Practice · journal
A useful trading journal records decisions, not just P&L.
The journal is evidence for or against your report. It should show what you knew, what you planned, what changed, and whether you followed the process.
Before the trade
Record the instrument, setup name, observation timeframe, entry condition, invalidation condition, planned exit logic, and the maximum process risk allowed by your own policy. Add the strongest opposing fact. If any field is blank, the observation is not ready.
During the trade
Time-stamp only material changes: trigger reached, order filled, thesis challenged, rule-based adjustment, or exit. Avoid writing a live story around every tick. The goal is to preserve what changed the decision, not to create a diary of anxiety.
After the trade
Grade plan adherence separately from outcome. A losing trade can be a correct execution; a profitable trade can violate every rule. Note costs, slippage, missed information, and whether the product behaved as expected.
Tag the recurring friction
Use a small fixed vocabulary such as early entry, late exit, crowd urgency, size drift, stop movement, unplanned add, news reaction, or no-review. New tags should be rare; otherwise every mistake becomes unique and cannot be counted.
Review after a fixed sample
After thirty observations, count rule adherence, skipped trades, friction tags, and conditions where execution changed. Do not optimize from win rate alone. Decide whether to keep the rule, simplify one condition, or stop testing the setup.
Start with personality. Finish with a process you can actually test.
Time and experience get the final say. If a method needs attention you cannot reliably give it, the method moves down the list.