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Lesson 11 of 14 · Free

Keeping a trading journal

What to record, how to review it, and how it turns losses into lessons.

Author: Moustafa HijaziContent reviewed: 2026-10-301 min readSelf-study course

Your journal is the single most valuable tool you own. It's your personal data set about the only trader whose behaviour you can change: you.

What to record for every trade

  • Date, instrument, direction, timeframe
  • Setup type and why you took it (one sentence)
  • Entry, stop, target, position size, planned R:R
  • Result in R (multiples of risk), not just money
  • Screenshot before and after
  • Did you follow the rules? (yes/no) — emotion notes

Weekly review questions

  1. Which setups made money? Which lost?
  2. How many rule breaks? What triggered them?
  3. Was my average loss ≤ 1R? Was my average win ≥ 2R?
  4. One thing to do better next week.

Measuring in R makes your results comparable regardless of account size.

Self-check

Answer the questions, then check your answers. You can retry as often as you like.

1. Why does the lesson suggest recording results in R (multiples of risk), not only in money?

2. You planned to risk €20 on a trade. Because of slippage you lost €40. How should you record the result?

3. Which question belongs in the weekly review?

Automatic self-check for your own revision. Your answers are checked in your browser and are not seen or assessed by us. It is not an exam and not a qualification.

Your progress

“Complete” only means you marked the lesson as done. It is not a test of your understanding. Progress and notes are saved only in this browser on this device — not in an account.