Trade Journal Template

What to Record for Every Swing Trade

1. The plan. Ticker, setup, entry, stop and target, written before the order goes in.
2. The size. Shares and money at risk, from your fixed risk rule.
3. The result. Exit price, profit or loss, and the result in R.
4. The lesson. One line on what you did well and one on what to fix.

The down­load­able spread­sheet has all of these columns plus auto­matic for­mu­las. The quick journal above keeps just the essen­tials so you can start today.

Why We Measure Trades in R

R com­pares each result with the risk you planned. Buy at $50 with a stop at $48 and sell at $55, and the trade made +2.5R. A full stop-out is −1R. Mea­sur­ing in R makes trades of dif­fer­ent sizes com­pa­ra­ble and shows whether you are stick­ing to your stops.

Plan the R before entry with the R:R Cal­cu­la­tor, then compare it with the R you actu­ally cap­tured.

A Simple Weekly Review

• Sort trades by setup and check which one has the best average R.
• Look for losses bigger than −1R. Each one is a broken rule worth a note.
• Pick one habit to repeat and one to fix next week.

Ten minutes a week is enough. The journal is only useful if you read it.

Mistakes a Trade Journal Makes Visible

Most traders believe they follow their rules. A journal shows whether they really do. After a few weeks of honest entries, the same pat­terns tend to appear:

• Losses larger than planned. A result worse than −1R usually means a stop was moved lower or never placed.
• Winners cut too early. Many small +0.5R wins next to full −1R losses point to selling out of fear.
• One setup doing the heavy lifting. Often one pattern earns most of the profit while another quietly loses.
• Trading on bad days. Notes like “rushed” or “bored” next to losing trades are worth a rule of their own.

None of this needs advanced soft­ware. A plain log, filled in every time, is enough to see it.