As a trader or investor, keeping accurate records of your transactions is vital. It is a way for you to assess your performance and progress. It is also a great method to pick up weak areas that need to be improved. There are many ways to journal. You can use good old paper based diaries or notebooks or an electronic format. There are various electronic formats to choose from. Many traders use Word processors or spreadsheet software such as Word, Excel, Open Office, Google Docs etc. You can also use note taking software such as One Note or Evernote. There are some specialized software solutions that you can buy which have added functionality such as working out various ratios, performance reporting and more. Currently I use a combination of a macro enabled Excel spreadsheet and Evernote. I use the spreadsheet to pull live data and record my positions and trades and I use Evernote to write daily notes, post charts and prepare my strategy for the trading day. Do you journal? What do you use as a trading journal? Has it helped you become a better trader or investor?
My broker-dealer has software built in that gives me virtual and printed monthly, quarterly, and annual reports of everything.
Yes, but are you able to use the data to generate the various ratio's, graphs and data that you need to accurately assess your trading? Also, you need to add your daily comments, trade reviews and plans. The more historical data you have the more you will be able to accurately pinpoint weak areas in your trading and address them. I prefer to keep my own records as the broker reporting does not have enough information and functionality to meet my trading requirements.
I don't trade too much money too often. I've evolved over 20 years to where 90-95% of my investing is off fundamentals, and I hold most positions or portions of original positions as long as fundamentals dictate it. Mostly bottom-up. I do a bit of speculating and trading here and there, of course.
I like to stick with pencil and paper actually. The computer kind of zaps my creativity. My mind starts bouncing in 1000 different directions once I go online.
That is good advice. Its so easy to get distracted when you are online and you need to be focussed when writing in your trading journal. Thanks!
I keep simple, handwritten notes, too. I find that once I start using all of the fancy tracking spreadsheets and charts, I somehow end up reaching a critical mass of information. I need clear, concise info, haha.
My accountant uses Tally. It works for him, so it works for me. It's a software that's pretty widely used, I believe. At times, I have tried working with just a ledger, but I find Tally much easier to understand.
I keep track of everything manually, by hand writing. I'm really just too afraid of my computer crashing/getting a virus/something that can break up my journals, so I feel safer to keep it in a physical format like this. True, my house could burn down... But the risk is lower for the house to burn down compared to my computer crashing.
I'm surprised that so many traders are using pen and paper to journal, but after reading all your comments it definitely makes sense. Not matter how you journal your trades, the main thing is that you are doing it every day. No great trader ever became great without keeping accurate records of their trading.
