A diary or log is just a list of your trades where you mention a date, time, currency pair, and price of opening/closing the trade. As an employee in a warehouse counts leftovers, a trader should keep up with its positions. Any trader on IronTrade should keep its own trading diary or review the history of trades available in your trading profile.

It might look a bit difficult at first sight, but it definitely will help you to get meaningful insights into your trading style and techniques. Moreover, you can improve them. So, in this article, we will review the different methods of keeping a trading log.

Usage of Excel or Google sheets

Excel is an excellent instrument to keep a diary. You can quickly put in all the information about your trades mentioned above and even put some comments. For example, your strategy or what type of analysis you used (fundamental or technical), reward to risk ratio, and finally, if the trade was successful or not. The more data you type, the easier it will be to analyze your previous trades.

Also, you can log even more: type of charts that you use, their time frames, indicators, and overall market conditions. Actually, as we already said, any information that helps make a trading decision may come in handy. Using such logs, you can identify successful or failing trades characteristics later.

Words from experts

Here are some words from professional traders who always log their trades:

Always include the following into any log entry: risk management review, a strategy used, and some volatility metrics at the trade moment. In other words, put notes on why did you make this trade and set this amount and expiration time.

Another approach implies using a ledger rather than a log. It can be helpful if you make a few trades so you can update it weekly. Also, you can put everything in a percentage format to compare with the previous period. It helps to see the trends and stay focused on the profit and loss ratio. 

Finally, keep in mind that there is no 100% correct method of logging your trading workflow. A range of approaches specified here can be handy, but try to get the best parts from it, trying to find your own unique approach that suits best for your trading style. 

“How to do it?” – you ask. Well… it comes through a trial and error way. You can make your portfolio and logs private and analyze them on your own or share them online, so other traders can take a look and provide feedback. Both methods are suitable. If you choose to keep your logs private, then make a document to save the data with screenshots (a physical notebook may also be helpful in some cases). As for the public journal, you can record your trades and thoughts in an online forum where other traders gather.

Both ways give you extra incentive to place clear and valid trades on your account. You will have to stick to your strategy and not get distracted by external factors (such as emotions). You will know that you will face your decisions later, either privately or publicly. This will make you more aware of times when you let your emotions prevail over logic. Anyway, it is good to keep track of all trades to not fool yourself into thinking that you making good trading decisions, while in fact, they are not profitable at all.

Finally, just don’t forget that when any trade is closed (expired), you should write it down and later allow some time to work your notes to analyze and work out where you may have made a mistake and how you can avoid it in the future.

Try to implement this logging approach next time when trading on IronTrade. It helps us a lot! Good luck.