Everyone tells you to get better at trading journaling, but no one tells you how.
You could begin with a notebook or a word processor like Google Docs. A screenshot of your trade could be saved in Google Docs, but the real value comes from your honest analysis of your own performance. So, below each screenshot, you’d add important details about the trade. Details that would help you objectively review your performance over time.
For example, let’s say you have a 20 pip gain on a long position. Your journal entry might contain:
- The number of pips earned/lost
- A short explanation of why you took the position you did (1-hour 50MA & 200MA crossover, expected price movement upwards to resistance at X)
- Notes about whether or not your trade hit your TP or you closed it early/moved your TP/etc. In the event of a loss, explain why your SL was positioned where it was.
- Other notes about your strategy either helping or hurting you in this instance
- Was any major economic news a factor in your decision to take that position?
The purpose of writing this type of information is for you to evaluate your performance and improve on it. So write down your thoughts. Don’t worry about the format of how you write your journal. You will hopefully evolve into more technical analysis of your performance, and at some point, you’ll stop taking screenshots. You may move into a spreadsheet because the data you find yourself saving is better suited to the format of a spreadsheet.
At the same time you start journaling, consider connecting your (hopefully) demo account to a free trade analysis tool like MyFXBook. It could save you time with your journal entries, but you should still be writing down your reasoning for opening or closing each trade.
All of this will feel tedious at first. You probably want to just get back in there and trade some more. But without analysis, you won’t have anything to look back on to see why your performance was good or bad. Over time you will completely forget why you opened or closed particular trades.
If your overall performance is good, then you will know why because of the details you put in your journal. If your overall performance is bad, then your journal should give you insights into why you are not profitable. Adjusting the parameters of your strategy should be followed with info/data in your trade journal that will help you make future decisions about your strategy.
Use ‘Notion’ it’s free, easier, quick, you can add images/screenshots, links, etc.
Write your trading plan.
Backtest a trading session or a trading week.
Comment on each one of your trades. Comments should be about why you thought a bullet point of your trading plan got fulfilled, why not, why you failed, why it happened but you did not think so. Every aspect of that trade in relation to your trading plan should be recorded.
Save screenshots.
Log your trades to an Excel file.
Your Excel flags will be based on your chart comments and your strategy.
Learn basic Python to be able to extract useful data from your Excel sheets.
Save your backtesting charts.
This way you will be able to ‘branch them’ as you polish your strategy.
My strategy is very mechanical and I’m recording details like SL size, max TP it ran, is BE affecting the winning ratio, day of the week, and so on. I can later review it and further refine when I see some common factors in losses.
Sometimes I’m changing something more significant and process starts over again where first I will backtest the last 3-4 months across a few pairs, and then forward test for a while.
My system has logging for trades so I can forward test strategies for every part of the chain, for data collection, order execution, order monitoring, etc., and this data is saved in a database that I can access later to do analysis on.
I’m using Pepperstone, and they used to send summary emails every morning if I made any trades the last day. It was so easy to get pointers from there or copy table rows. I don’t know why they stopped. Journaling was so easy.
Download FXJournal app on your phone.
I use Snagit and Excel.
I use Tradezella, which is $33 monthly.
Waste of time. When your analysis and trade fails, just be sure to figure out exactly why at the time, then you have absorbed the upgrade already.
Ask ChatGPT to create a template for you. It’s 2025; you don’t have to ask people things anymore.
Personally, after I take a trade, I use the text tool on TradingView to journal about the trade on the chart, use the snip tool in TradingView to save the chart, then save it to my files on my PC.
Then I go on FTMO every fortnight and download my trades as a CSV and import them into Excel to analyze performance over time.
Analyze in TradingView and use the buy/sell drawings when you take a trade.
If you need a tutorial on how to use a pen and a piece of paper then I got some bad news for you.
Cameron said:
If you need a tutorial on how to use a pen and a piece of paper then I got some bad news for you.
I agree. Some people really need to have everything spoon-fed.
Cameron said:
If you need a tutorial on how to use a pen and a piece of paper then I got some bad news for you.
I agree. Some people really need to have everything spoon-fed.
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It’s all nonsense. Just check your PnL and trade history.