What to actually write in a trading journal (and what to leave out)

Here are two notes on the same losing trade.

The first: "Bad trade. Market reversed on me, should have held off. Annoying."

The second: "Breakout long above yesterday's high on the 15 minute chart. Entered before the candle closed. Felt rushed, I had just missed the first move. Wait for the close next time."

Both sit next to the same numbers: entry, stop-loss, size, and a loss of 1R. Both took less than a minute to write. Three months later, only the second one adds anything to those numbers. It names the setup, it says what you did differently from the plan, it says why, and it gives you something to check on the next trade. The first one only says you were annoyed.

A trading journal records two kinds of thing: the numbers and the words. Most of this post is about the words, because they are the harder part to write well. But the words only work on top of the numbers, so that is where to start.

Start with the numbers

Every trade needs its instrument, direction, entry, stop-loss, target, size and result, and the result in R: how many times your risk you made or lost. How to keep a trading journal has the full list and explains R.

The numbers are the part of your journal you cannot argue with. A note can say you felt rushed. The result says what being rushed cost. So get them right on every trade, including the ones you would rather forget. A journal with the bad trades missing describes a better trader than you are, and every conclusion you draw from it is too optimistic.

The words do not replace any of this. They sort it. "Rushed" on its own is a feeling. "Rushed" on twenty trades that average −0.6R, next to calm trades that average +0.4R, is a finding you can act on. Every kind of note below is written so it can end up next to a number like that.

The reason: one sentence you could check

Write why you took the trade, in a sentence that someone could check against the chart afterwards.

Weak: "Looked good." "Felt like it was going up." "Strong setup."

Better: "Pullback to the 20 EMA in an uptrend on the 1 hour, entry on the first higher low." "Range low held three times, long at the fourth test."

The better versions do two things. They name the setup, so later you can compare every trade of that kind. And they state a condition that was either true or not. When you read the trade back, you can look at the chart and see whether the reason was real, or whether you wrote it after deciding you wanted to be in.

If you cannot write the reason in one sentence before you enter, that is worth noticing too. Some traders make it a rule: no sentence, no trade.

What would prove you wrong

Next to the reason, write what would show the idea was wrong. That is where your stop-loss belongs, because the stop goes where your analysis says the trade is invalid.

"Wrong if price closes back inside the range." "Wrong below the higher low at 1.0820."

This makes the stop part of the idea instead of a number you picked. And when you read a losing trade back, you can see at once whether the trade was stopped out for the reason you wrote down, or whether you moved the stop, or never had a clear one.

The feeling: one word, and what caused it

Write how you felt taking the trade. One word is enough: calm, rushed, bored, confident, frustrated, afraid of missing out. Then, if there is a reason, add it in a few words.

"Rushed. Had just missed the first move." "Calm. Had waited all morning for this level." "Frustrated. Third loss today."

The word is what you will count later. The reason is what tells you which situations lead to that word. After fifty trades you might find that your "rushed" trades almost all come right after a missed move. That is something you can act on. "I should be more patient" is not.

Keep this separate from the reason for the trade. The reason is about the market. The feeling is about you. Mixing them into one paragraph makes both harder to read back.

Did you follow your plan?

Answer this on every trade: yes, partly, or no. If partly or no, say what was different in a few words.

"Partly. Right setup, but entered before the candle closed." "No. Not a setup from my list, took it out of boredom."

This answer is what separates two very different kinds of loss. A loss where you followed your plan is part of trading, and the plan may still be fine. A loss where you did not follow it points at you, not at the strategy. If you do not write down which one it was, the two get mixed together, and you end up changing a strategy that was working or keeping a habit that was not.

The lesson: something you can test

After the trade closes, write one lesson, and only if there is one. Not every trade has a lesson. A good trade that hit its stop-loss may simply be a loss.

When there is one, write it so you can check it on the next trade.

Weak: "Be more patient." "Trust the process." "Don't overtrade."

Better: "Wait for the candle close before entering breakouts." "No new trades in the last 30 minutes before the close." "Maximum two trades after a loss."

The weak lessons are true, but you cannot tell next week whether you followed them. The better ones are either done or not done, and your journal can show which.

What to leave out

The result, again. "Lost $240 on this one" repeats a number your journal already has. Use the words for what the numbers cannot say.

Hindsight written as fact. "Should have held, it went to target afterwards" only reads as a lesson. You did not know that when you closed the trade. If you closed early, the useful note is why you closed: "Closed early because I was afraid of giving back the profit." That is something you can work on. Where price went afterwards is not.

Long commentary. Paragraphs about the news, the market mood, or what other traders were saying. Some of it may matter, but if it runs longer than a few sentences you will not reread it, and a note you do not reread is not doing anything.

Judgment instead of description. "Stupid trade." "Idiot move." It tells your future self how you felt about the trade, not what happened in it. "Took it out of boredom, not on my list" is the same point, and it is useful.

Turn repeated notes into tags

After a few weeks, you will probably see the same phrases appear again and again: "entered early", "moved the stop-loss", "not on my list". When a note repeats, turn it into a tag.

A tag can be counted. "Entered early" written in twenty separate notes is hard to add up. A tag called "Entered early" on twenty trades is a number, next to a total result in R. This is where a journal can show you something you did not know, for example that one mistake accounts for a large part of your losing month, or that one setup makes nearly all of your profit.

Keep the tags few. Your setups, and the handful of mistakes that actually repeat. A list of forty tags is as hard to read as forty notes.

How Vink helps

Accurate numbers without the typing. Drop in a screenshot of your chart and Vink reads the instrument, direction, entry, stop-loss, target and size off it. You check them, and Vink works out the risk-to-reward and the result in R. Your minute then goes to checking the numbers and writing the reason and the feeling, not to typing prices.

Separate places for the trade and for you. Every trade has a Notes field for the reason and the lesson, and a separate Mental notes field for your headspace. Next to them are emotion chips such as calm or FOMO, a score out of 10 for how you felt and for your confidence in the setup, and a Followed plan answer: yes, partly or no.

Tags for setups and mistakes. You tag each trade with its setup and with any mistakes. The weekly review breaks your results down by setup, by mistake and by whether you followed your plan, so the phrases that repeat become numbers you can compare.

The trades you did not take. You can log a missed trade too, a setup you saw and did not take, so the journal shows what your hesitation costs, not only your losses.

A review that asks for the lesson. The weekly review asks what to keep, what to change, and one focus for next week, with the trades worth a second look in front of you.

The boundary

Vink does not write the words for you. It reads prices off your chart, but it cannot know why you took the trade or how you felt. Those notes are yours to write, and they are the part of the journal nobody else can fill in.

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The numbers tell you what happened, and everything else in your journal rests on them. The words tell you why, and they let you sort the numbers into groups you can compare. Get the numbers right on every trade, then write the reason so you could check it, the feeling in one word, the lesson so you could test it, and leave the rest out.