Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
The green section doesn't change often and just requires a little box ticking at the end of a session. The goals seem quite simple but the aim for me is to focus on repeating good patterns of behaviour so that they become natural good habits and therefore training myself to instinctively be acting well most of the time. With future more challenging goals/habit forming I will probably only focus on one goal at a time.
The orange section is completed premarket. It takes about fifteen minutes. A little cutting and pasting (calendar from Econoday/Bloomberg, charts from Tradovate-trading platform), copying across of numbers and then basic chart analysis.
The blue section is completed after my trading has finished and takes about twenty minutes or so. I tried filling in some of this during the trading session but found it too distracting and now do it afterwards. I have a vertical monitor next to my platform monitor which has the journal up showing the green and orange sections so I can see/remind myself of my rules, goals and premarket analysis during the trading session.
A while ago I posted some excel rotation study spreadsheets which have been downloaded 20 times in total. Only one person took the trouble to click the thanks button.
I don't think my journal is anything special but if you or Bobwest or LDog, who have thanked my post above at this point in time, try Evernote and like it I can send you a copy of this journal page to import. I always find it easier learning a new program having a working template to gradually adjust to my requirements rather than trying to build something new from scratch straight away. Evernote does have some downloadable starter templates but they are mostly basic business checklist human resources type stuff. If interested send me a friend request and then I can PM it to any of you three.
You do not win as a trader, you just get to play again the next day. If that game doesn’t appeal to you then you should not trade. Gary Norden
Really appreciate the pictures. Looks neat and succinct. For the time being, I think I will stay with Excel as I'm short on time and would like to start out with a basic format similar to what I've used in the past. But I certainly don't rule out trying Evernote eventually and I think I'll take you up on your offer then if it's still open.
I appreciate the offer. I am not organized enough to use it, though. A person has to know themselves, after all....
It does look like it would be interesting, for someone who is more organized than I am.
Anything that works is good. Glad this is working for you.
Bob.
Update: I did think that Evernote looks very interesting, and I've looked at it a couple of times, but in the end I decided that I am too free-form (that sounds nicer than "not organized," doesn't it?) and I would probably not make good use of it.
If you search trade journal , started by big mike, I use that one, its extensive, does all sorts of calculations, analysis, has even monte carlos spreadsheet. I think the most updated one is called trade journal v4.5. But you'll have to go through the thread to find it, its buried somewhere in the middle / latter half of the thread. But i suggest going through it from page one so you can follow up how the development was made and how it came to be what it is right now.
Maybe this is considered heresy, but is there anyone NOT journaling...?
I'm considering dropping it and just doing a mental briefing. Or alternatively some super fast notes. Why? Because I work a full time job in addition to this and have to be really efficient about my time.
What I'm always doing regardless of whether I'm trading or not is to always make notes if I'm learning something new or note any particular flaws in my system/approach.
For example today:
1 long entry. Stopped out for a -0,75 point loss (ES). I traded based on my statistical model and minimized risk (tightened my stop) when when it became apparent the trade was not likely playing out as expected.
I'm starting to think I might not have any benefit of actually writing down stuff like this on a daily basis.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'll rather journal on a by-need-basis instead of journaling daily for the sake of it.
