Forex Trading Journal - Learn From Yourself

Making profits as a forex trader needs many things to fall into place. One of the key things is to have the right tools and processes that will give you the necessary structure so that you can trade with confidence. A forex trading journal should be one of the tools that you first look to setup. It will provide a framework of discipline that will allow you to trade like a professional trader.

What Is It?

A forex trading journal is a notebook, spreadsheet, or other record where you keep details about each trade that you make. These details should include the decision-making or strategy behind the trades. You will also want to note down every detail of the trade, including the date, what currency pair was involved, direction of proposed movement, entry price, planned exit price, the trade size, pips target, pips returned, profit or loss, and the relevant trading session. You can also put in a screen shot of the trade if you want to for future reference.

Why Keep This?

If you have a forex trading journal, you won't have to rely on your memory to remember every mistake you have made in the past as well as every profitable trade you've been able to accomplish. As a trader, you should know that trading currency is a non-stop education and experience is often the best teacher. You will give yourself the best chance to succeed by analyzing the various elements of your good and bad trade decisions. This will allow you to emulate profitable trades and, at the same time, avoid the trades that cost you money.

You will find that a forex trading journal provides benefits in many other ways including the way that it will make you think and analyze your activities. You might be the only one that ever reads it but it still will change the way that you approach future trade decisions. Seeing your trades in black and white can be a sobering experience and adds a dash of reality to what can just seem like paper transactions. You'll immediately find that it will make you think more professionally about what it really takes to make profits over a prolonged period. Having to record something will help to stop you from over-trading or gambling.

Learn From Your Mistakes

When you are trading in the world of foreign currencies, making mistakes is unavoidable. Sooner or later, you will slip up. Do not be afraid of this as it can teach you a valuable lesson. In fact, most of the successful traders found their edge through trial and error. Profits won't come without making some genuine effort to educate yourself as much as possible. Eventually, you will have to learn from your mistakes. And what better way to do that than with a forex trading journal. There is a reason that most successful and respected traders have one and use it constantly. Big financial institutions, banks and companies trading in the market also do the same thing. If you choose to have only one tool by your side, then this is what you will need.