How to keep a trading journal
Updated October 2026
A trading journal is only useful if it answers one question: what should you do more of, and what should you stop? This guide covers what to record for every trade, how to review it, and the few numbers that tell you whether you are improving.
What to record for every trade
- Date, time and session (Asia, London, New York).
- Instrument and direction.
- Entry, stop loss, target and exit price.
- Position size and the amount at risk in money.
- Result in R: profit or loss divided by the amount you risked. +2R means you made twice what you risked.
- Setup: the name of the pattern or strategy you traded.
- Did you follow your plan? Yes or no, honestly.
- Screenshots of the chart at entry and after the exit.
- Mistakes and mindset: tags like early exit, moved stop, FOMO, revenge trade.
Record the trade the same day. A week later you remember the result but not why you took it.
Before and after the session
Before: write a short plan. Which levels matter, what news is due, which setups you are looking for and your maximum loss for the day.
After: compare the day with the plan. Did you take only your setups? Did you stop at your limit? Write one thing to repeat and one thing to change.
The weekly review
Once a week, look at the numbers instead of single trades:
- Which setup made the most R, and which lost the most?
- Which session or day of the week works best for you?
- How many R did each mistake tag cost you?
- What is your result on trades where you followed the plan versus the ones where you didn't?
Pick one change for next week and check it in the next review.
The numbers that matter
- Win rate: winning trades ÷ all trades.
- Average win and average loss in R.
- Expectancy: (win rate × average win) − (loss rate × average loss). It is the R you make per trade on average.
- Profit factor: gross profit ÷ gross loss. Above 1 is profitable.
- Max drawdown: the largest drop from a peak, the number prop firms care about.
Example: 40 trades, 45% win rate, average win 2.1R, average loss 1R. Expectancy = 0.45 × 2.1 − 0.55 × 1 = +0.40R per trade, about +16R over the 40 trades. Profit factor = 0.945 ÷ 0.55 ≈ 1.72. A low win rate is fine when winners are larger than losers.
Common mistakes
- Logging only losing trades, or only the good ones.
- Measuring in money instead of R, so results change with position size.
- No setup or mistake tags, which makes it impossible to see patterns.
- Never reviewing. A journal you don't read is a diary.
Spreadsheet or app?
A spreadsheet is fine to start with. It gets harder as you add accounts and want statistics by setup, session and mistake. A journal app imports trades from your platform, calculates R and the numbers above automatically and keeps screenshots with each trade.
TradeLog does this for MT4 and MT5 accounts, with a free plan and no trade limit. See the MT5/MT4 trading journal, and size your next trade with the Position size calculator.