Keeping a Trading Journal
A 1-minute lesson from the MarketPro academy, one of 22 in risk management.
Memory is a terrible database: it exaggerates wins, buries losses and invents patterns. A journal replaces feelings with data.
Why journal
Memory is a terrible database: it exaggerates wins, buries losses and invents patterns. A journal replaces feelings with data. It is the single highest-value habit available to a developing trader, and it costs nothing.
What to record per trade
- Facts: date and session, pair, direction, entry, stop, target, size, result in R (not just currency).
- Reasoning: the setup type and why the trade qualified — one or two honest sentences written before entry.
- Execution quality: did you follow your plan on entry, stop and exit? A trade can be a losing trade and a perfect execution, or a winner and a discipline failure.
- State: a quick note on mood and focus. Patterns here are often the most surprising.
Finish this lesson in the MarketPro app
4 more sections of Keeping a Trading Journal, plus all 320 lessons, the quizzes that check each one landed, and the streak that keeps you coming back. All of it is free on any account, including a free one. There is no paywall inside the academy.
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Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Lesson 6 of 22 in Risk management
Run the numbers while this is fresh
The arithmetic in this category has a free calculator on this site, no sign-up and nothing leaves your browser: Position size calculator, Risk of ruin calculator, Drawdown calculator, Profit & loss calculator.
The whole academy is free in the app
All 320 lessons, 12 guided paths, quizzes and a daily streak. Free on every account, with vetted free signals alongside it.
Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.