Why most journals are useless
Many traders log their trades for two weeks, then stop. The problem isn't motivation: they log too much, and never review anything. A good journal fits in a few fields, takes under a minute to fill in, and gets reviewed every week.
1. What to log after each trade
Facts first, so your stats are accurate:
- the instrument, the side (long or short), the entry and exit date and time;
- your entry price, your stop and your target;
- the result in R: your profit or loss divided by what you risked. A +2 R trade earned twice your risk.
Then the context, which is what explains your results:
- the strategy you used, in one word;
- whether the trade followed your plan: yes or no, no nuance;
- your state before entering: calm, rushed, frustrated after a loss.
Measuring in R rather than dollars makes your trades comparable, even when your position size changes. To calculate a size that matches your risk exactly, use our position size calculator.
2. Review it every week, 15 minutes
Once a week, ask yourself four questions, with numbers:
- Which session and which day make me money? Which ones cost me?
- What's the difference in results between my trades inside and outside my plan?
- What happens right after a loss: do I stop, or keep going?
- Which strategy has the best average result per trade?
For most traders, one or two answers stand out quickly: a session to drop, revenge trades after a loss, a strategy that no longer works. That's where the journal pays off. The most common ones each have a guide: revenge trading, overtrading and cutting winners too early.
3. The mistakes that make a journal useless
- Logging only the good trades. Losses are the trades that teach you the most.
- Logging the next day. You no longer remember your state of mind, and that's often the explanation.
- Drawing conclusions from 10 trades. Wait for at least thirty trades before judging a strategy.
- Changing strategy every week. Without a stable sample, your journal can't tell you anything.
Notebook, spreadsheet or app?
A notebook is enough to start: what matters is writing things down. A spreadsheet lets you calculate your stats, but takes time to build the formulas and charts. An app like Kova imports your trades from MetaTrader, calculates everything, and shows you directly where you win and where you lose. You keep your time for the part that matters: reviewing and correcting.