The Kirk Report |
How To Start Keeping A Journal Posted: 12 Mar 2012 10:17 AM PDT
At some point you have probably already read somewhere about the importance of keeping a trading journal. In other words, taking time each and every day to write down and store your thoughts, observations and actions concerning the market and your trading activities. This exercise is done not only to keep those stored for future reference, but also as a self-evaluation tool to track your development. Given the complexity of the market, it is impossible for most us to recall simply from memory what we’ve learned, how we’ve acted in certain situations, and more importantly the best tactics to employ in specific market conditions and situations. In fact, the more and longer you trade, this task become even more challenging. A big part of trading successfully is learning how to use and take advantage of your past experiences and remembering lessons learned. If you ask most successful traders they will tell you that keeping a journal can be helpful. However, the reality is that most traders don’t keep one. For example, when interviewing traders that have applied for my mentorship group, I often ask them to send me copies of a journal entries for various time periods so I can see what they’re keeping track of every day and how organized they are in doing so. Would it surprise you that most cannot provide those samples? And, those who do, the journal looks like it was recently made up. In sum, this easily separates out the jokers from those who truly are doing what it really takes to achieve long-lasting success in the markets. So, why don’t traders keep good journals or not at all? In my view, part of it is certainly time. We are all busy enough working our own strategies and keeping focused conditions and trades that adding yet another daily task is tough things for us to do. Another big part I think has to do with the basic fact that some of us just don’t develop the habit. Most of us have routines and if you don’t add journaling to it at some point, there there will never be enough time in the day to do it! Looking back, I was very fortunate. Early on in my career before agreeing to mentor me, my first mentor asked me to start keep a trading journal for an entire month. He didn’t tell me what to put in there, just simply to “write down in a paragraph every day what you learn each day.” Simple and straightforward and every day since 1994 I have been doing exactly that! This also raises the third issue I see – most traders don’t really know or understand really what a trading journal should include and so they don’t even begin. Since most successful traders won’t openly share their methods with strangers, you won’t find many helpful samples out there to work with as a starting point. Moreover, if you ask a 100 traders what things to include in a journal, you’ll get 100 different responses. Since everyone trades differently and operates in different time frames, your journal must reflect that as well. So, if you are one of the traders that understand why it could be important to keep a journal OR you are at least willing to try it for a period of time to start the habit to see for yourself if it can be helpful, here are five tips to help get you started:
Like most things, the most difficult thing is just to get started to develop the habit in your daily routine. These five recommendations should help get you past that point. If you make and stick with your commitment to maintain a trading journal, in time you will gain a powerful tool in your trading weaponry. Through the years, many of my best trades have come following reviewing my notes of prior situations and setups that I am facing once again. In many ways, that has proven to be a valuable edge for me and, if you do the same, in time you will discover this as well. Once you do and you find out that the process isn’t as awful or as difficult as you currently might think or fear, then it is time to actually improve your journal and focus so that it really will help you. At first, it is ok just to do what it takes simply to develop the habit. After that, I would highly recommend reading the following trading journal suggestions from my friend Dr. Brett N. Steenbarger. He offers some terrific ideas on what a trading journal should and should not include to help you make the most of this exercise! This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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