Self-deception: what do you tell yourself about your trades?
"It wasn't really against the plan", "the stop was too tight anyway", "I meant to take that loss" — the stories we tell ourselves to soften reality. Self-deception is the tax evasion of trading psychology.
What's your story?
- the rationalisation you catch yourself using
- how you finally saw through it
- the habit that keeps you honest
The journal guide makes the stories harder to maintain.
Background: How to keep a trading journal that actually improves your trading
A journal turns a pile of trades into evidence. What to record, the numbers worth calculating and a weekly review routine that takes less than an hour.
What should a trading journal include?
For each trade: the pair, direction, size, entry, stop, target, risk, the reason for the trade, how you felt, the result in money and in R, whether you followed your plan, and chart screenshots.
How do I calculate expectancy?
Multiply your win rate by your average win, then subtract your loss rate multiplied by your average loss. Measured in R, a positive result means the approach has made money per trade on average.
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