How to keep a trading journal: three columns

What you are recording is mostly a statement

Search for how to keep a trading journal and the templates all look much the same: date, instrument, direction, entry, exit, lot size, profit and loss.

Those columns have one thing in common — your broker's report already has them.

You spend the time copying them out, and what you end up with is the same set of numbers. It tells you what the result was. It does not tell you why it turned out that way.

A statement records what you did. A journal has to record what you were thinking at the time.

The third of the three reasons traders keep losing is never having verified it. What you verify with is the three columns below: Why Traders Keep Losing: Three Real Reasons

Why most people stop after two weeks

It is not laziness. It is too many columns.

Twelve columns, three minutes a trade. While things are going your way you are still willing to fill it in. After a few losses in a row, the last thing you want to do is sit down and write it out properly.

So the journal breaks off on exactly the days you need it most.

Design the columns wrong and discipline gets the blame. It is not that you have no discipline. That table was never built for a person to fill in every day.

Three columns are enough

One. In that moment, were the three aligned?

We look at three things: candle, direction, momentum.

Before you enter, write one line: were the three aligned at the time. If they were, write that they were. If not, write which one was not.

This column is not judging right or wrong. It forces you to say your reason for entering out loud — the trades where you cannot say it are the answer in themselves.

Two. Did you follow it?

The first column is whether the trade should have been taken. This one is whether you did what you yourself wrote down.

There are only two answers: you followed it, or you did not.

This is the hardest column to write, because writing "no" hurts. But this is the most valuable column on the sheet — without it you cannot tell "the method does not work" apart from "I did not follow it".

Three. Looking back, where was the judgement wrong?

After the close, go back to that chart and write it down in one line.

Do not write "bad luck" or "the market was messy". It only counts if you can name the spot — which candle you read wrong, which stretch of momentum you took as real.

If you cannot work it out, still write "cannot tell". Three months on, the number of "cannot tell" entries is a progress report in itself.

What you will see after three months

In your first month you are mostly still adjusting, and what you write down looks like a mess. That is normal: What actually happens in your first month trading the Nikkei

Fill these three columns for three months and you get a few things you only understand in hindsight.

Which trades should never have been taken. The ones where the first column was not aligned and you entered anyway usually add up to a large part of the losses.

Whether the method does not work, or you did not follow it. The second column tells you straight. The two have completely different fixes, and not being able to tell them apart means fixing the wrong thing the whole time.

The conditions in which you slip most often. Stack up the third column and the same words start repeating. Those repeated words are what you work on next.

Why three months: less than that and the sample is too small, so what you are seeing is luck. And in three months you will certainly hit a rough patch; you need to have followed it once while losing, and that is the real test. Change the method and the timer starts again. Written up here: How long does it take to learn trading?

Common questions

Excel, a notebook or an app?

Whichever one you will still open tomorrow. The tool is not the point, the three columns are. If pen and paper is fastest for you, use pen and paper.

Should I take screenshots?

Screenshot when you have time, skip it when you do not. A screenshot supports the third column, it is not a fourth one — do not let screenshots become your reason for not keeping the journal.

Do I record the winning trades too?

Yes, and the winners are worth recording more. Were the three aligned when you won, and did you follow it — those two things can only be checked if you wrote them down. Record only the losses and you will think you got it right every time.

How often should I read it back?

Once a week is enough. Reading it daily makes you judge while the emotion is still there, and you do not see it clearly then.

A journal will not make you money. It only moves you from "I do not think I am any good at this" to "I know where I am not good at this". Those are two completely different positions.

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We do not guarantee returns. We do not trade on anyone's behalf. This is market education, not personal investment advice. Working through this properly takes at least three months of sustained effort. Markets carry the risk of loss — decide what you can afford to risk before you begin.