Many of you have ever wondered what is the reason for their failures, and why it is not possible to start making money on Forex steadily? There are many reasons for this, including non-compliance with the rules of your trading system or money management , inability to fix losses on time, premature closing of positions, due to which you lose potential profit, a large number of haphazard entries, and much more. But how to understand which of these or other reasons leads to the drain of your deposit? Looking back, you will not be able to remember what prompted you to open a trade not only three months ago, but also last week. It is possible that you are doing everything correctly, and the whole point is not in your mistakes, but in the trading system itself. Then you need to change something in the trading system or find a new onestrategy . But how do you know if the reason for your failures is a bad trading system or a lack of self-control? You can get all the answers to these questions if you keep a trader’s diary, where you will regularly enter information about when and for what reason you opened a deal, as well as what you got as a result – profit or loss. See also which brokers support WebMoney deposit / withdrawal.
What is a trader’s diary for?
Even Alexander Elder , Doctor of Psychology and a professional trader, has repeatedly written in his books about the need to keep a trader’s diary. He believes that this is the only way to achieve that skill, without which it is impossible to become a trader as a person in the field of stock speculation. Only constant analysis of trading operations and self-discipline can help a trader to reach a new level. An ordinary notebook can serve as a trader’s diary, in which the following information must be recorded:
- the date and time of the opening of the transaction;
- position size;
- the reason why you opened a trade with a trend (for example, a crossover of moving averages ) or against a trend (for example, a strong resistance level in the price path);
- the date and time of the closing of the transaction;
- the reason why you closed the trade (this could be a stop loss , take profit, the appearance of an opposite signal, or another reason);
- the result of the transaction (profit or loss);
- analysis of the trade (perhaps you closed the trade too early and the price continued its movement in your direction, or the stop loss was placed close to the price and was quickly knocked out).
You can also automate this process and write all the initial information into an Excel spreadsheet or download a ready-made trader’s diary template. At the end of the week or month, you should analyze all your actions and identify the reasons due to which you are suffering losses. These can be various psychological factors (fear of losses, greed, leading to oversitting of positions, a feeling of excitement), non-compliance with the rules of your trading system (spontaneous entry into a deal or early closing of positions), overestimated risks. Perhaps you should remove trading instruments that show the lowest profit, or add an additional indicator that will filter out false signals.
If you regularly conduct this analysis, you can significantly increase the effectiveness of your Forex trading. When you eliminate the causes that lead to losses, and trading becomes systematic and disciplined, you can stop logging transactions. But in the early years of Forex trading, a trader’s diary should become an indispensable attribute of any novice trader .
Free services for keeping a trader’s diary
There are many free and paid services for automated trader diary. We will consider the most popular programs that can be downloaded absolutely free on the Internet:
- Trader’s magazine from Anton Bergov. This is a free program from a well-known trader, which took into account all the wishes of traders. Great for both beginners and experienced traders.
Free download trader’s diary
- Trader’s diary in Excel. This diary provides everything a trader needs.
Free download trader’s diary
- Transactions journal in Excel. This trader’s diary impresses with its simplicity and convenience, and thanks to the profitability chart, you can visually observe the changes in the statistics of the trading account.
Free download trader’s diary
- A universal trader’s diary. Unlike the simple trader’s diary described above, this trades journal has various settings as well as a FAQ for ease of use.
Free download trader’s diary
- Diary of a trader Rezvyakov. Another version of an electronic diary from a professional trader, created in Excel.
In addition to free services for automated Forex diary keeping, you can find paid versions of similar programs on the Internet. As a rule, they have an extended set of functions and filters, have a simple and convenient interface, as well as all the necessary tools for quick and complete analysis. The disadvantage of such programs is the rather high price, therefore they are recommended for experienced traders who need to collect and analyze statistics to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the trading system.
If, after reading this article, you came to the conclusion that a trader’s diary is not what you would like to do on Forex, then you are either an experienced trader who has learned the bitterness of defeat and the taste of victories, or a beginner who has no idea yet. what is Forex . Of course, if you have a working strategy that has been bringing stable profits for more than one year, then you don’t need a trader’s journal. But for beginners, a trader’s diary will help to save more than one deposit , and will also allow them to get closer to their cherished goal – success in Forex.
