Without a record, you remember a version of your trading that is kinder than the truth: the wins stand out and the rule-breaking blurs. A journal replaces memory with evidence, and a review turns the evidence into changes.
What your account already records
Your Trades page keeps every order with its market, direction, stake, expiry, opening price, settlement price and result, and the wallet ledger shows every balance movement. The AI page keeps a history of your reads. That covers what happened. A journal adds why and how you felt, which the platform cannot know.
What to write for each trade
Keep it short enough that you will actually do it. Three lines is plenty.
- Before: market, direction, expiry, stake, and the one-sentence reason. Add what would prove you wrong, and what the AI read said if you ran one.
- After: the result, and whether the reason played out.
- Process: did you follow your own rules (stake, limit, pre-trade check)? Yes or no, honestly. Add one word for your state: calm, rushed, annoyed, bored, tired.
A spreadsheet or a notebook is fine. The format matters far less than doing it straight after the trade.
The weekly review
Once a week, with a cup of something and no money at stake, go through the entries.
Numbers worth tracking
- Number of trades and number decided (wins plus losses; ties refund the stake).
- Win rate, always shown beside the number of trades. Compare it with the break-even rate for the payout you traded (51.3% at 95%).
- Net result in money, and as a share of your starting balance.
- Largest loss and longest losing streak.
- Rule adherence: the share of trades where you followed your rules.
Questions worth asking
- Which of my results came from following the plan, and which from breaking it?
- Do my trades differ by market, expiry, time of day or mood? Look for one clear pattern, not five weak ones.
- Did any of my best days come from a rule I broke? (That is a dangerous pattern to repeat.)
- What is the single change I will test next week?
Avoid false conclusions
- Small samples. Thirty trades is the minimum before a win rate means much, and even then it is rough. Splitting into many groups (by market, by hour, by mood) leaves each too small to trust.
- Hindsight. Judge the decision with what you knew when you made it. A well-reasoned trade that lost is not a mistake. A reckless trade that won is.
- Changing everything at once. If you change market, expiry, stake and method together, you will never know which change helped.
Rule adherence beats the profit and loss figure
In the short run profit is mostly luck, and following the plan is mostly choice. Reviewing process is the way to improve what you actually control. A week of ten disciplined trades with a net loss is a better week than a week of ten reckless trades with a net gain, because you can repeat the first.
An example week
You record 24 trades. 13 won, 11 lost, so the win rate is 54%. At a 95% payout the break-even is 51.3%, so you are slightly above it, but on 24 trades luck could easily explain that. Your rule adherence was 20 of 24; the four breaks all came after two losses in a row, and three of those four lost. That is the finding that matters: the plan works as a plan, and the damage comes after two losses. The change to test next week is the cooling-off break after two losses in a row.
Keep it honest and private
Do not write the journal for an audience. Nobody else has to see it. The entries that embarrass you are the ones that teach you most.
Tip: Start tonight. Write the next three practice trades into a note before you place them, and review them afterwards. The habit takes about a minute per trade and it is the cheapest edge available.
