12 things that every trading journal should contain

Journals should include the following:

– General analysis of the market, including the major market influences.

– Daily highs, lows, support and resistance numbers of the primary spreads that
are being scalped by a trader.

– The profit or loss and volume traded broken down into strategies.

– A detailed analysis of what worked and did not work for trading on that day,
including why.

– The analysis of at least one missed trade.

– The emotional state that the trader was in before they started trading.

– The emotions that where felt as they where in their trades.

– How their emotions where influenced by their profits or loss fluctuations.

– New trading ideas.

– One thing they did well, and one thing they need to improve on.

– Profit and loss high and low of the day.

– Goal for tomorrow’s trading session.

The idea of the journal is to be able to track where you are being successful
and where you are struggling. This will help you find what areas you should
focus on to build your trading.

It especially important to journal when you are starting a brand new strategy.
All the little things need to be recorded so that you have the best probability
of succeeding.

One piece of information that can be gained from journaling is when to increase
your size of trading. When you start a new strategy you should always start
small. It is when you have shown consistent profits that you should be
increasing how much capital you allocate to a strategy. This of course you will
know from your journal.

Be wise, keep records, keep journals, so you can trade well.

If you want more help or information check out www.pairtrader.com.

Darren Clifford is a professional equities
trader with Bright Trading. Mr. Clifford has recently been ranked one of the top
30 traders under 30 by Trader Monthly magazine.

Mr. Clifford holds a masters degree in Economics from Simon Fraser University
specializing in Financial Mathematical Modeling. He is also the president of
www.pairtrader.com, company dedicated to
providing the tools and data necessary for hedged equity trading.