How to keep a trading journal: what to write before and after a trade

Most of us start a journal with a spreadsheet of thirty columns. It lasts about as long as a gym membership in January. The journal that works is the one you fill in when you're tired, annoyed or busy. So the goal isn't to record everything. It's to record the few things you'll actually use when you look back.

Here's what I write and when.

Before the session

Three lines, two minutes.

1. How you're walking in. Slept badly? Angry about something outside trading? Still thinking about yesterday's loss? Write it down. You'll want this later when a bad day needs explaining.
2. Your checklist. The same short list every day. News you care about, levels you marked, nothing open you've forgotten.
3. Today's plan. Which markets, which setups, how much you're willing to lose today. If the plan is "see what happens", write that. At least it's honest.

Before each trade

This is the part that matters most. Write it before you click, not after. After the trade your memory edits the reasons to fit the result.

• Setup. One name from a fixed list. "Pullback to the 20 EMA", "Range break", whatever you trade. The same name every time, so you can group trades later.
• Why now. One sentence. If you can't write it, you probably shouldn't take the trade.
• Entry, stop, target.
• Risk in money and planned R.
• A chart screenshot. Mark entry, stop and target on it.

Thirty seconds once you're used to it.

After the trade closes

• How it ended. Stop, target or closed by hand. If by hand, why.
• Result in R. The result divided by what you risked.
• Did you follow the plan? Yes or no. If no, where exactly: moved the stop, closed early, added to it, entered without the setup.
• One word for how you felt. Calm. Rushed. Bored. Revenge. You'll be surprised how often the same word sits next to the same kind of loss.
• Exit screenshot if the chart tells you something the numbers don't.

Example: one GBPUSD trade, before and after

• Account 8,000. Risk 0.5%, so 40.
• Before: GBPUSD long. Entry 1.27400, stop 1.27150 (25 pips), target 1.28000 (60 pips). Planned R: 60 / 25 = 2.4R.
• With a pip worth 10 per lot, 25 pips at 40 is 0.16 lot.
• Setup: pullback to the 20 EMA on the 1-hour chart. Why now: London open held above yesterday's high.
• After: closed by hand at 1.27650. That's +25 pips, or 40. Plan followed: no. Felt: nervous.
• Note: "Closed early because it stalled at the round number. Not in the plan. Still thinking about Tuesday."
• Result: 40 / 40 = +1R, against 2.4R planned.

Not a dramatic mistake. But if that note shows up twenty times, you've found where your planned 2.4R keeps turning into 1R.

After the session

Four questions, five minutes.

1. How did the day go?
2. What worked?
3. What do you want to do better?
4. One takeaway for tomorrow.

The last one is the important one. One line. If you write five lessons a day, you'll act on none of them.

What not to write

Essays. If an entry takes ten minutes, you'll stop writing them by the second week. Keep the long thinking for the weekly review.

Only the result. "+40" says nothing. The plan, the R and whether you followed it say everything.

Things you can't act on. "The market was crazy" isn't a note. "I traded through the news I'd marked" is.

Only the bad trades. Write the good ones too. You need to know what a good trade of yours looks like. Otherwise you can't repeat it.

Make it stick

• Fixed setup names. If the same setup has three names, you can't compare it with anything.
• Same time every day. Before-the-session notes before the open. After-the-session notes before you close the platform.
• Results in R. Different lot sizes stop muddying the picture. (More on this in R multiple: how to measure trades in R.)
• A weekly look back. The daily notes are raw material. The week is where you read them. (Weekly trading review: a simple routine)

Common questions

Tomky, Dojiwave · Updated 14 November 2026