Here is what I put in my trading diary template: Still wondering what you put into your Forex trading journal? Let me help you get started. If you are serious about getting better, then this is highly recommended for keeping up with current market conditions.Īlso consider capturing lower timeframe charts and charts from related markets, such as gold, oil, stocks, etc. There is no way that I can take every single trade (and expect to get any sleep) without an EA, but I can benefit from learning from every single valid setup. This is not to beat myself up about missing the trade, but just to get the benefit of going through the trading process and get more practice. I will also be recording trades that I missed. Is that a good pattern to trade on that pair and timeframe? You might also observe a Big Shadow on the GBPNZD 30 minute chart. You should note that down, so you can backtest it later. I can remember a few times in the past that I noticed patterns that could be a good trading system, but I forgot them because I didn't write them down.įor example, say that you are sitting at your computer one night and see that the AUDJPY seems to bounce particularly hard off of the 00 levels…more than other pairs. The first thing that I will be journaling is the possible setups that I occasionally see in the market. It is a good way to create notes that I can go back to later and possibly turn into new trading methods. These things cannot be journaled in MyFxBook, so that is where something like Evernote is especially helpful. Now that we have the basic stuff out of the way, let's get into two other things that we can journal that will make us better traders. If Evernote isn't quite your thing, you can also try using Trello. I'm working on a solution, but until that's ready, I recommend using Evernote with MyFxBook. It's a shame because that site as so much potential. It still works, but it doesn't always work well.Īs I mentioned here, there really needs to be a dedicated journaling site, with automatic trade updates…that actually works.įXStats (formerly Tradingrex) comes close, but the new owners are not interested in making the product better and only want to collect affiliate commissions from annoying popup ads. MyFxBook used to be pretty good, as I mentioned here. On mobile, just use the emoji button on your keyboard.On Windows, open the touch keyboard from the icon in the lower right corner.On Mac, press Control + Command + Space Bar to bring up the emoji menu.To add an emoji, you can do the following:
Feel free to use emojis that make sense to you. Did I follow the exit rules for this strategy?Īs you can see, this makes it really easy to see how well you are trading, just by taking a glance at your list of notes.
Exit rating, out of a possible 5 points.How would I rate the quality of the entry setup? Entry rating, out of a possible 5 points.The easiest way that I have found to do this is to use emojis in the title of the note. You could use another spreadsheet, but who needs another one of those…right?! The only thing that matters is if you followed your trading plan and if you took an A+ setup.īut it can be difficult to keep track of how well you are doing.
Remember a losing trade is not necessarily a bad trade and a winning trade is not necessarily a good trade. Try not to make it too complex, but a basic set of tags can go a long way to helping you review your trading log faster. You could also tag all of the trades that were taken using a particular system. For example, you could tag all of your losing trades, to see if you are making a common mistake. One useful thing that you can do is tag your trades, so they are easier to study later. I use Evernote as my trading journal app because it makes it really easy to organize my notes and I can access my trading log from any internet connected device.īut what you use is up to you. Of course, you don't have to use Evernote, there are many other alternatives. You could just use Microsoft Word or even a free Blogger blog.