What do you actually record in your trading journal?

Almost every trader agrees a journal helps. Far fewer agree on what to write in it, and fewer still keep one going for more than a few weeks.

A starting template

• Date, pair, direction, entry, stop, target and position size
• Why you took the trade, written before you enter
• What the economic calendar showed for the session
• How you felt going in: calm, rushed, trying to win back a loss
• The result, and whether you followed your own plan

The part most people skip

Reviewing. A journal nobody reads is just a list. Many traders set aside time at the end of each week to look for patterns: the setups that work, the times of day that don't, and the emotional states that come before their worst trades.

What does your journal look like, and what has it taught you that you wouldn't have noticed otherwise?