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How to keep a trading journal you'll actually learn from

Memory keeps the big win and forgets the small rule breaks. A journal keeps both, and 3 columns most people skip are where the best lessons hide.

Beginner guide · 8-minute read · Updated 2026-10-21

Why keep one

A trading journal is a simple log of every trade you take: the plan, what happened, and how you handled it.

It does three jobs:

• Shows what's working, with numbers instead of feelings.
• Shows what you keep repeating, good and bad.
• Slows you down. Knowing you'll write the trade down makes you think before you take it.

You can keep one for practice trades, backtests and live trades. Use the same columns for all three, so you can compare.

Get the free template

We made a free spreadsheet with all the columns below, plus two example rows: download the trading journal template. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers.

The columns that matter

The three columns people skip — and shouldn't

"Setup in one sentence"

If you can't say why you're taking a trade in one sentence, that's useful information. Often it means there's no real setup, just an itch to trade.

Example: "Daily trend up, price pulled back to the last low it turned from, and a candle body closed back above it."

"Followed my rules?"

This is the most important column. A trade can lose and still be a good trade, if you followed your plan. A trade can win and still be a bad one, if you broke it.

Over time you want this column to say Y almost every time. That's the habit that matters most.

"How I felt"

One word is enough. After 30 trades, you'll often spot a pattern, like most rule breaks happening when you felt rushed or right after a loss. More on that in trading psychology for beginners.

Results in units of risk, not dollars

Record results as units of risk: how many times your risk you won or lost.

• Stopped out → −1.
• Hit a 1:2 target → +2.
• Got out halfway → +1.

This keeps everything comparable. A $10 trade and a $100 trade both teach the same lesson. It also stops the dollar amount from pulling your attention away from the process.

When to write

• Before the trade: date, market, setup sentence, entry, stop, target, risk.
• Right after it closes: result, rules followed, mistake, feeling, notes.

Writing the plan first matters. If you only write afterwards, it's tempting to remember a cleaner plan than the one you actually had.

The weekly review loop

A journal you never read is just a diary. Once a week, take 20 minutes:

1. Count. Trades taken, wins, losses, total in units of risk.
2. Check rules. What share of trades were a "Y"?
3. Sort the mistakes. Which one came up most?
4. Read the feelings. Did the rule breaks share a feeling or time of day?
5. Pick one fix for next week. Just one.
6. Write it at the top of next week's page.

Once you have 30 or more trades, the expectancy calculator can turn your win rate and average win and loss into an average result per trade.

Common mistakes

• Only logging wins, or "forgetting" bad days.
• Too many columns. If it takes ten minutes a trade, you'll stop. Keep it simple.
• Never reviewing. The review is where the value is.
• Trying to fix everything at once. One fix a week sticks; five don't.

Try it today

1. Download the free template.
2. Read the two example rows, then delete them.
3. Log your next five practice trades, writing the plan first.
4. Set a 20-minute weekly review in your calendar.

Not sure what counts as following the rules? Write them down first in a one-page trading plan, then check each trade against a pre-trade checklist.

Questions