Right now my journal usually consist of a brief entry of a few sentences. I would write stuff like, I was impatient today and traded impulsively, or I started out with losses and they got worse because I forced trades so I can make my money back. I want to improve my trading at a faster pace and this kind of info in my journal is inadequate. I need more in depth analysis.
Today I got a idea. My trading software has a trade analyzer feature which creates a break down of my trades each day. It includes the shares traded, stocks traded, pnl, # winning trades, # losing trades etc. I have been collecting the data dating back to 2006 but haven't really done anything with them. I am such a lazy trader. You might have seen this format before if you follow Dehtrader's blog. I think we use the same broker.
Here is an analysis of Thursday's trading. The day I got hit for a $700 loss. I did not get any big hits. The little losses were the ones that killed me. I had a terrible win rate of 18%. I traded 9600 shares and lost $375 during the midday chop period.
I am going to input the data into excel and do some analysis. It is a tedious task but I think I can get a good understanding of my some of my weaknesses. I am still gathering ideas on how to analyze my stats.
2 comments:
I guess I know what you mean, I've read it in books as well, that the traders that have a better jounals (detailed etc) are the ones that make money regulary.
Whenever I take screen shots of my trades, I stay disciplined and make money, whenever I don't I lose money, this is a pattern that I'm just realizing, usually when I start trading again I post charts, and I make money, and then after some time I get bored and I don't save the charts, not even 1 a day, and my trading looks like shit.
Lesson learned, do your detailed journal :)
I have been trading for years but do not keep a journal (never really have). What I do instead is write about the market. What is going on, what I think are the driving forces etc etc. I also read....READ ALOT. It has helped me identify trends in the markets (direction, yield plays etc etc), as I trade longer term.
I like the blog I will check in from time to time....Good Luck
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