Journals
As important as your trading plan is, the document that is of primary
importance for your trading success is your trading journal. This will list all
the trades you took over the past week and
serve as a record for you to
review. In addition to written records, you should also save screenshots of
your trades on entry and exit.
Remember to also save screenshots of the market condition on the higher
time frame on trade entry. Many times, on review, you will notice how you
might have misjudged the higher time frame action. Below are the things
your trading journal needs to record at a minimum:
Date
Instrument (the ticker or name of the stock)
Entry price
Stop-loss level
Stop distance
Position size
Reasons for entry (describe in as much detail why this
entry was in line with your strategy and what you saw)
Reasons
or exit
Exit date
P/L
Mental state on entry
Mental state on exit
You can either have this recorded on a spreadsheet or in a notebook; it
doesn’t matter where as long as you can review it easily.
Save your
screenshots in a numbered manner and in appropriate folders. In addition to
this, you can also record your screen and yourself during the session and
review your demeanor and market action at the time of entry to verify
whether you were seeing things correctly.
Remember, the more information you record at the time, the more potential
things there are for you to improve and learn.
Aside from the trading journal, you should also keep a mental journal. This
is simply a record of what your mental state was during the session and if
anything was bothering you at the time. It’s up to you as to how much
information
you want to put in here, but you must aim to record whether
you followed your preparation routines properly on that particular day.
Your prep routine can include physical exercise, meditation, visualization,
affirmations, skill practice, and so on. It’s up to you to decide what you
want to include. Your aim should be to include things that are as repeatable
as possible. Don’t include too many things because you like the idea of it
but will be stretched for time when it comes to implementing it.
The last journal you need to have is a review journal. You can incorporate
this within your trade journal itself or as a separate document. When you’re
starting out, if it is logistically possible, I’d
recommend reviewing your
session after a 30-minute break once it ends. This way, the action is still
fresh in your mind, and you’re more relaxed.
Go through all your trades and review the screenshots.
Review the video
recording as well to confirm and check if what you saw was true. Record
what you did incorrectly and, even more importantly, record what you did
right. The review is not just about finding things to improve; it’s also to
celebrate things you did right.