What to record in a trading journal, and what to skip

A trading journal entry is the record of one trade: its instrument, direction, times, prices, size and planned stop, with the notes, tags and decisions attached to it. Its fields hold the details available for later review.

The hard part is choosing those fields. A blank template can hold dozens of columns, and it is not obvious which ones are worth filling in for every trade and which ones only add time to each entry. With too few fields, a review has little to read. With too many, every entry takes longer to write.

The article on keeping a trading journal you stick with sets out a minimum record and a routine around it. This one goes further into the fields themselves: what each one records, what it lets you check later, and which ones can wait until the basics are routine.

How do you decide which fields a journal entry needs?

You decide by listing the questions you want your record to answer, then keeping each field that helps answer one of them. A field with no question behind it is a field you fill in and never read.

It helps to sort fields into four groups:

• Core fields describe what happened: instrument, direction, times, prices, size, fees and result.
• Planning fields describe what you intended before the entry: stop, target, planned risk and the reason for the trade.
• Context fields describe the conditions around the trade: tags, session, screenshots and a short note.
• Review fields are added later, when you read the closed trade back.

One way to check a template is to write the question next to each field. "Exit price" answers "where did I actually get out?" "Planned stop" answers "where did I intend to get out if I was wrong?" If you cannot write a question for a field, move it to a list of optional extras.

Which core fields describe what happened in a trade?

The core fields are the instrument, direction, entry and exit times, entry and exit prices, position size, fees and the result. Together they let you rebuild the trade's arithmetic without opening the exchange.

Instrument and market type. Write the symbol and whether the trade was spot or a derivative contract, such as a perpetual.

Direction. Long or short. It sounds obvious, but it is the field that decides the sign of every price difference in the entry.

Entry and exit times. Record both, in one time zone you use for every entry. Mixing local time and exchange time makes it hard to compare sessions later.

Entry and exit prices. If an order filled in several parts, you can record each fill or one quantity-weighted average. Say which one you use, and use it every time.

Position size, with its unit. Record the quantity and what it is measured in: coins, contracts or lots. The glossary entry on position size explains why the quantity and the notional value are two different numbers.

Partial closes. If you closed part of the position early, record each part separately, with its own quantity, price and result. A partial close that disappears into a single "exit price" hides how the trade was actually managed.

Fees. Record the trading fees charged on each fill, in the currency they were charged in, and keep them apart from funding payments. That keeps the gap between the gross and the net result traceable.

Result. Record the net result in your account currency, and the result in R: the result divided by the risk you planned. Note whether your R uses the gross or the net figure.

Here is a hypothetical record, for illustration only, of a trade with one partial close:

XYZ-USDT perpetual (hypothetical)   long   size 100 units
Entry 24.60   Planned stop 24.00   Planned risk 60.00 USDT (1R)
Partial close 50 units at 25.80   (25.80 - 24.60) x 50 = +60.00 USDT
Final exit    50 units at 23.95   (23.95 - 24.60) x 50 = -32.50 USDT
Gross result +27.50 USDT   Fees 1.10 USDT   Net result +26.40 USDT
Net result in R: 26.40 / 60.00 = +0.44R

The two legs went in opposite directions: one closed above the entry and one below it. Recorded as a single exit, the same trade would show only an average price, and the loss on the second half would not be visible as its own line.

Which planning fields go in before the entry?

The planning fields are the planned stop, the target, the planned risk and a one-line reason for the trade, written before you enter. They record the plan as it was at the time, rather than as you remember it afterwards.

Planned stop. Record the stop loss trigger level you set, and keep the price the exit actually filled at in its own field, so the record holds both numbers. In the hypothetical record above, the stop was set at 24.00 and the final exit filled at 23.95. On 50 units, that difference is 2.50 USDT beyond the plan, and it is worth a tag.

Target. Record the level you planned to close at, if you had one. If you had no target, write "none" rather than leaving the field blank, so a review can tell the two apart.

Planned risk. Record the amount you were prepared to lose if the stop filled at its level. This is 1R for the trade, and every later R value depends on it. In the example, 100 units with a stop 0.60 below the entry gives a planned risk of 60.00 USDT.

Leverage and margin mode, if you trade derivatives. Record what the exchange displayed when the position was opened. These are facts about the position, and recording them says nothing about what they should be.

Reason. One sentence on why you entered. A reason written after the result is known is written with the result in view. If you fill it in later, mark it as written afterwards.

Which context fields are worth adding?

Context fields are worth adding when they answer a question you actually review: tags, the session, a screenshot and a short note are four candidates. Add them one at a time, and keep each one only if you use it.

Tags. Keep a short, fixed list of tags and write a one-line definition for each, such as "late entry: entered after the planned zone was passed". A fixed list can be counted. Free-form tags that change every week are hard to group.

Session or time block. If you want to see when you trade, a session field (or the entry time in a consistent time zone) is enough. You do not need both.

Screenshot. A chart at entry, at exit or both. Label which moment it shows. An unlabeled screenshot is hard to read months later.

A short note. One or two lines on anything the other fields cannot hold: a news event you noticed, an order that misbehaved, how you felt before entering. Keep it short enough that you write it every time.

What should you add when you review a closed trade?

When you review a closed trade, add a few review fields: whether the plan was followed, why the trade closed, one observation and the date of the review. These fields are written after the outcome is known, and keeping them separate from the planning fields makes that clear.

• Plan followed: yes, no or partly. If no or partly, one line on what differed.
• Close reason: stop triggered, target reached, manual exit, time-based exit or other.
• Observation: one fact about what you did, not a verdict on the result.
• Review date: so you can tell how long after the trade the review was written.

A loss within the plan and a loss outside it look identical in a P&L column. The "plan followed" field is the part of the record that can tell them apart.

Which fields can you skip at first?

You can skip any field you have not yet tied to a question, and add it later when you have one. Candidates include long free-text reflections, quality ratings on a numeric scale, several screenshots per trade and indicator readings.

The time cost is simple arithmetic. For illustration, at about 15 seconds per field, a 10-field entry takes 2.5 minutes and a 24-field entry takes 6 minutes. Over 30 trades in a month, that is 75 minutes against 180 minutes of logging.

One thing should never be skipped: the trade itself. Record every closed trade, including small ones and losses, even when the entry is only the core fields. A record that leaves out some trades cannot be read as a record of what you did.

A simple rule for trimming: if a field has been filled in for a month and you have not used it in a review, drop it or make it optional. You can always add it back.

How do the fields work together in a weekly review?

In a weekly review, the fields let you answer your questions from the entries instead of from memory: results in R line trades up on one scale, and the planning, context and review fields explain each line. Here is an illustrative week of five hypothetical trades:

Trade 1   +0.44R   plan followed: yes      close: stop triggered after a partial close
Trade 2   -1.00R   plan followed: yes      close: stop triggered
Trade 3   -1.20R   plan followed: no       tag: moved stop
Trade 4   +1.60R   plan followed: yes      close: target reached
Trade 5   -0.30R   plan followed: partly   close: manual exit
Week total: -0.46R

Against the question "Do I exit where I planned to?", the review fields show two of the five trades left the plan, and one of those carries the "moved stop" tag. That is an observation about the week's record, not a judgment of the trades. Next week's review can check whether the same tag appears again.

If you keep your journal in tradeloggr, the trade form stores entry, stop, target, leverage and position size with each record, keeps partial closes and a timeline of trade events, and holds notes, labels and screenshots beside them. Closed records keep their close reason.

Your next step

Open your journal template, or your last 10 closed trades, and write next to each field the question it answers. Mark every field without a question, and leave those out of your next entry.