Market Insight

How to Create Your Own Trading Log Template

The Market is our greatest teacher…

For trading and investing, it is often said that the market is the greatest teacher. If that is true then it’s imperative that we take copious notes!

Benefits of a Trading Log Template:

For those of us who prefer paper logs and journals, are not in front of a computer all of the time, or do not have immediate access to our electronic trading journals, a simple Trading Log Template can be incredibly useful! Here’s how:

Consistent Data Capture: without the use of a template, in real-time it is easy to leave out a key piece of data that we wish to keep track of. Overtime, inconsistent data sets lead to poor information. The more consistency we have with the data we’re looking to capture, the better.
Organization: By following a template, all of the data we wish to capture is laid out in a consistent format. This consistency allows us to easily identify trends and anomalies in our trading
Wins/Loss: one of the primary reasons we want to keep trading journals and logs is to identify what is working for us and what isn’t. Here’s how I use this trading log:
- Complete the Trading Log Template for each transaction
- Print both a daily and a weekly chart for each transaction
- Keep a binder with 3 sections: Open Trades, Winning Trades, Losing Trades (my binders begin on January 1 and end on December 31)
- Log trades into the Trading Journal Spreadsheet as soon as possible (only applicable if you’re using an electronic journal)
- Review all trades quarterly (if not, then more frequently)

Get our Trading Log Template FREE!

While I believe it’s important to use a Trading Log Template, I also believe that it’s important that we develop our own templates to make sure that we capture the data that that is most important to us. In this FREE Trading Log Template, we’ve included the data points that are most important to us to capture in every trade (both entry and exit). Please download and use this FREE Trading Log Template as a guide for how you may wish to create your own. If you develop your own, we encourage you to give it a lot of thought. Remember, one of the keys to a good template is consistent data capture with a consistent layout. Once in place, it’s best to alter it as little as possible.

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Mike Lamothe

Founder of ChartYourTrade.com I believe the stock market is one of the best opportunities in the world that everyone has access to. It takes work, but once we learn how to take advantage of it, we have a skill that lasts a lifetime.

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