[GUIDE] Trading journal

[Husires]

Table of contents

      1. What is a trading journal?
      2. Why do I need a trading journal?
      3. How to create a trading journal?
      4. Top 3 Crypto Trading Journals to improve your trades



What is a trading journal?

Developing an ideal strategy may transform the value of your investments from loss to profit, knowing how to manage emotions, developing an effective strategy, when you decide to buy and sell, and not being greedy are all things that you should consider before you start trading and here lies the importance of the trading journal.

Trading journal consists of a document in which you record everything you do while trading, strategy, risk science, management, psychology and all the steps you follow while trading.

Traders use a trading journal to reflect upon previous trades so that they may evaluate themselves.

Source: https://www.dailyfx.com/education/find-your-trading-style/trading-journals.html

Why do I need a trading journal?

Proper planning for all your trades and learning from previous mistakes is what turns your balance from zero dollars to a lot of money.
The trading journal is important for the following reasons:

• Responsibility: Seeing all the data without emotion contributes to a more disciplined and consistent trader.
• Trading strategy evaluation: where you explore your strengths and weaknesses, analyze the data abstractly and review the strategies.
• Increased caution: Greed, fear and feelings are always factors that reduce your profits and therefore the trading journal is important in this.
• Accountable: trading journal could keep you accountable.
• The journal can help you choose your best trading strategy.

How to create a trading journal?

It is simple and does not require a lot of technical knowledge, you need to create a spreadsheet for a trading journal (eg Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel) and a written document (eg Google Docs and Microsoft Word). You will use it to record your precise trades and thoughts.

You can look at the following form

Now you need to add the following information:

• Profit/Loss (P&L)
• Trading fee
• exit price
• stop loss
• Screenshots
• Time frame
• Theoretical value
• Entry price
• trend (long/short)
• Code
• Exit date
• entry date
• Profit/Loss Ratio (P&L%)
• Notes

you can try this free one https://coinpub.org/spreadsheets/trading-journals-log-trading-diary/


Top 3 Crypto Trading Journals to improve your trades

1. Coin Market Manager (CMM)

Coin Market Manager is primarily a portfolio manager. But it doubles up as a crypto trading journal that offers interesting and useful features, which make it stand out among all the other platforms listed herein.

2. TraderSync

Although TraderSync markets itself as the ultimate stock trading journal, it still enables you to record and track cryptocurrency trades. You can add a trade either manually or by importing a .csv file.

3.Trading Journal Spreadsheet (TJS)

Trading Journal Spreadsheet (TJS) uses MS Excel. It is a spreadsheet with pre-built formulas and pre-defined column headings that describe what entries the column should have.

This crypto trading journal is available at a one-time fee that ranges between $119.99 and $179.99, depending on the number of markets you intend to journal using TJS. 

Sources

Code:

https://www.mycryptopedia.com/top-crypto-trading-journals/
https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/what-is-a-trading-journal-and-how-to-use-one
https://www.dailyfx.com/education/find-your-trading-style/trading-journals.html

[tbct_mt2]

I did not use it but I share it to members who need it and hope that it can help OP as well as some of forum members
Portfolio Performance [Open Source] - Keep track of your Crypto Portfolio!.

Have a tool or tracker to manage your portfolio is good. Have good allocation for your capital is more important. Between trading and investment, you will have to allocate appropriate proportion of your capital for them. Trading part should not be big and a main part which should belong to investment.

[Maus0728]

• Profit/Loss (P&L)
• Trading fee

[...snip...]

• Notes

Heya! Just want to add some additional information to the list.

When journalling, it is also important to take note of some of the qualitative information that happened during the trade such as the reason for the entry, an open ended questions that answers whether you trade your plan or not, as well as some of the trade management notes during the course of a particular setup.o

Sure, the process might be cumbersome to others as you will be forced to write the thought process over the course of the trade (from entry to management to exit), but being able to write them word-for-word could help you understand more of your setup, which can help you answer questions like "why is it a failing setup" or "why is it a winning trade".
 
So when you do a monthly or weekly review, you don't just have the numerical data but also the qualitative analysis of your logic and emotions during that specific time.

[Ararbermas]

Nice thread, actually when i was new in trading i don't believe that making journal is useful, But when i become interested to build my own journal to monitor my status in trading, i just realized that most of my mistakes can be fix easily because of it and you know which strategy can really gave you a good percentage in different situation of the market..So right now i can say having journal as a trader is really a big advantage..

[Dillonhebist]

Well I don't know that trading journal is very useful when it comes to trading, so I don't bother to make research on it so that I can understand or have the knowledge on how it been used, I don't know that you can use it to correct you mistakes and also know which strategy can give a nice percentage or profits in cryptocurrency market and that is what makes it special. This is a nice threads, As a trader it is advisable to have a journal.