Starting Your Trading Journal
It is part of your Stage 1 Training process to keep a record of your trades. What better place to do that than your own AIMS Forum?
You can click/tap on the tab above to access the forum.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if someone could look at your trades and comment on it? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if an experienced trader could help you get better by reviewing your trades?
In step 6 of Lesson 3.2, we asked you to start a journal. This will allow people like Immy and other members to review their trades and comment. This process will ensure that you remain on the right track. Now Let’s learn how to create your journal in the forum.
How to Create a New Journal in the Forum?
It’s a very simple process.
Step 1:
Enter AIMS Forum www.iTradeAIMS.net/forum
First head over to the forum by clicking the Forum tab above. Or visit www.iTradeAIMS.net/forum
Note: You should be automatically logged-into the forum. Please understand that the forum is a separate website but uses the same username and password as this members area. Not logged in?
In case you’re not logged in, scroll to the bottom of the page and log-in using the same username and password you have used to log in to this current page/members area.
Step 2: Enter Journals Section
Go to the section/forum called T20 Recording Zone [Journals]. Enter the forum. You will see a list of topics. Each topic in this section is a Topic created by other user and used as a journal.
Step 3: Create a New Topic:
- Hit the button “New Topic”, to create a new topic. You will be taken to a new page where you can start writing your first post. In the subject field, write the name of your journal e.g. Immy’s Journal of T20’s etc.
- Use this first post to introduce yourself, give a brief history of your trading and yourself.
- When you are ready hit the Submit button.
- Also, note that if you wanted to preview the post before submitting you can do that too by hitting the preview button. You can also use the Save draft button if you want to save this post and come back to it later.
- Below this panel of buttons, you should see three tabs. Options, Attachments and Poll creation. Use the Attachments tab to upload and attach any image file (.png, .jpg etc) or pdf of doc (Microsoft Word) file you want to attach. e.g. if you have your trading plan ready, use this tab to attach that file to this post.
- Once files are uploaded hit the Submit button.
- Congratulations you’ve created your first topic which will be your Journal.
Step 4: Creating Your First Reply/Post.
- Now it’s time to create a new reply to your freshly minted Trading Journal.
- Hit the button Post Reply.
- This should open a new window so that you can write and submit your reply.
- We recommend that you create one post and call it Reserved.
- You will use this post to enter the template of your posts.
- The Next Step tells you what template to use.
Step 5: Recording Trades in Journal and Template to Use
- After creating your journal your next question should be
“How to record a trade and what format should I use?
- We have that sorted for you too. Following is a trading journal template that you can use for each new post.
Below I have given a sample/template of how to record your trades.
Post Template for Recording Trades
You can save a link to this page Or copy this on to a Notepad (windows) [Download Empty Template]
Or save a shortcut to your desktop.
You may copy and paste this whenever you want to create a new post for recording trades.
1. Trade Number:
2. Date/Time:
3. Symbol/TF:
4. Signal Type / Direction :
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade:
6. Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade:
7. DS For this Trade:
8. DS Running Total:
9. ADD YOUR PICTURE … Add Attachment
Explanations of the Template:
1. Trade Number: [Enter Trade Number e.g. B1-T1 (Batch 1 Trade 2) ]
2. Date/Time: [Enter Date of the Trade]
3. Symbol/TF: [Enter Pair Symbol e.g. EUR/USD H1 ]
4. Signal Type / Direction : [Enter the type of signal and direction e.g. Setup 1 BUY]
5. Comments and Feelings at the Time of Taking The Trade: e.g. I saw the signal at the London Open. There is no news at this moment. I feel that the euro has been weak this week. All euro pairs are moving. I’m feeling a bit nervous as its my first trade but I am here to train for discipline. So I will try to be as objective as possible.
6. Comments and Trades After Exiting the Trade: I was feeling a bit nervous during the trade but I knew ATM is working I have taken the correct setup and so I will let the ATM manage the trade. I will not intervene so that I can grab a nice lean DS 1
7. DS For this Trade: 1
8. DS Running Total: 1 / 1 (100% )
Here are Some TIPS on T20 Recording:
1. The First post should contain your Trading Plan Copy and a bit of introduction about you.
2. Immediately afterward you can have this Index post if you like.
3. Use the following template for recording each trade.
4. Make sure you record a single trade per post.
5. Make sure you use the “subject” field correctly.
Template for End of Batch Post
Review your Batch after the 20th Trade. This is a crucial step you must not ignore. All these trades you have taken are actually for this step.
REVIEW each Batch and record your feelings, observations, and lessons have learned. You can use these lessons to Create Goals for Your NEXT batches.
Use the Following Template at the end of T20 Batch 1
1. Total DS for this Batch?
2. Feelings and comments?
3. What have I learned about my performance?
4. What will I do differently in the Next Batch?
5. Using my weaknesses or mistakes what goals should I create for the next batch?
6. How did the market perform during this batch?
You may add your own questions if you like.
That’s it… On to the NEXT Batch.