The Ultimate Guide to Trading Journal: What to Include and Why

Keeping a trading journal is a powerful tool for improving your trading performance. Stock trading is a serious business and it has the potential to earn you handsome gains. However, successful and profitable trading requires well planned stock trading strategies, mathematical calculations, learning about the mistakes and correcting them.

By tracking your trades, analyzing your successes and failures and identifying patterns in your behavior, you can gain valuable insights into your trading strategy and make more informed decisions in the future.

Making a trading journal is an important part of your trading because you record all the important aspects of each trade in this journal. Looking and reviewing it regularly helps you find the errors you make in trading and what you can do to make your trading more rewarding and profitable.

If you do not learn about your past mistakes, it is quite likely that you will keep repeating them. This is not a good thing for your trading and your money.

Most of the traders do not maintain a the journal and majority of them even do not know what is trading journal. Consequently, they are unable to correct themselves and keep loosing in the stock markets.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know to get started with a trading journal.

What Is Trading Journal

A trading journal is a record of all of your trades, including the entry and exit points, the position size, the reason for the trade, and the outcome. It is important because it allows you to review your trades and identify patterns in your behavior that may be affecting your performance.

By analyzing your trades regularly, you can find your mistakes and learn from them. This helps you refine your strategy and make more informed trading decisions in the future. A trading journal is an essential tool for any serious trader looking to improve their performance.

You can write this information simply on a plain paper or get a computer generated spreadsheet based journal. You should write all the important data about each trade before or after a trade and it also makes your trading plan.

Having a written trading plan removes human emotions from trading. You know exactly when you enter and exit a trade, your profit target, your risk level and the reason why you entered the trade.

Online trading journal are available to download on internet which may include some fee. I have created a simple journal which I use for my trading activities (see image below). It is quite useful to track my performance.

You can download this free trading journal excel sheet at below link. You can also make changes to it according to your requirements.

This spreadsheet consists of multiple columns to enter the various parts of a trade. I talk about them further down when we discuss what should a trading journal include.

What Should a Trading Journal Include

Your trading journal should include all the relevant information about each trade you make. This includes the date and time of the trade, the stock you traded, your entry and exit points, the position size, the reason for the trade and the outcome.

You should also include any notes, comments or remarks about the trade, such as your thought process at the time or any external factors that may have influenced your decision.

It’s important to be as detailed as possible in your journal, so that you can accurately analyze your trades and identify areas for improvement.

A good journal should include following components of a trade :-

1. Stock symbol of the stock you are trading in
2. Date of trade initiation
3. Total capital put in the trade or the number of shares you bought or short sell
4. Date of trade exit
5. Total capital you got back
6. Profit or loss incurred
7. Brokerage charged for the trade
8. Net gain (6-7)
9. Trading instrument used like delivery trading, futures trading or options trading
10. Direction of trade – long or short
11. Signal which lead you to enter the trade
12. Remarks about this trade (feedback)

These components are enough to track your performance in stock trading.

How to Analyze Your Trading Journal to Identify Patterns and Improve Performance

Once you have been keeping a trading journal for a while, you can start to analyze it to identify patterns and areas for improvement.

Look for trends in your trades, such as which assets you tend to trade most frequently or which times of day you are most successful. You can also use your journal to identify any recurring mistakes or bad habits that may be holding you back.

By analyzing your journal regularly, you can make more informed trading decisions and ultimately improve your overall performance.

Tips for Maintaining Consistency and Discipline in Journaling

Consistency and discipline are key when it comes to maintaining a trading journal.

Set aside a specific time each day or week to update your journal and stick to it. Make sure to include all relevant information, such as the date and time of each trade, the asset traded, the entry and exit prices, and any notes or observations you have about the trade.

It can also be helpful to establish a routine for reviewing and analyzing your journal, such as setting aside time each month to look for patterns and areas for improvement.

Remember, the more consistent and disciplined you are with your journaling, the more valuable it will be in helping you improve your trading performance.

Examples of Successful Traders Who use Trading Journals

Many successful traders swear by the use of trading journals to improve their performance.

Paul Tudor Jones, a billionaire hedge fund manager, has been keeping a trading journal for over 30 years. He credits his success to the insights he gains from reviewing his journal regularly.

Another professional trader and author, Linda Raschke, has been keeping a trading journal for over 25 years. She believes that journaling is essential for developing discipline and consistency in trading.

By following in the footsteps of these successful traders, you too can benefit from the power of a trading journal.

Conclusion

A trading journal is a must for a serious trader. Maintaining and reviewing the journal might sharpen your trading skills by finding out your strengths and mistakes in your trading.

Although a tedious task involving lots of data entry, you must maintain a journal or trading dairy to take your trading to higher level.