A trading journal is one of the ways to increase discipline and identify trading strengths and weaknesses. All professional traders have trading journals for themselves and attach great importance to it.
Usually, for beginner traders who have just entered this field, writing a journal is not very understandable and they often refuse to create a trading journal for themselves. Most of the beginners are usually not familiar with how to write a journal and think that only writing the reason for the transaction and the entry and exit time is enough. While writing a journal requires attention to many things that we will discuss in full in the following explanations.
how to write trading journal
1402-11-13 مقالات آموزشی
How to improve a trade journal
Unfortunately, most novice traders, while writing a trading journal for themselves, limit themselves to some simple and basic information. Usually, they only record the time of opening and closing the trade, the point of entry and exit from the trade, as well as the reason for entry. Apart from the parameter of the reason for entering into the transaction, the rest of the things mentioned in the journal are not very important. It is not important to write things like the entry price or the time and date of the transaction in the trading journal. Because all these parameters can be seen accurately in the trading report or statement.
In general, 3 very important parameters that should be mentioned in the trading journal include the following:
The main reason for entering the transaction and the decision criteria for the trade.
Emotional states such as fear, anxiety and greed before, during and after the transaction.
Another thing that should be recorded in the trading journal is the physical state of the trader. Such as energy level, concentration level, physical discomfort such as headache and so on
Record the reason for entering in the trade journal
The trader must have clear and precise reasons for the transactions he makes and know the main reason for entering the position. Every transaction that is done must have a reason and the trader must record it completely in the journal.
Professional traders have specific strategies for entering and exiting trades. They usually have 1 to 3 trading setups and trade with one of them according to the conditions.
With any strategy that works, the trader should record in the journal what he was thinking about at the moment of entering the trade. The reasons for entering and exiting the transaction in the journal are very important and should be recorded. Because by using it, you can identify low yield and high yield setups well. Therefore, for weak setups, you can reduce the volume of the transaction and for strong setups, you can increase your volume reasonably.
Recording emotional and mental states in the trade journal
The emotional and mental states of traders have a lot of influence on the way they conduct transactions and manage them. Many times traders' mistakes are due to their inability to control their emotions. For example, a trader may not be able to bear the loss of more than 3 trades, and after that, because of feeling angry, he starts making irrational trades.
By recording your momentary emotions before, during and after the trade, you can better find your emotional patterns. For example, by reading his trading journal, a trader may come to the conclusion that when he is feeling greedy, he does not make good trades and his success rate decreases a lot during this time. In this way, he learns not to trade when such a feeling occurs
Things like physical discomfort during trading can have negative effects on trading management. By recording physical states such as low concentration, headache, cold, etc., you can find inappropriate states during trading. Therefore, if you see such situations during trading, you can reduce the volume of your transactions or do not complete a transaction.
Traders are usually advised to record all their trades in the trading journal at the beginning of their work. With the passage of time and the registration of about 100 trades, it is easy to recognize negative situations during the trade.
It is best to put a mark in the trading journal for very good quality trades, as well as very bad trades. In this way, you can repeat the actions that led to your good trades every day, and on the other hand, avoid situations and actions that cause you losses.
