It's Difficult To Keep A Trading Journal, But It's Well Worth It

It's difficult to keep a trade journal, but losing all of your trading capital, failing as a forex trader, giving up, and never returning to forex trading is also a possibility.

And thinking back to happier times when there were only five TV channels to choose from.

Which one would you prefer？

Entering trades in a diary encourages you to look at them in black and white rather than depending on memory, which is a stretch for most people.

A trading log also allows a trader to take a step back and look at their deals as a group, rather than as isolated and ultimately random transactions.

Doesn't this sound like a lot of effort to you？

Yes, that is, but doesn't everything worthwhile involve effort？!？

Keeping a trading journal is similar to practicing for a sport.

Professional athletes frequently spend significantly more time practicing or training for an event than actually competing in it.

“Michael would go for 40 or 50 points one night, and the next morning he was right back at it in practice,” says Tim Grover, Michael Jordan's personal physical trainer. He was unable to take a day off. His mental toughness was incredible, but it was only possible because he was physically prepared every day. 'I practice so hard because it makes the games better,' he used to remark.

John Wooden, winner of a record 10 NCAA Men's Basketball Championships and widely regarded as one of basketball's greatest brains, followed a tight and disciplined two-hour practice schedule five days a week in preparation for a 40-minute game.

Do you have any idea how much time that is？ That's ten hours (or 600 minutes) of rehearsal for 40 minutes of real-time action.

Not only that, but there's more! He emphasized meticulous and focused practice, as well as keeping a LOG of how each exercise went.

If his squad encountered a difficulty that he couldn't address, Coach Wooden would consult his practice logs.

For example, if his current team was having trouble shooting, he would look at his prior practice logs to see how they could improve.

Coach Wooden recognized the need of meticulous record keeping even in the days before computers and iPads!

While the act of journaling isn't very difficult, it is a time-consuming procedure that will necessitate regular effort.