How to journal a trade (what to record and why)

A trading journal is a record of what you traded, why, and what happened. Memory quietly rewrites the story — we remember our good calls and forget our bad ones — so a written journal is the only honest mirror of your real habits. It is the closest thing to a coach a self-taught trader has.

The goal is not a beautiful spreadsheet. It is a habit consistent enough that, over weeks, patterns in your own behaviour become impossible to ignore.

Step 1: Before entering, write down the instrument, the direction, your reason for the trade, your planned entry, stop-loss, and take-profit, and how much you are risking (ideally around 1%).

Step 2: Take a quick screenshot of the chart at entry, marking the levels. A picture captures context that words miss.

Step 3: While the trade is open, note anything you did that was not in the plan — moving a stop, closing early, adding size — and, crucially, how you felt.

Step 4: After it closes, record the result in money and in pips, whether you followed your plan, and one honest sentence on what you would repeat or change.

The single most valuable column is not profit or loss — it is "did I follow my plan?". A losing trade taken correctly is a good trade; a winning trade taken by breaking your rules is a warning. Judging yourself on process rather than outcome is what separates learning from gambling.

Once a week, read back over your entries. Look for repeated mistakes — overtrading when bored, moving stops when scared, sizing up after a win. Those patterns are where your real improvement lies.

Start journaling on day one, including on demo. A journal only helps if it is honest, so record the embarrassing trades too — those are usually the most instructive. It costs no money and risks nothing, and it is one of the few genuinely reliable edges a beginner can build.