Is trading journals worth it?

[Accardo]

I came across an article a few days ago. But, I can't trace it back to share the link here with you. But, some points that I can recollect from that article are as follows.

People trade with their emotions: they have an initial specific amount to trade but, getting on to the exchange they change their mind and trade higher amounts which results in big losses.

So under the article, I could remember points like writing down every action you've made while trading. Stuff like, I lost xx amount of money today, made x amount of profits today.

Putting these activities down in a journal does it helps a trader to make a better decision? Because I know of many people that are in control of their actions. They got these activities recorded on their brain. Regarding it's related to funds or assets. They may not forget a single activity immediately unless in the future. And it's one reason I can say that a journal is good for remembrance only. What are your thoughts on having a trading journal to better your trading experience?

[jackg]

I think it might be something to consider if people lose track of how much they've traded, profits and losses.

It might also be something that could be done in a simple spreadsheet, which could then be analysed a bit more to determine reports on weekly data or per a certain number of trades too.

I could imagine a journal might be useful for people who do a lot of technical analysis with pattern recognition too to work out what works and what doesn't as you'll have a better idea of how you thought just before you placed the trade if you can see it exactly as it was and annotated how you expected it to go.

[Jawhead999]

Most of the case why trader trade higher amount than the initial amount is they're in loss and want to recover back their money. They can't accept the fact since their mind always think everyday is profit, so this make the emotion went up and can't control themself. I think everyone already know trading journal even though they didn't installed on their device, they using their brain to remember how much they loss and how much they profit.

[mk4]

Some traders do write down what they feel or what they were thinking the moment they make a certain trade, and they use the journal to see mistake patterns and learn from them. e.g. you might not realize that you might have been FOMO'ing a lot, and checking your journal might help you see that.

[Viscore]

There are many reasons why trading journal is worth it. Some of these are listed below:

1. Identify, Review, Learn and Work on your weaknesses
2. Helps you set up your Goals
3. Holds you responsible and sensible
4. Helps you with risk management
5. Helps with trading psychology
6.Brings consistency
7. Provides historical record and encourages performance growth
8.It is used as a virtual portfolio
9. Ideal for monitoring potential growth stocks
10.Methodology Verification

Trading journal is a smart strategy to enhance your performance and gain confidence, while learning how to be disciplined!

https://www.forexlive.com/Education/!/102-reasons-on-why-you-should-consider-keeping-a-trading-journal-20210525

[jrrsparkles]

Keep record of all your financial activities is important for either a trader or investors and also they need to stick with their strategies to keep control over their actions. Sometimes they may go beyond it due to greediness but it should be affordable for them. These articles or journals are nothing but the collected information from the experience of others so yes it will be helpful.

[Dave1]

Perhaps if you memory is failing you, then it's better to have some sort of trading journal that you can go back and look at and see what went wrong and want went right.

So for me it's not a must, but maybe for beginners, specially if you wanted to see how you did on the very beginning of your journey and the mistakes you have done and the corrective actions you did to help you stay in the game.

[so98nn]

Second lines seriously touched me. They are perfect example of me or someone whose coming online to trade these days.

This is use case even into world of gambling. Though in theory trading is one form of gambling and nothing else where you trade against the time and other primary factors.

When you win something then you always wanna have little more. You know brain starts stating, I can just have little more and leave the trade but keep going on forever.

Same is applicable when you loose money, in that case you go beyond your limits.

[davis196]

Putting these activities down in a journal does it helps a trader to make a better decision?

A trading journal can't always help a trader to make better decisions,but it can actually stop the trader from making bad decisions.Making less bad decisions and less mistakes,rather than focusing on perfection(good decisions) is definitely a form of self-improvement.Nobody is perfect.
I've heard stories about Harvard students being required to maintain a journal.
Maintaining a journal can help you become more disciplined and discipline is a really important skill,when it comes to trading.Actually,it's not just trading.Having discipline and consistency is the key of success in every aspect of life.

