clearly see our improvements ans also our mistakes ... this is really essential for a trader ... are you keeping a trading journal ?:crap:

[TheNegotiator 13]

Yes. Clearly a journal of some sort is a useful thing. However, for many people (at one time myself included- other than a trade log) I think it's difficult to motivate themselves to do so without a clear picture of what one should look like. It's not just about a trade log. It's about your interaction with the market and the degree of success you then achieve. Another reason someone might not journal is due to a lack of success. I know this seems counter intuitive, but I've seen it in traders before. They know they've done badly or are doing badly so don't want to face the pain of reliving poor performance. My advice to those who are in that place is that it really isn't that bad and more than anything it's confidence building so long as you are objective assessing things after trading and in a non-emotional state.

[40draws 10]

There are no reasons not to write a trading plan and to keep a trading journal, only excuses. I can't tell you how many times in the last two months I have read "you have to treat trading like a business" and yet clearly 99% of the people trying to make it in the trading business have no clue as to it means to compose, budget, and execute a business plan.

 

The first post of DbPhoenix's Trading Journal/Trading Log thread is a great staring point for someone who truly wants to try to treat his trading as a business and not a video game or a trip to Vegas.

 

There is also a good article or two at Linda Raschke's website on business planning.

 

I use TC2000 for my charting, and in the older archived Worden Reports that come out nightly, you can find scattered throughout examples of trading/business plans submitted by other stock traders.

 

There is no reason not to compose a trading plan, a business plan, and to keep a daily or weekly log of your progress and problems in executing your plan, only excuses.

 

I hate to sound like some sort of self-help guru, but success is not an accident, except in very rare cases. Success is the result of planning and the discipline and desire to execute your plan, and the ability to recognize mistakes and to revise and alter your course when necessary. Hard work does not lead to success. Focused and planned work yields success.

[forexlady101 10]

Sure I am. To succeed a trader must always keep a trading journal.

[Obsidian 10]

....I hate to sound like some sort of self-help guru, but success is not an accident, except in very rare cases. Success is the result of planning and the discipline and desire to execute your plan, and the ability to recognize mistakes and to revise and alter your course when necessary. Hard work does not lead to success. Focused and planned work yields success.

 

Visualizing the trades we take help us imporove our performance for sure..even if we are wrong, we can see how it ended..maybe we put stop-loss in a wrong place, or completely messed up the direction...we can also see which instruments/time frames were more beneficial etc...analyze your statistical information as well..

[startuprob 10]

Keeping a record of why trades are made, along with other things (i.e. mood) can be very helpful to draw insights into one's trading psychology.

[TheNegotiator 13]

Keeping a record of why trades are made, along with other things (i.e. mood) can be very helpful to draw insights into one's trading psychology.

 

and that's the key - how you use the data you collect.