Forex Trading Diary – Is It Useful?

Today, the world is moving faster than ever. Everywhere you look things are getting faster. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Forex markets where price and conditions change by the second. You need something to slow the process down.

There are many strategies to do this, but the one I’ve been most successful with is a trade diary. I write down everything I can think of when it comes to a particular trade. I write about all the emotions I felt when I entered or exited a trade. But I also write about how the trade fit into a large strategy or why it was separated from that. In general, the more I write down the more I’m likely to learn from it.
That really is the key aspect of the trading diary. You have to think of it as a learning tool. You have to look at it is tool that will help you make money and prevent you from losing it. Because in the heat of the moment you might forget the details of a trade and you’ll forget what motivated you to make the decision you made. Afterwards, when you’ve had time to review what you wrote, you’ll be able to identify patterns that you can either adopt or ignore.

This sounds like an awful lot to do in the course of your busy day as a trader, but it doesn’t have to be. You can use the same tool to keep your diary and to make your trades – your computer. There are a number of software programs available that allow you to write short messages to yourself. These are all user friendly and once you become comfortable with one of the programs, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without it.

An easy technique to get started is to take screen shots of the charts you are using and then paste them into the writing software that you’ve chosen. You can then add notes, reminders and thoughts about what led you to make the decision about a trade.

It may take a little while to come up with a system that works for you but once you find the right one there will be no stopping. It’s important to remember one thing though: While it’s critical to keep a trading diary it’s even more important to read it. What good are all the details and notes if you never bother to read them? You’ll be amazed at how much you learn from reading your own notes. It worked in school and now it can work to improve your success as a trader.

There are a lot of good trading tools out there, but the one tool you can make for yourself – a trading diary – is probably the most effective tool of them all.