Journal Templates

[Robert H 453]

Thought I would share my journal template with those interested. It's still a work in progress and I would appreciate any feedback or suggestions.

 

Each day I capture the DAS Trades log and closed P/L. Also add a few notes about emotions, health, state of mind, etc.

 

Then for each trade (in/out), I log the detailed entry, stop, target, strategy, etc. There are additional comments where I jot down my thoughts and areas of improvement.

 

I have a summary sheet which contains a running total of all trades to date:

 

And from this I can graph an equity curve:

 

As well as calculate statistics things such as:

Average Risk/Reward by Strategy

Number of Trades by Strategy

Win Percentage

Etc, etc.

 

Here is the data presented graphically in another post.

 

I'm still learning in the simulator, so I haven't really found any use for the statistics yet. However, the data is there for when I am ready to analyze and review my performance quantitatively.

 

Let's see your journal templates!

[Brad_1 0]

This is Helpful, thank you.

[Carlos M. 230]

Hi all,

 

Having a journal is a must. I feel like I have learned so much about my trading in just the 2 weeks trading live because of this journal. For anyone starting out like me, if you are serious about this business, take the time to have a detailed journal. How else can we improve something we are not tracking?

 

I focus more on the details of the trade and what I was thinking at the time, IB has tons of report performance reports that I can pull later if I want to see the numbers crunched.

 

Here is a screenshot and detail of my journal, I have 3 main sections on my recap:

 

 

 

Screenshot Link: Click Here

 

Section 1: In this section I record how I feel Physically and Mentally in the morning before I start my trading day. Comment if I was able to get my morning routine done as planned. (My mourning routine is gym, sauna, get to my station and write my Journal Intro, review previous day recap, then build watchlist)

 

 

Section 2: Here I add a screenshot of my Das Trader Account Report, with the me a summary of what I traded for the day. At the bottom of the page I also have additional screenshots of the detail transactions.

 

Section 3: In this section I track some information of the stock like float size and how I found the stock. I also note down details of the trade like the strategy, position size and details of the price action shown on the screenshot.

 

The best part about this section is the “Well Done" and "Improvement Notes”. I read on “The Daily Trading Coach: 101 Lessons for Becoming Your Own Trading Psychologist” how important it is to track what you did well on a trade. This way your recap is not all negative but also highlighting the good things that you should continue to do.

 

Software:

 

Just some information on the software I use, I track my Journal on Microsoft OneNote. As you can see on the pages tab I track all my Trading stuff like highlights of the book I am reading and any training course notes.

 

If you have not try this software please give it a shot. It has a lot of great features, syncs with all devices and is completely free.

 

Thanks.

Carlos M.

[Robert H 453]

Thanks for sharing, Carlos! Great journal format. I'll have to give OneNote a try

[Jon980718 1]

awesome post carlos i need to start a journal myself

 

[Carlos M. 230]

Thank you guys!

 

Jon, thanks! yes journal is a must, a pain in the butt sometimes but a critical part of the learning process.

 

Carlos M.

[Robbie Williams 12]

Thanks Robert and Carlos for sharing, I was jotting down my screenshots in Microsoft word but looking at one note it looks like the perfect application I have been looking to be able to journal my trades. Cheers

[MichelleJ 1]

Wow, thanks for sharing. Applause!

 

 

[Yuanzhi 8]

Thanks!

[Brendon 146]

Hey Rob, Carlos,

Have you guys made any updates to the s/s you use for journaling? I find video re-capping trades is excellent for the thought process but you also need the hard stats from an s/s to find out what actually works in the long-term? Would love to have a BearBull custom template so we can compare our perf. Maybe something like a trader of the month award.

[Ofaruk1740 5]

is there any best website (paid/free) where I can save my trade journal?

[Robert H 453]

2 hours ago, Ofaruk1740 said:

is there any best website (paid/free) where I can save my trade journal?

Check out www.tradervue.com. Lots of people in our community use it. There's paid and free versions. 

Great stats and analysis on your trading.

[JD 49]

I was looking for the daily score card that Brett Steenbarger suggests but couldn't find anything to incorporate in my journal so I came up with my own custom journal. I borrowed a lot of what Robert has in his journal template and made an excel file that is formula driven when the trade log is exported and pasted into it. I copy the day tab that is currently labeled "04.25" and pull in my trade log from Das in there, then update the Summary sheet tab using the existing Hlookup formulas.

Here's a copy of the file if anyone is interested.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WcUmRE2lMy3jyf8UICQXdRXU1m7LUFgk

Edited November 20, 2019 by JD
Updated File

[Glenn Budde 356]

On 4/25/2019 at 4:55 PM, JD said:

Here's a copy of the file if anyone is interested.

My only journal has been in the forum but I think I need to step it up to score cards and such... I will be giving this a try....

Thank you for sharing....

[Glenn Budde 356]

On 4/25/2019 at 4:55 PM, JD said:

made an excel file that is formula driven when the trade log is exported and pasted into it

I am not very good at EXCEL and can not figure this part out.... I tried importing the CSV file from DAS but it goes straight to another tab....