Is trading journals worth it?

[Ryker1]

Well we have different topics about this but for me --it is wasting of time because a journal has nothing to do when you experience it personally and for sure you will not forget it. You can always remember where you have mistakes or errors and avoid them in the future, don't tell me when you are in trading you also keep reading your journal which is bother you most. So, it is totally wasting your time and I think for me, it is not worth it.
However, instead of making a journal, just spend your time mastering the technical and fundamental analysis which give you a benefit in the future.

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[blockman]

If having no journal keeps you failing then try to have a trading journal to see and track what you've been doing with your trading career. And if you find it effective then there's no reason to ignore it and just continue what you've started for having a journal.
There are records that help us do better because we can see where our money is going on and with trading journal, you'll have the idea on how you've been performing all along as you trade and if that's not enough for you as a record then you might have to use it as a motivation because you've been exerting effort to become better.

[bitgolden]

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..

On top of that, the benefits outweigh the losses by a mile. I mean what does it cost for you to keep a trading journal? Maybe a pen and paper if you wanna do it that way, or maybe like some excel sheet, and some time. It is really nothing, you spend nothing, you just lose time there. But in return of that, just like you said, it gives you idea of where things got wrong and in the end we are talking about reaching to a much better level as well by getting better.

There is really nothing wrong with it, there is no downside to it. You end up learning from yourself and collecting data about your own trading that could be used to perfect your trading in the future.

[Maus0728]

Well we have different topics about this but for me --it is wasting of time because a journal has nothing to do when you experience it personally and for sure you will not forget it.

You can't really know for sure! Even the prop traders keep a journal that will serve as a repository of their trades throughout the day. And this raises the question that if these big/professional traders are spending their time exporting/manually entering every bit of information on their trades, why can't retail traders do the same?

Although I am not enforcing you to do the same, many of the top traders I know, whether in stocks or forex, such as @Trader Dante, CryptoCred and some of the members on RealDayTrading Reddit, have always suggested it, regardless of whether you are a newbie or not. On top of that, the data or the history recorded on the platform won't be enough because it lacks the information that a customized trading journal has including some notes on why you enter a trade, notes during your trade management, and the likes.

It is not a waste of time, it's about having your due diligence to reflect on your trades.

[Reid]

It's not easy to be emotionless during trading so yes, there's a part that it will ruin your plan.
Journals. A simple spreadsheet will help with date, time, entry amount, losses, and gains. But, not all people could do that and just want to trade on spot, do what they can for a day and try to get lucky and make profits. Not lazy people, just don't want the hassle of putting everything on record.
Like for example I put in $1000, while it doesn't go below that or any further below (converted) then one may say he is doing pretty well so jotting everything down is unnecessary.

[Joyawan13]

Taking note and updating the results of our trades gives us the awareness of where we are going now. It is a tracking tool that some traders use and I believe it was very helpful. By looking at the results, we can surely assess what we need to improve or what we need to sustain. This actually takes time to become a habit but we can ignore the huge help it gives back to us.

But on the other side, sometimes it bothers us especially if we notice of a consistent number of losses than profit, that surely it discourages us. 

each sword must have a different strategy, where he certainly wants to get big profits, but usually traders who are not satisfied with the profits he gets and want to achieve even bigger profits and they usually will suffer very deep losses, and I please don't let that despair cause us to fall,

[Lanatsa]

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.

Actually a self preference kind of dealing on where it is really depending on how you do act with your investment whether you do love on tracing things up or would simply deal on what you are facing upront

and dont tend to look back on what you have done and just simply proceed on basing on your current knowledge but it isnt really bad to have some journal for some purpose of tracking it out

if you are really serious in between margins but it is actually depending on someone if they do have that kind of time.

[goaldigger]

It's not easy to be emotionless during trading so yes, there's a part that it will ruin your plan.
Journals. A simple spreadsheet will help with date, time, entry amount, losses, and gains. But, not all people could do that and just want to trade on spot, do what they can for a day and try to get lucky and make profits. Not lazy people, just don't want the hassle of putting everything on record.
Like for example I put in $1000, while it doesn't go below that or any further below (converted) then one may say he is doing pretty well so jotting everything down is unnecessary.

This can happen anytime, this is really normal since we are just human and out emotions are still there even if we know how to control it, but some trades can really be unpredictable. Not all can have that time to take down notes all about their trades especially those who are day trader since they move faster, and it may be inconvenient if they still take down notes while trading so I think they can just total all the cost and profit during that day and put it on their journal so by this they can still monitor and know if day trading is still profitable or not anymore.

[Quidat]

It's not easy to be emotionless during trading so yes, there's a part that it will ruin your plan.
Journals. A simple spreadsheet will help with date, time, entry amount, losses, and gains. But, not all people could do that and just want to trade on spot, do what they can for a day and try to get lucky and make profits. Not lazy people, just don't want the hassle of putting everything on record.
Like for example I put in $1000, while it doesn't go below that or any further below (converted) then one may say he is doing pretty well so jotting everything down is unnecessary.

This can happen anytime, this is really normal since we are just human and out emotions are still there even if we know how to control it, but some trades can really be unpredictable. Not all can have that time to take down notes all about their trades especially those who are day trader since they move faster, and it may be inconvenient if they still take down notes while trading so I think they can just total all the cost and profit during that day and put it on their journal so by this they can still monitor and know if day trading is still profitable or not anymore.

For day traders then they couldnt really able to tally from time to time due to the behavior on the way they do trade but if you are a swing or trend trader then you could really make out some
tally or list on what are the outcomes of your trades on which you could really be having some basis and check out if on whats profitable and whats not but its true that it wouldnt really be that
precise as always since this market is unpredictable.Emotions is just normal since we are just humans.

[Japinat]

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.

