Are you a Trader (whether Forex, Crypto, Stock, Synthetic Indices, etc.) and you’ve been struggling to make a consistent profit?

Struggle no more! because I was also in your shoe some months ago, and I will be sharing with you, a Trade Journal, which was the tool that really helped me. One of the issues I was having then was poor trade management, but this tool really helped me solved that.

I want you to view a forex trading journal as a record book where you put down your trading activities. Just as a business owner keep track of their sales, a trader should also keep up with his/her trade records. All you need to do now is grab a glass of water or coffee and feel relaxed while you read through as I will be breaking things down for you.

What exactly is a TRADE JOURNAL?

A trading journal is a log that contains your day-to-day trading activities, and keeping one is a bit difficult and maybe time-consuming. However, it will really help you monitor both your trading system’s performance and your ability to execute it with consistency.

Keeping a trade record will not only benefit you but will also make you a disciplined trader, and also allows you to learn more about yourself and the overall trading psychology. See it as your “dossier” that you use to keep track of your trades and actions in your trading account where you can “evaluate” your solid points and review your weaknesses in your strategy and trading style in order to make improvements.

Why you need a TRADE JOURNAL

“A disciplined trader is a profitable trader and keeping a trading journal is the first step to building your discipline.”

-babypips

Identify, Review, Learn and Work on your weaknesses:

It allows you to go through all your trades and see where you went wrong, try to consider your errors from now on, and when the time comes to go over your trading journal again, compare the results of the two periods to see if you’ve made any progress. By consistently keeping a track of your trades, you will be able to see where you might be falling short in order to work on them.

Goal Setting:

Keeping a journal is a perfect way to determine what goals you want to accomplish, how you will track your success, and what you will do to achieve your next targets.

Accountability:

When you keep a trading log, you are less likely to make trades that are not part of your trading strategy, therefore, it makes you accountable for all your trades.

Risk Management:

A trading journal will help you identify areas where you might be making errors in risk management. It’s possible that you’re not taking enough risk to make a significant reward by setting the stop loss too close to the current price, or that your position is too small to lead in any kind of real benefit.

Improves your Trading Psychology:

Trader’s emotions play an important role in Forex Trading. A trading journal will help you see if you make thoughtless decisions after a string of good trades (and vice versa). Once you are aware of them, you will be able to monitor them and will be less likely to make thoughtless decisions that will have a negative effect on your trades.

Consistency:

You being consistent with your trading journal will eventually make your bad trading habits corrected and you will stop losing money as often as before. This is due to the fact that you will be able to see the mistakes you are making and you will try to stop making them in the future. Therefore, it’s important to be as accurate as possible in your journal to identify those mistakes easily.

How to know a good TRADE JOURNAL

There are numbers of Trade journals out there both paid and free. So how will you know the right one to go for. Don’t panic, I’ve got you covered, I won’t only be telling you what to check for, but I will also give you access to my personal trade journal that worth more than $80.

Below are the basic things to check for in a trade journal:

Trade Logs:

A good trade journal must have a log where you record your day-to-day trading activities e.g. the date you took the trade, the Risk/Reward ratio used, the commodity traded, order type (Long/Short), etc.

Performance Dashboard:

This is where you can view your performance, whether monthly or yearly in order to know if you are actually progressing or not.

Trade Summary:

This will summarize all the trades for you, so that you can analyze your past trades easily.

My Trade Journal Template

As I promised earlier, I will be granting you all access to my personal trade journal, but before that, let me quickly highlight its content and how you can use it to your own advantage. Its content are as follows:

• Guide: This is the first sheet of the trade journal, it contains the instructions/guidelines on how to use the journal
• Monthly Trade Logs: These sheets are labelled from January to December, this is where you record your day-to-day trading activities for each month
• Performance Dashboard: This is a graphical representation of your progress, it is embedded in each of the monthly trade logs as well as the trade summary sheet too.
• Trade Summary: This sheet consists of the trade summary for each months, where you can easily track your progress for each month.

How To Use The Journal:

Kindly watch the video below to have a better understanding of what a trade journal is all about, and to also know how you can use the template provided in this article to your own advantage:

Conclusion:

I hope you enjoyed reading this article, and by now you should be acquainted with what a trade journal is, and how it can benefit you as a trader.

Now, click the button below to download the template.

Should in case you encountered any issue while using the template or have any suggestion regarding it, kindly send me an email on the email address provided on the first sheet of the journal.

If you find this article helpful and interesting, kindly share with your friends and loved ones across all your social media platforms, and also do well to join our Traders Community, Subscribe to our Youtube Channel and also Follow us on our scioal media handles.

Thanks, Love you all.