Journaling 101: Track, identify, and improve your trading performance
Guest writer: @deltaxbt
Traders often face a wide range of challenges and obstacles in the pursuit of success. One of the most effective ways to overcome these challenges and improve your performance as a trader is by keeping a trading journal, and making sure you journal everything, from trades to thoughts and feelings.
When I first started trading, I found mixed opinions about managing a trading journal.
Some said itâs a waste of time and that all you have to do is watch your balance to see if itâs going up or down. Others said you have to journal every single thing you do in the markets religiously to analyze it later.
The anti-journaling club splits into two:
Those who are profitable traders and manage to make money consistently without journaling, well, what if thereâs something youâre doing that, if changed or eliminated, could boost your profits by a significant percentage?
And those who arenât profitable, who continue losing money regularly and donât journal, why would you keep doing the same thing every day when you know it isnât working? How will you find out what the issue is if you donât track the actions that lead to bad results?
The truth is that journaling is an essential part of trading, and every trader should do it. By collecting data, you learn more about what you do right, wrong, and what you could do better.
The only reason not to manage a trading journal is laziness. Sadly, most people donât journal at all.
Why Journal?
The goal of journaling is to help you answer three very important questions when it comes to trading:
1- How can you make more money from your winning trades?
2- How can you lose less money from your losing trades?
3- How can you generate more winning trades?
- Tom Dante
Journaling every single trade and keeping a written record of your thoughts and feelings is a powerful practice. It helps you reflect on your trading ideas and strategies, gain insights, track your progress over time, and identify patterns in your execution and thinking.
The Importance of a Trading Journal
The importance of having a trading journal cannot be overstated. Itâs a valuable tool for tracking your progress, identifying patterns, improving your performance, and staying disciplined and focused.
Whether youâre just starting as a trader or already experienced, a trading journal can help you reach your trading goals and continually refine your approach.
Recommended Trading Journals
Google Sheets / Microsoft Excel: You can always create your own journal with the information you think matters. There are many templates available online, such as this very basic one that takes five minutes to make:
CoinMarketMan.com: A fully automated, crypto-oriented journaling platform that collects data about your trades from exchanges via a read-only API. It provides detailed statistics, trade screenshots, and other useful information. The service is paid, but you can use a referral link for lifetime free access.
As you can see from these examples: and from well-built Google Sheets or Excel journals, you can extract a lot of valuable information.
From analyzing your average trade duration and its correlation with performance, to identifying which strategies work best for you, or even pinpointing the days and times when you perform most effectively.
Having a detailed journal wonât show you the future or guarantee profits, but it will reveal what you do best (positive expected value) and what drags you down (negative expected value).
Thatâs the secret to longevity.
Great Additions to a Trading Journal
Document your feelings at the end of each day: Emotions are powerful. Itâs worth summarizing your day in a notepad or file so that when you review your journal later, you can correlate emotional states with trading outcomes. If a specific day looks unusual, you can revisit your notes to find potential causes.
Keep a live trading log: If possible, take notes as you trade. This helps you understand your real-time decision-making process, why you entered certain trades, what patterns or setups you saw, or how news influenced your thinking.
Use the âDemon Hunterâ
Demon Hunter is a document shared by Tom Dante where you track every recurring mistake you canât seem to stop making, whether itâs taking profit too early, revenge trading, or trading out of boredom.
Create a similar chart for yourself, fill in the âdemonsâ youâre aware of, and commit to following the âstop tradingâ rule when you hit it. Missing a day of trading to reflect and reset is far better than repeating the same mistakes the next day and losing more.
Final Thoughts
Having a well-maintained journal packed with information wonât predict the markets, but it will guide you toward better habits, clearer decisions, and a sustainable trading journey.
Good luck, anon.
Delta
Disclaimer: The ideas shared in this article reflect the authorâs personal views and experiences, not Kumaâs. The platform simply provides space for traders and writers to share their perspectives. Nothing here should be considered financial advice. Always do your own research.
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