TradaZen
The method, in four steps:
- Right after each trade, answer three questions: were you in your plan, what was your reason for entering in one sentence, did you respect your exit?
- Add the basic facts: date, market, direction, size, result.
- Once a week, reread everything and compare your in-plan trades with your off-plan trades.
- Change only one rule at a time, then watch the following week.
This page is about method and discipline, not strategy. It is not investment advice.
What is a trading journal for?
Your memory is not a good measuring tool. The day after a session, you remember the spectacular trade, rarely the small slips that cost you everything. A journal written in the moment gives you an honest record, set down before the memory rebuilds itself.
Its real role is not to make you a better analyst. It is to show you when you don't follow your own method, and at what moments that happens. It is also the most direct tool for spotting tilt in trading, the state where a loss pushes you to trade on emotion.
What should you write in a trading journal?
A journal that's too heavy is a journal you abandon. Start with three questions.
1. Were you in your plan? Yes or no. Did you take this trade because it met your criteria, or to win back a loss, out of boredom, out of fear of missing a move? The honest answer is often the most instructive.
2. Your reason for entering, in one sentence. If you can't write it in one sentence, you probably didn't have a real reason.
3. Did you respect your exit? Not the result: whether you followed the plan. A losing trade closed according to your plan is a disciplined trade. A winning trade outside your plan is a risk, because it makes you want to do it again.
Only then come the facts: date and time, market, direction, size, entry and exit price, result. Annotated screenshots and statistics by day of the week can come later.
Trading journal template to copy
A notebook, a note on your phone or a spreadsheet is enough. One row per trade:
| Field | Sample answer |
|---|---|
| Date and time | Tuesday, 10:15 a.m. |
| Market | gold, 15 minutes |
| Direction | buy |
| Size | 1% of the account |
| In my plan? | yes |
| Reason for entering | bounce off the previous day's support |
| Exit respected? | no, stop moved |
| Result | −1.4 R |
| State before entering | rushed |
The last field is optional, but useful. One word is enough, and it often sheds light on the review.
Why are most journals abandoned?
The classic format asks for the most effort at the worst moment: right after a session, when the tension drops. So you put it off, and the next day you no longer know why you entered.
The rule that changes everything: logging a trade must take less time than the urge to skip it. Three questions, the basic facts, and you're done. A short journal kept every day is worth more than a complete journal abandoned after a week.
How do you review your journal each week?
The review is what turns the journal into progress. Once a week, fifteen minutes:
- How many trades were off-plan? And what is their combined result, compared with the in-plan trades?
- When did you slip? After a loss, at the end of the day, on a particular day?
- Which words keep coming back under "state before entering" for the off-plan trades?
- Did you respect your exits on losing trades, or did you let them run?
Then pick a single rule to change for the following week. For example: "no new position in the ten minutes after a loss."
Mistakes to avoid
- Logging only winning trades, or "accidentally" forgetting the worst ones.
- Filling in the journal the next day: you write what you think afterward, not what you thought in the moment.
- Judging a trade by its result rather than by whether you followed the plan.
- Changing five rules at once: you'll never know which one mattered.
The journal in TradaZen
In TradaZen, you log your real trades in a few seconds and keep a record week after week. You can export your journal and your trades as CSV to review them in a spreadsheet.
The journal shows you your past mistakes; training makes you decide again, without risking any money. The app's trading exercises are played on real past charts, with what came next hidden, and a simulated balance.
Frequently asked questions
What is a trading journal?
A notebook where you record each trade right after taking it: whether you were in your plan, your reason for entering, whether you respected your exit, then the facts. Reviewed every week, it shows when and why your decisions slip.
What is the best trading journal?
The one you actually keep. A spreadsheet or a notebook with three questions beats a full-featured tool abandoned after a week. When you do choose a tool, pick it for how fast you can log a trade before its charts.
Is there a free trading journal?
Yes: the template on this page, copied into a notebook or a spreadsheet, costs nothing. The TradaZen journal is part of the TradaZen Pro subscription.
How much time does keeping a trading journal take?
Less than a minute per trade if you stick to the three questions and the basic facts, then fifteen minutes of review per week.
Mehdi Azizi created TradaZen and published it on the App Store through the Devoria studio. The app's scenarios are real past charts, never made-up data.
TradaZen is a training tool: you play on past market data with a simulated balance. It is not a broker and not investment advice. Real trading carries a risk of capital loss.