[Ararbermas]

Yes for me it's worth it and it was based on my experience as a day trader, wherein i can really make an adjustment easily with the help of my journal especially if there are some mistakes that can cause me losses. You can see as well what's the reason why you lost in a trade and you will see which strategy is more effective in any situation. It's very helpful TBH.

So i suggest if want to make your own journal it must be informative.. I mean put all the information of your trades including the screen shots of the charts no matter what it is (win or lose) so that next time you know what's the best way to execute trades and to prevent doing mistakes again..

[CryptocurencyKing]

Snipe

If there is one thing I could say to you now is that, there is one standard to any form of crypto or even fx trading. There could be only principles to guide you on a path buy the path is not definite. That's why it is advocated that traders develop a trading strategy that suits them, apply it and when you find it to be producing positive results, you stick with it. At least for the times it still works becuase, the pattern the market assumes changes from time to time.

These doesn't mean the journals are any less useful or meaningless. They tend to point you to a path and aid you in developing a pattern. Have you ever wondered what history is to human existence?
The journals are the keepers of these histories and they serve a purpose in relating what has been, what is happening now and aid in the prediction of what could happen next.

[Dillonhebist]

To me trading journal worth it because trading journal help individuals to correct/ adjust from there mistakes, I help individuals to develop strategies or see which strategy that show them a good or important way in making profit.

Trading journal help traders in making a good decision, it makes you more disciplined and disciplined is among the keys to Success, it gives you a good site on what you should focus on in order to achieve your goal.

[mk4]

Perhaps if you memory is failing you, then it's better to have some sort of trading journal that you can go back and look at and see what went wrong and want went right.

So for me it's not a must, but maybe for beginners, specially if you wanted to see how you did on the very beginning of your journey and the mistakes you have done and the corrective actions you did to help you stay in the game.

Mate, even some experienced traders without memory problems use journals. If you make trades almost every single day then how the heck are you going to remember all that lmao; that's where the journals come into place.

[Sterbens]

Putting these activities down in a journal does it helps a trader to make a better decision? Because I know of many people that are in control of their actions. They got these activities recorded on their brain. Regarding it's related to funds or assets. They may not forget a single activity immediately unless in the future.

No, and it will be very difficult to make comparisons or guidelines in all overall actions. It would be very irrelevant in its implementation. Because the condition of the spar is fluctuating and has experienced a lot of movement. So indeed the journal is better as a reading reference and not relevant to be implemented. Moreover, it has been quite a long time. It will only result in an incorrect trading process. In the end, if it is not in accordance with what is listed, the trader will blame what is listed in the journal.

[freedomgo]

Perhaps if you memory is failing you, then it's better to have some sort of trading journal that you can go back and look at and see what went wrong and want went right.

So for me it's not a must, but maybe for beginners, specially if you wanted to see how you did on the very beginning of your journey and the mistakes you have done and the corrective actions you did to help you stay in the game.

Mate, even some experienced traders without memory problems use journals. If you make trades almost every single day then how the heck are you going to remember all that lmao; that's where the journals come into place.

I also think trading journal is a must for all traders because that will definitely help us to trace all our weaknesses and past mistakes so we can learned to improve them and do better trading in the future. Even if you have your good memory that will record all of that, there are really times that writing it could be more easily remembered than just thinking it all over again. Anyways, here are 5 benefits of using a trading journal that may help you. Check here:https://antsignals.com/blog/5-benefits-of-using-a-trading-journal/

[palle11]

People trade with their emotions: they have an initial specific amount to trade but, getting on to the exchange they change their mind and trade higher amounts which results in big losses.

This is a matter of emotion, you are right that people change their mind often. The reason is greed for bigger profit but you get to miss it more than you get it. Traders should learn that there is no free money anywhere, not even in trading. So being patient to take right decision is better than to rush into a trade because of what we see.