For me, a trading journal won't guarantee success for a trader but it always draw a trader close to its success. Because its a good tool to track your progress, as well as your strengths and weaknesses. However, not all traders give importance on trading journals because they think they are already good enough, but its definitely where you can find an edge in the market to be more consistent profitable trader, than to stay in losses because you are not aware that you are simply repeating your mistakes again and again.

[Silberman]

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?

It is worth to have a trading journal, we must understand that our memories are not perfect records of what happened and instead they evolve over time, so it makes sense that when you make a trade you write your reasons of why you made that trade, what you expected out of it and the results, that way several years down the line when you check your journal you will see how much different your memories are compared to what it is recorded in the journal, this will help you to improve over the long term by giving you more clarity about your own shortcomings, and then you can devise ways to improve upon them.

[GreatArkansas]

Trading journals is one of the best ways will help you to become a successful trader. I really advise new traders that it is much better to start practicing trading journals.
Tracking progress, losses, and success you need to track it too, not only successful traders because you will also learn a lot from your losses.

[lienfaye]

What are your thoughts on having a trading journal to better your trading experience?

Well, its a good idea if you like to track your profit and losses in trading. By having a trading journal you can also monitor if you're improving as a trader or if the strategy that you're using is better than before (based on how much profit you earned).

However there are also people who would like to forget the past and move on. We know its not going to be a positive experiences only and some of us dont want to remember and dwell in it. Anyway it depends for every trader, in my case I dont think its necessary, as long as I learned from the past experiences and doing better now then that would be enough, no need to take note my profit and losses before.

[Strongkored]

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?

It will help if the trader can disciplinedly record all activities so that can analyze all wins and losses, can learn the causes of losses or vice versa, because in the journal there will be a record of the date of the amount of loss or profit funds and the selected coin so that they can determine in the future they will continue to trade on the coin. what is the strategy that will continue to be used.
Yeah our brain can record events in the trade but unfortunately the details can be very easily forgotten so the trading journal is necessary to see the history of the trades made

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

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?

It might for some traders while it won't for others, so for anyone reading just because it doesn't for you shouldn't conclude that the thought is false. Do understand that there are power in written words more than those you just thought. The act of writing has its own benefits like those who write down their goals tends to be more successful (achieve them) than those who just think it in their minds. Writing is an act of action, the fact that you write down those mistakes will make you rethink your decision when next you come across them in the future.

You can easily forget you made similar mistakes if they're just stored in your thoughts, but when this mistakes are written and probably with dates of this event, you can easily recall. The trading journal are also your trading experience but just in a written form. I think majority would be better off keeping journal to avoid repetition of trading mistakes because that's common.

[lixer]

If having no journal keeps you failing then try to have a trading journal to see and track what you've been doing with your trading career. And if you find it effective then there's no reason to ignore it and just continue what you've started for having a journal.
There are records that help us do better because we can see where our money is going on and with trading journal, you'll have the idea on how you've been performing all along as you trade and if that's not enough for you as a record then you might have to use it as a motivation because you've been exerting effort to become better.

There will be no changes at all if what he already been getting before is just pure losses and it can only make him feel bad because he can now see his losses on the paper or something, this will remind him that he is a failure.

A journal is not a solution but changing his strategy could be but he also need to study better on how to improve his trade, not just by frequently changing a strategy because he might be missing some key components on why he can't win any of his trades. When I see this thread I remember that its been also discussed in gambling if it's better to list what you have spend. Some don't want to because this will only make them chase their losses.

[carlfebz2]

If having no journal keeps you failing then try to have a trading journal to see and track what you've been doing with your trading career. And if you find it effective then there's no reason to ignore it and just continue what you've started for having a journal.
There are records that help us do better because we can see where our money is going on and with trading journal, you'll have the idea on how you've been performing all along as you trade and if that's not enough for you as a record then you might have to use it as a motivation because you've been exerting effort to become better.

There will be no changes at all if what he already been getting before is just pure losses and it can only make him feel bad because he can now see his losses on the paper or something, this will remind him that he is a failure.

A journal is not a solution but changing his strategy could be but he also need to study better on how to improve his trade, not just by frequently changing a strategy because he might be missing some key components on why he can't win any of his trades. When I see this thread I remember that its been also discussed in gambling if it's better to list what you have spend. Some don't want to because this will only make them chase their losses.

Depends on a certain individual on how they would manage out those losses and how they would handle theirselves on learning from it because we know that not all people does have the same mindset and perception

towards failures or mistakes.Some do easily surrender and give up but there are people who do really strive even more and would like to progress out despite of those mistakes that had been committed.

We are the ones who could really able to distinguish on where we are most effective on particular situations.

[Kasabus]

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

Thank you for the information. And i really believe having a trading journal gives us an edge in the market. It enable us to see if our investment's decisions have worked or not, or it may need some correction as we go on trading. By keeping a trading journal, it helps us tracked our strengths and weaknesses in trading, and that we need to improve them through our experience. And its one way to help us manage the risk in trading by focusing on our strengths and lessen the chances to create mistakes throughout our trades.

[Tellek Garing]

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.

Trading journals can truly aid our profit-making in trading most importantly in the area of risk management and experience building. A trading journal serves as a blueprint to what the outcome of our trading life will look like but I will also suggest we choose the type of trading journal we read correctly to avoid choosing the wrong journal that can not help our trading outcome.

[Ziskinberg]

For me, OP Trading Journal is very important for us in order to correct what we need to correct. But some people never appreciate the use of this and the benefits we got as they are lazy enough to do the simple task. And this is even an example of why these people don't even succeed from trading.

A trading journal is a big help for traders who want to improve and even expert traders had made this for some reason and to help track their trades. How much more important for the beginners? It was indeed worth it OP.