All experts say that traders should keep a journal..,
Why keep a journal?
- Thread starter padutrader
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MattZ
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May these steps will help you https://optimusfutures.com/tradeblog/archives/end-trading-day/
You should. I am teaching a friend how to trade but, she refuses to maintain a trading journal. I tell her, how can you find out what you are doing wrong? And if you cannot find out your mistakes, how are you going to be able to correct them? When you correct your mistakes, you become a far better trader right away! Less mistakes means less losses, less large losses, more profits if you have a trading edge! How do you know if you have a trading edge? Again, you have to have a trading journal to measure your average gains vs average loss, your winning percentage, your losing percentage, your average gain to average loss ratio. If you have an edge over say 500 trades in one year, you will make monies! Remember too that your gains have to be far larger than your losses!
forget the journal
It sharpens your senses, you become more accountable, the feedback is often helpful, it makes one more careful.
I'm having a dig at you in some of your posts, but I do it in jest, teasing a little.
Really a public journal like that on ET, is benificial, you become open to scrutiny and often hidden flaws you cannot see in yourself are revealed.
Backtest Trade Method ---> Simulator Trading w/ Documenting & Journaling ---> Real Money Trading w/ Documenting & Journaling
If your the type that can self-help your own trading...a private trade journal is suitable. In contrast, if you find yourself asking a lot of questions about trading or you're very confused about your own trading...a public trade journal is suitable.
Trade journal helps resolve issues much faster than without one. Most don't do it because they realize they actually have to do work...aka the lazy trader. Also, if you have to one day ask someone specifically to help you with your trading...that trade journal will help him/her to do such because you'll have the data/stats/info for that person to review about your trading.
Nobody has a perfect memory nor can they remember the market context of a specific trading day in the past...a trade journal can do that for you. Also, make sure you're able to download your trade journal so that you're not dependent upon someone to store it online for you.
Its your dairy as a trader.
wrbtrader
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Definitely keep a journal. It helps you do more of the better things and identify the bad things you might have started doing either as a revised plan or just by chance.
Don't log every piece of data. e.g. there's no need to record prices: just record why you got in, why you got out, and if price made your target or not and if not why not.
Don't forget you might want to log information from beyond the trade - e.g. the base currency's current central bank interest rate and its recent direction, or the prevailing stock index's current trend etc.
Once you've identified good things you do and bad things you do, hopefully you will find good things make up 80% of your activity. If you want to get better, spend most of your efforts trying to improve the 80%, NOT trying to reduce the 20%.
Don't log every piece of data. e.g. there's no need to record prices: just record why you got in, why you got out, and if price made your target or not and if not why not.
Don't forget you might want to log information from beyond the trade - e.g. the base currency's current central bank interest rate and its recent direction, or the prevailing stock index's current trend etc.
Once you've identified good things you do and bad things you do, hopefully you will find good things make up 80% of your activity. If you want to get better, spend most of your efforts trying to improve the 80%, NOT trying to reduce the 20%.
thanks
if everyone pampers us we become complacent,digs do help us to be honest.
not everyone realize how difficult it is to post ,the time effort, and the written word is mostly mis understood,so it is not easy to explain something as complex as trading in writing so i appreciate all comments .
Yes, there is quite a lot of effort required to run a journal, it pays often to have an end date, that way one doesn't feel forced to continue on endlessly into a boredom stage.
You could run a journal for a specufic reason, then curtail it after maybe a month or two. Then at a later date start afresh with a different slant on another topic.
You could run a journal for a specufic reason, then curtail it after maybe a month or two. Then at a later date start afresh with a different slant on another topic.
you seem to know what you are talking about.
also i see you in ET for 9 years
i wish i found this in 2003 when i was trading positions in indian stock market fuutures-those were the days buy anything keep for 3 months get out with a lot of money.