Trading Dairy

 Here’s a clear, practical guide to the most effective trading journal methods used by professional and consistently profitable traders (retail & prop alike). I’ve ranked them from simplest to most advanced.

1. Basic Spreadsheet Journal (Most Popular)Tools: Google Sheets, Excel, Notion tableCore Columns (minimum viable):

• Date & Time (entry + exit)
• Ticker / Pair
• Direction (Long/Short)
• Entry Price
• Exit Price
• Position Size (contracts, shares, $ risk)
• Stop-Loss Price
• Take-Profit Price(s)
• R-Ratio (Reward : Risk)
• P/L in $ and in R
• Setup Name (e.g., Breakout, Pullback, ORB, VWAP reclaim)
• Market Condition (trending, range-bound, news event)
• Screenshot? (Yes/No or link)
• Mistake Tag (optional: overtrading, revenge, FOMO, moving stop, etc.)
• Emotional State (1–10 scale or tags: calm, tilted, greedy, fearful)

Pro tip: Use conditional formatting so losing trades turn red, winners green, and breakeven yellow.2. Screenshot + Annotation Method (Visual Traders)Tools: Edgewonk, TraderVue, Tradervue, TradesViz, or simply OneNote + LightshotProcess:

1. Take 2–4 screenshots per trade
   • Pre-entry (mark your exact setup + levels)
   • Entry moment
   • Management (if you scaled or moved stop)
   • Exit
2. Annotate directly on the images (arrows, text, zones)
3. Write 2–4 sentences:
   “What I saw → Why I took it → What actually happened → What I learned”

This is the fastest way to spot recurring visual mistakes (entering too early, bad risk-reward, etc.).3. Edgewonk / TraderVue Style (Stats-Heavy)These platforms auto-import trades from 100+ brokers and give you 50–100 analytics dashboards:

• Win rate by setup, by session (Asia/London/NY), by day of week
• Average R win vs average R loss
• Expectancy, profit factor, Sharpe ratio
• Most common mistake tags
• Performance when you traded >3 trades/day vs <3

Great once you have 100+ trades and want hard data.4. Narrative + Psychological Journal (Best for Discipline)Separate from the stats journal. Do this daily or weekly.Template used by many 7-figure traders:

1. Trade of the day (best and worst)
2. Did I follow my plan 100% today? (Yes/No + explanation)
3. What emotion drove any rule break?
4. One thing I will do tomorrow to improve discipline
5. Gratitude or mindset affirmation

Many traders keep this in Day One, Notion, or a physical Moleskine.5. Hybrid Method (What Most Pros Actually Use in 2025)Combination of the above:

• TradesViz or TraderVue for auto-import and analytics
• Notion or Google Sheets for custom fields and weekly reviews
• Annotated screenshots stored in Notion gallery or TraderSync
• Short daily voice note (30–60 sec) on phone summarizing the day (many traders swear this beats typing for emotional honesty)

Weekly/Monthly Review Ritual (The Real Edge)Every Sunday or end-of-month, answer these 10 questions:

1. What was my best setup this week/month? Why?
2. What setup lost the most money? Do I still believe in it?
3. Did I overtrade any day? Why?
4. Average R-win vs average R-loss this period
5. Did I move stops or targets emotionally?
6. Win rate when I risked >1% vs ≤1%
7. Any correlation between sleep/exercise and P/L?
8. Top 3 mistakes repeated
9. One new rule or filter I will add
10. Equity curve screenshot + comments

Bonus Tools in 2025

• Obsidian + plugins (free, amazing linking between trades)
• TradeZella (very popular with futures & crypto traders)
• Journalytix (AI now reads your journal and points out behavioral patterns)
• Voice-to-text journals via Otter.ai or phone notes

Bottom LineStart simple: Excel + screenshots + 3-sentence “what I learned” for the first 100 trades.
Once you’re serious, move to TraderVue/Tradervue + Notion + weekly review.
The traders who review rigorously and actually change behavior based on data are the ones who graduate from −50% per year to +50% per year.Which market do you trade (stocks, options, futures, forex, crypto)? I can give you a ready-made template tailored exactly to it.