What to track in a trading journal
Track what helps you change behaviour, not everything you can measure. For each trade: the plan written before entry (setup, stop, target, reason, time), the entry and exit with time and price, the size, all charges and the net result, the R-multiple, whether each of your rules was followed, and any behaviour flags such as revenge or oversizing. Once a day: whether you did your pre-market routine, a one-line lesson and a discipline score. Results without process data tell you what happened; process data tells you why.
Per trade
- Plan time, setup name, stop, target, planned size and a one-line reason.
- Entry and exit time and price; holding time.
- Gross result, every charge, and net result.
- R-multiple: net result divided by the amount you planned to risk.
- Rules followed or broken, and behaviour flags (revenge, size up after a loss, after your cutoff time).
- Exit reason and how you felt (calm, fear, greed, revenge, bored).
Per day and per week
- Pre-market routine done, and when.
- Number of trades against your daily limit; loss against your daily limit.
- A discipline score that profit cannot raise.
- Weekly: most expensive mistake, one focus rule for next week.
What not to track
Avoid fields you never review. Long free-text notes on every trade, dozens of tags and screenshots you never open all add effort without changing behaviour. If a field has not influenced a decision in a month, drop it.
Educational content about trading process. Not investment advice.
Questions
Why track net instead of gross?
Charges such as brokerage, exchange fees and taxes can turn a small gross profit into a net loss, especially with frequent trading. Decisions should be based on what reached your account.
What is an R-multiple?
It is the result of a trade divided by the amount you planned to risk on it. A trade that made twice its planned risk is +2R. It lets you compare trades of different sizes.
Related guides
Useful calculators
Put this into practice
DisciplineTrade turns these routines into a daily habit: rules re-read each morning, plans before entry, behaviours flagged automatically. Free.
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