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Im use to taking notes about markets while im trading. Up until now I was doing this in excel to keep my entry/exit etc data records and journal entries in one place. However now I have about 5 months worth of daily notes. They could be anything, from some silly ones to some pretty critical ones..
(example, today I saw market making a pin candle on y-close while closing a gap, this could be a good sign of weakness and possible short entry etc.)
I found that its pretty hard to read all of them and then sort them out manually, is there an easier way/a tool you use to keep them in one place well linked to each other so if you need an answer to something say in 6 months you are able to find it in you journals?
Recently I found doOrganizer (mentioned in daily trading coach) does anyone have any experience with it or with a similar program? Im using oneNote too, I like it for research but not for a daily notes taking..
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
...Review your notes? Im not talking PnL, MAE/MFE and the usual excel data more like, emotions and new ideas, patterns..
...How do you sort all this information? What exactly do you look for, something specific or are just reading them until you get that "click" and say yeah this is what im looking for?
...How often do you review them? Daily, weakly or monthly (for this purpose we assume we are day trading and not investing for 5 years)
...Do you take notes at all??
For example im reviewing my notes on a weekly basis. I go over them and make a more notes , im looking for a pattern - something that repeats itself. This could be early exit/entry, some emotion during/before/after a trade or what ever else is there but I didnt pay much attention to it but it seems to be working well (the position of sun and moon just before my trade )
I usually make a list - the top 10 good/bad decisions and all my new ideas.
That list serves simply as something to look for during my next week, if I know I did exit too many times too early I will concentrate on that, when I know that making less and more clear trades helps my trading I concentrate on that too. With new ideas - I just watch for the same thing to happen again during the week or if I can define some rules I go and test it to see if it has any potential.
Hi @bluemele sure it does, simple one and you cant attach picts and stuff.
I know you are using video journal to track your trades, would you mind comparing it to traditional notes and screen shot taking? Do you do both?
I did try to video journal my day and all the trade, but I felt like im doing too much work at the end of the day where I had to go and edit 3-4 hour video and leave just the juicy bits, you know like in the commercial... some bits are crucial
I document all trades where I changed my TP/SL when I "shouldn't" have.
I also keep a day journal of how I did etc.. I review my video each day on a fast forward so I do not take parts out etc.. Why do you need to cut it down??
--Funny commercial, never seen it before as I RARELY watch TV.
@madLyfe, thanks yes its great for data entry PnL/targets/stops in ticks and all that, I recently switched to it myself.
However Im more interested how people journal new ideas, their mistakes in words not numbers, if they use video recording with commentary rather than taking screen shots and writing into them. I believe just to record where you entered in ticks, where you did exit in ticks and say MAE/MFE is not enough.
How do you record you mistakes in execution or trade management, how do you review it?
Great @bluemele, would you mind describing how you document your "shouldn't" have trades? Do you make a screen shot and describe what went wrong of is it just a highlight in your video recording or something else?
---Im using Onenote for this as im taking screen shots mainly. I have 4 folders Winning/Lossing/BE/Mistakes. I file each trade accordingly and make notes into it. Then review each on a weekly basis.
Well, I dunno I just thought that the recording would take too long to review and fast forward didnt really cross my mind Then I tried to pause the recording while waiting for a set up, but that didnt work either as I forgot its paused and didn't record any trades.
Its an Irish soft drink so I doubt this commercial ran outside Ireland, im not a TV person myself..more a movie guy
I don't focus much on the past. I know I will not win all the time and my goal is to focus on winning more points than losing. I record everything and watch it again, over and over again to see what it looked like on my winning entries. My poor trades I document in a spreadsheet to show the difference between how many more points I would have made had I managed my trade properly. Some would have lost more if I didn't move my stop, but a great many would have been MORE profitable.
That is just what I suffer from, so you may have another issue like moving stops etc..
I don't really document my losers and just let them go to wherever they need to live. Not in my brain!