As a trader, you need to utilize specific tools to keep track and be able to analyze data to ensure that you can prepare yourself for when you have to make trades. A trading journal is a very helpful tool for tracking and analyzing your past as well as current trades. Your trading journal will include notes about what trades you made as well as trades you didn’t make and why you made the choices you did at the time. There’s a wide range of ways to make a trade journal whether you’re writing information down by hand or using software to store your data. Below, we will go over the 3 different types of trading journals and the pros as well as cons of each one.
Paper Trading Journals
If you’re just making your start as a trader, keeping a paper trading journal is an easy way to keep track of all your data as you learn more about the ins and outs of trading. How you would like to record the information in your journal depends a great amount on what exactly you are trading whether it be stocks, Options, Futures, or Forex. Once you determine that, you can choose which information is important to keep track of to help you in the future. What makes paper trading journals annoying is that it can be time-consuming and you have to do your calculations, unlike when you use Excel, which will do calculations for you.
Trading Journals in Excel
When you’ve been using a paper trading journal or are just looking for something that offers more support, using trading journals through Excel can be a great alternative. Not only is it also accessible to use, but it also will allow you more time to focus on the actual data and less time on your journaling. Using Excel will also make it easier to see differences in your trading over time and to track your progress with deals. The main issue with using Excel as a trading journal is that there isn’t a great amount of space to write out notes and comments about your trades.
Using Software like Tradiry
When you have too much data to look back on and need more technical support with tracking as well as analyzing your trades, using special trading journal software like Tradiry can make tracking your trades even easier. Tradiry allows you to log trades and put in all the details that are important to your trade into the log so it’s easy to see and find for future use. Not only are you able to put in exit and entry prices along with the date, but it’s also easier to keep track of trades that are closed as well as opened trades and average profits. Using a trading journal software helps mitigate the issues you may face using paper trade journals or Excel. Tradiry is more user friendly and allows you to spend more time focusing on making more trades that are smart.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Trading and investing in financial markets involve risks, and individuals should seek professional advice or conduct thorough research before making any investment decisions.
