What is Trading journal?
Savdo jurnali
In short
A log of every trade with the reasoning, entry/exit, result and lessons learned.
Also known as: journal, jurnal
A trading journal is a log of every trade with its reasoning, entry and exit prices, result and lessons. It isn't memory — it's data: after a few dozen trades it shows which setups make money and which mistakes keep repeating.
What to record
- Date, ticker, direction (long/short), setup type.
- Entry, stop-loss, target, share count and risk amount.
- Exit price, result in dollars and in R.
- Why you entered, whether you followed the plan, how you felt.
- A chart screenshot and one lesson.
What it gives you
A journal lets you calculate win rate, expectancy and profit factor from real data. It also exposes emotional mistakes: if trades taken right after a loss are consistently worse, that is a sign of revenge trading.
Limitations
A journal only helps if it is honest: "forgetting" or skipping losing trades ruins all the statistics. Collecting data isn't enough on its own — review it weekly and make one concrete change. The trading journal on limitup is designed to keep these records in one place.
Profit factor = gross wins ÷ gross losses. Below 1 the setup loses money. Behind the overall 1.07 hide one strong setup and two losing ones.
4 mistake trades lost $350 — almost half of the $750 in total losses. The most expensive mistake is moving the stop.
Example
One illustrative entry: XYZ, long, setup "resistance breakout". Entry $52, stop $50, target $56, 50 shares, risk 50 × $2 = $100. Exit at $55 → profit 50 × $3 = $150 = +1.5R. Lesson: got scared and exited before the target.
Review after 40 trades (illustrative):
- Breakout setup: 22 trades, total +11R.
- Counter-trend trades: 18 trades, total −7R.
- Overall: +4R. Had the second setup been dropped, the result over the same period would have been +11R.
Mistakes and tips
Write the entry as soon as you close the trade — by evening or the next day your reasons and feelings are already "edited".
Record the result in R as well as dollars, so results stay comparable even when your account size changes.
Review the journal every week and add or remove one specific rule — don't change many things at once.
Calculate it
Frequently asked questions
- How do you keep a trading journal?
- For every trade, record entry, stop, target, size, result and reasoning, and review the overall statistics once a week. A simple spreadsheet works — consistency is what matters.
- Should I journal paper trades too?
- Yes. A journal from the demo stage gives you the first real statistics on your strategy and shows whether you're ready for real money.
Learn it in the Academy
This term is covered with hands-on examples and a quiz in these lessons of the interactive course.
- R:R — risk/reward ratioR units, the win rate you need, expectancy and profit factor with numbers; how partial exits change R and how to set realistic targets.Open lesson · 11 min
- Trading psychology: FOMO, revenge and disciplineSix thinking traps that cost money, written rules and routines against them, the daily loss limit, process versus outcome, and an emotion journal.Open lesson · 11 min
- Trading journal: learning from your own statisticsWhat to record, tagging setups, computing win rate, expectancy and profit factor, and finding where the money leaks out.Open lesson · 12 min
Try the theory without risk
Open a free account: demo trading with a $10,000 virtual balance, a trading journal, calculators and a step-by-step course.