Why journal?

[heavenskrow]

Personally I've found journals to be too much time consuming.
Maybe the method I was doing wrong/took forever, but manually copy pasting every intraday chart and my thought process was too much.

Actually last year I changed to doing video journals of every trade, my thought psyche and it has helped tremendously.
The only downside was that I forgot to backup my data and when my HDD crashed, I lost all my 2015 data..... That data alone was prob worth thousands.

As far as ET journal, it is very hard to put the extra energy to write down exactly when you entered the trade unless you are strictly entering on limits/stops. Instead, I recently started a journal on what I think is "fishy". Fishy being a different feeling in the market than previous sessions. So far it has been pretty accurate, and I continue on jotting down every thought that comes to me when market starts behaving differently.

 

[Unequivocaltim]

I began to journal, only to find it was past tense. Helps me zero with now tension. I choose no,
forward trading is the only way to learn.

Na zdrowie,
Tim

 

[schizo]

Trading journal is not a diary!

It should be used to write trading stats, eg. cold facts, and not your psychological hogwash. For example, win/loss ratio is more telling than "Oh, I just felt like the market might move up so I went long."

 

[damnpenguins]

I've had a journal here since last Jan maybe? I wouldn't call it a trade journal, more a development journal if that makes sense.

The good:
I was really lucky to receive a lot of help from a lot of great people. It was the help I received from one person in particular that has changed everything for me. If I hadn't put myself out there, those people wouldn't have reached out to me....

In Short: Best trading decision I ever made was to start a journal here.

 

[lawrence-lugar]

I do many of these things on my own, I really mean why do people journal here at ET?
Of the three respondents so far, none of you appear to have a journal here...

If I had to keep a journal -- I'd rather make my own private one from a paper notebook and pen. I don't want to be analyzed online.

And besides, I trade very simply...my strategy is very simple. I only trade one thing. -- so keeping a journal is not that necessary, atleast in my case. Only takes a few minutes to reflect....and even then, you win some..you lose some...you move on. don't dwell too much on the past.

I guess people make online trading forum journals...because they are amateurs looking for advice, to develop a following. and/or bored. Usually these type of people have goals...of making a certain % return amount in a day/week/month/year

 

[wrbtrader]

Trading journal is not a diary!

It should be used to write trading stats, eg. cold facts, and not your psychological hogwash. For example, win/loss ratio is more telling than "Oh, I just felt like the market might move up so I went long."

That's B.S.

A trading journal is about ANYTHING that's involved in you trading. Nobody stated that you should use psychology to "replace" stats. On the contrary, what is stated is that stats alone doesn't not tell you market context, trade strategy used (for those using different strategies in the same day), why you enter early or exit early, why you didn't follow the trading plan and many other things that you are not going to remember 3 months for now.

You can record ANYTHING involved in your trading. Yeah, the stupid thing you just wrote...I do not consider it journal useful information.

In contrast, try a passage like this...

"Its a snow storm outside and a tree just crashed through my kitchen window. I'm exiting this trade early @ 1876.50 to cleanup the problem and call the repair guy"

Guess what, stats will not explain that particular trade. In contrast, the above passage has clearly identified what happen in that trade. Here's another journal passage.

"I've just had 3 consecutive small losing trades via not following the trading plan of strategy ABC. Trade 4 I followed the trading plan of strategy ABC and the profits easily compensated for the 3 losing trades plus allowing me to reach my monthly target."

Guess again, stats will not explain the above nor give you any clues. In combination, it doesn't matter if you re-read that info the next morning, next year or 5 years from now...explaining the reason why you did what you did gives you a wealth of information especially when you need feedback to help adapt when market conditions have changed. Markets are always changing and if you're a discretionary trader (not using automation)...stats by themselves will not help you to adapt.

Once again, if you post junk like what you just said as part of your trade journal...yeah...its just hogwash. Seriously, pretend you're reading your own trade journal where you've posted trading related info that's not related to any stats...do you post hogwash stuff like that in your journal that's not even related to anything psychology other than you implying its psychology ?

The answer is NO. I know that for fact because I've read your journal.

For example of psychology hogwash (your words) from your own trade journal...

...On the other hand, what irritated me earlier was that first trade. I had placed this trade just before hitting the bed. I realized later that I pretty much nailed that bottom...

There's many more quotes from your journal where you've made comments associated with psychological reasons involving your trades or things that occurred between your trades. Therefore, if it truly is hogwash...why do you include the content in your trade journal ???

Now imagine if your trade journal was only just stats and you were reading it 6 months later to see what has changed in your trading...you would not be able to determine if the change was market related, your strategy or if it was just you if it had only contained stats.

Private Journal - Usually for those that are not looking for help and just want to document whatever they think is important in their journal.

Public Journal - Usually for those seeking help or for those trying to use the readers to help them stay focus in their trading plan.

 

[speedo]

Every week, I go over each days chart and enter on a legal pad with a #2 pencil the valid signals per my trade plan(keeps me closer to the action than excel etc.) Outside the margin goes the date, inside the margin goes the numbered trade of the day (1,2,3,4,...) next to that goes L (long) or S, next is the entry price, next is my shorthand for the type of trade, next is time of entry, next is maximum favorable excursion, next is maximum adverse excursion if a win and no entry if a loss as I have a max stop loss, finally W or L with the ticks of either.

I then print out my actual executions for the week and compare the two documents.

Did I take all my signals
Were all my entries valid
Did I get out before target
etc

I found that this exercise has helped to illuminate my weaknesses and strengths and keeps my game sharp. I've done this for years and will continue as long as I trade. If this helps anyone, great. If you want to hack it, keep it to yourself, It matters not to me if you don't like it.

 

[speedo]

I neglected to add that the final column also notes scratches. At the end of the week I add up the number of trades, wins, losses, scratches, and associated ticks, net and figure percentages. At the end of the month I do the same additions and summary. Periodically, I pull out the stack of pads and review trends through the weeks, months and years.

 

[TimBox75]

I do many of these things on my own, I really mean why do people journal here at ET?

I keep journal here in ET too because I hope someday when my trading is not going very well someone will give me an advice that will make things better.. might be false hope but who knows..

 

[fortydraws]

Journaling has been invaluable to me. I used to keep a handwritten journal on loose leaf, but now I keep it in typewritten form. I print out each day's entry and it goes into a three ring binder with printouts of the day's trades and charts and equity run. I still maintain hand written annotations on my charts.

I keep one for my discretionary trading, and one for the auto strats I'm working on and running.

I also have sections devoted to market & price observations, and I also keep a journal of contributions by others hat I find interesting and potentially useful, from "market wizards" such as Linda Raschke and Victor Sperandeo to posts from ET'ers such as @dbphoenix, @i am nobody , @Rearden Metal, @Ghost_of_Blotto , @rallymode , @PitchBlack , @wrbtrader , @KDASFTG and a number of others.

In general, I imagine a journal is going to be a sort of "garbage in, garbage out" document, and what constitutes "garbage" for someone else might be a treasure to me, and vice versa.

As to doing it publically versus privately, for myself I have found this to be much more productive by keeping to myself.