What to log
Your broker statement already has the numbers. What it cannot tell you is why you took the trade, so the journal's job is to capture the decision, not the fill.
- Instrument, direction, date and session
- Setup name — the specific reason for entry
- Planned entry, stop, target and position size
- Actual entry and exit, and any deviation from the plan
- Emotional state in one word
- A screenshot of the chart at entry
The review is where the value is
Logging without reviewing is bookkeeping. Once a week, group trades by setup and answer three questions: which setup made money, which lost it, and where did you deviate from the plan.
Twenty trades over a month: setups A and B are net positive, C is net negative and accounts for 70% of losses. Dropping C alone turns the month around — a conclusion that is invisible without the log.
Metrics worth tracking
- Win rate and average R multiple per setup
- Expectancy — average result per trade in R
- Maximum drawdown and the streak that produced it
- Percentage of trades that followed the plan exactly
Keeping it sustainable
A journal you abandon in three weeks is worth nothing. Six fields and a screenshot, filled in at the moment of entry, beats an elaborate spreadsheet you stop updating. Add complexity only when the simple version has already changed a decision.