Trading Journal

Keeping a trading journal or a record of all your trades and trading is an important part of every trading strategy, this must be done if you intend to succeed in this business.

It is a known fact that one of the biggest mistakes that traders make is failing to keep a trading journal, or a record of their trades and trading!

First and foremost, it is your journal and a private written or electronic record of all your trading, it is not for anyone else to look at or comment about it - it is solely for your reference.

It is very important that you do this, as it is your first step to becoming disciplined – they say 85% of trading is psychological – you must train your emotions fear, greed and money management, learn to take control don’t leave this to chance!

So what exactly do you keep in this journal? Everything that you can think about the trade and your mindset at the time of entering into it and until closure.

I personally keep an electronic journal; and make sure that I include into this the chart that I just traded, the time of entry, the price and why I entered the trade? Where did I go wrong? Did the chart setup fully comply to my strategy? If not why did I enter? How can I improve on this the next time round?

The same would apply to a winning setup.

The above course of action in keeping a trading journal will ensure that you are on your first step to becoming a disciplined trader, and seriously taking control of this difficult subject.

Discipline is “the” most important part of trading but a subject taken lightly by traders, if you get into a trading forum or to a seminar, what percentage of discussions are really about discipline? Yet it is claimed that 85% of all trading is discipline.

Discipline is somewhat a personal thing, it is up to you to make a conscious effort to mould your unwanted bad habits into profitable ones.

If you are not aware of this important subject that some consider “boring”, then you could end up losing your trading account and more, with this type of a mindset, the best trading strategy that exists will not save you financially!

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