Trading Journals
Imagine running an F1 car without keeping track of the best and worst laps. Sure, you could eyeball the data and hope for the best, but one misstep and youāre crashing into a bad day. A trading journal is your logbook on the track, helping reduce the chances of those crashes. It captures every idea, impulse, and execution so future you can sift the data, spot what works, and ditch what doesnāt.
What exactly is a trading journal?
Think of it as one part diary, one part performance tracker, and one part strategy lab. In a single place:
The mechanics: what you bought or sold, how much, and at what price.
The motive: why you took the trade, what the market looked like, and what you expected next.
The mindset: the cocktail of emotions running through your head before, during, and after the position.
When you review this blend of hard numbers and raw feelings, patterns jump off the page. Maybe you discover the impulse that led you to take a trade, and why it was a good or bad decision. That kind of self-awareness is the whole point.
Why bother?
A well-kept journal tends to:
Keep you honest. You canāt hide a FOMO entry once itās in black and white.
Build discipline. Writing down a setup forces you to slow down and think before clicking buy.
Highlight edge. Over time, youāll spot which strategies print and which ones drain.
Expose leaks. Tilt, revenge trades, over-sizing, they all glow red once the data piles up.
Professional traders swear by this process because it turns random trades into a repeatable business.
Setting yours up
Use whatever medium youāll actually stick with: a leather notebook, a Notion page, Apple Notes, or a simple text file. The tool doesnāt matter, consistency does. At minimum, track:
Date and time
Asset and direction
Entry price, position size, and exit plan
Market context (trend, news, key levels)
Preātrade reasoning
Postātrade outcome and reflection
Snap a chart screenshot if it helps lock in the setup. The goal is to make every trade fully reconstructableāeven weeks later.
Pro tips for extra lift
Tag themes. Label trades by strategy (breakout, mean reversion, news scalp) so performance is easy to filter.
Track mood. A quick 1ātoā5 happiness score can reveal if stress correlates with bad decisions.
Note the market weather. High-volatility days might favor different tactics than sleepy ranges.
Stay consistent. A half-filled journal is as useful as an unplugged Ledger.
Final thought
Markets move too fast for memory alone. By capturing every tick of your thought process, a trading journal turns chaos into something you can actually learn from. You wouldnāt ape into a token without checking the chart, why trade without tracking your brain?
Give it a few weeks of honest use, and your numbersāand confidenceāshould speak for themselves.
About Kuma
Kuma is a double-down bet on what works for decentralized trading: speed, security, and transparency. From the team behind the No.1 DEX from 2017-2019, and powered by Berachainās Proof-of-Liquidity, Kuma delivers one-click onboarding, seamless mobile trading via Kuma Connect, and gas-free settlement. Traders of all sizes have an edge thanks to millisecond execution and complete control of their funds.
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