[Scripture]

People trade with their emotions: they have an initial specific amount to trade but, getting on to the exchange they change their mind and trade higher amounts which results in big losses.

This is a matter of emotion, you are right that people change their mind often. The reason is greed for bigger profit but you get to miss it more than you get it. Traders should learn that there is no free money anywhere, not even in trading. So being patient to take right decision is better than to rush into a trade because of what we see.

This is the usual scenario once you are a newbie trader but once they understand how trading works, I’m confident that their emotion will become more stronger and focus more on their strategy. I do have my monitoring file of my trading activities, since I always take down notes my target price either to sell or to buy and this works for me perfectly especially on reminding me on which strategy to be used.

[Accardo]

Snipe

If there is one thing I could say to you now is that, there is one standard to any form of crypto or even fx trading. There could be only principles to guide you on a path buy the path is not definite. That's why it is advocated that traders develop a trading strategy that suits them, apply it and when you find it to be producing positive results, you stick with it. At least for the times it still works becuase, the pattern the market assumes changes from time to time.

These doesn't mean the journals are any less useful or meaningless. They tend to point you to a path and aid you in developing a pattern. Have you ever wondered what history is to human existence?
The journals are the keepers of these histories and they serve a purpose in relating what has been, what is happening now and aid in the prediction of what could happen next.

The crypto market is constantly changing but it does not mean that history becomes useless anymore. Its even a good guide for us as there are times that history repeats in the market. And knowing that, having trading journal can be more helpful in guiding us to be more of an efficient trader by knowing all our strengths and weaknesses in trading. That way, we can focus ourselves on the things we need to improve and things we need to retain to make our trading more successful.

Of-course, history do repeat itself on a rare case. Because the cryptocurrency have different reasons to it's price change. So traders who use Journals to trace back how they traded in the past just to utilize on their present trading may be making a huge mistake. When I said trading journal is useful in the future is just for reference purposes.

[TimeTeller]

Snipe

If there is one thing I could say to you now is that, there is one standard to any form of crypto or even fx trading. There could be only principles to guide you on a path buy the path is not definite. That's why it is advocated that traders develop a trading strategy that suits them, apply it and when you find it to be producing positive results, you stick with it. At least for the times it still works becuase, the pattern the market assumes changes from time to time.

These doesn't mean the journals are any less useful or meaningless. They tend to point you to a path and aid you in developing a pattern. Have you ever wondered what history is to human existence?
The journals are the keepers of these histories and they serve a purpose in relating what has been, what is happening now and aid in the prediction of what could happen next.

The crypto market is constantly changing but it does not mean that history becomes useless anymore. Its even a good guide for us as there are times that history repeats in the market. And knowing that, having trading journal can be more helpful in guiding us to be more of an efficient trader by knowing all our strengths and weaknesses in trading. That way, we can focus ourselves on the things we need to improve and things we need to retain to make our trading more successful.

Of-course, history do repeat itself on a rare case. Because the cryptocurrency have different reasons to it's price change. So traders who use Journals to trace back how they traded in the past just to utilize on their present trading may be making a huge mistake. When I said trading journal is useful in the future is just for reference purposes.

If you are too lazy to make a trading journal, you can always view your trading history in the exchange platform.
Every exchange has their own tabs on how to see your trading history. So you don't need to bother to write it in your journal if you don't have time.
And in crypto trading, hard to repeat what has been done as every coin has their own market performance, so it means, your strategy changes from time to time.
But you can learn some tips or tricks that you can use the next time around. With or without trading journals, those tricks will be of use once you go back in trading.

[Mpamaegbu]

To each what works for them. Here I can safely say keeping a trading journal or not will be an individual choice. I used to keep a journal in the past when I newly started trading. After a while I discovered I could see, observe and recall any trading errors I made without having to read them up from whenever I penned it down. So, I did away with that. The way I see it now makes me think keeping one will be redundant like when traders rely or continue to demo trade after going on a live account.