The best trader's diaries: for forts, MMVB, forex and binary options. Importance of Trade Log and Trade Statistics

Army discipline always acts as a vector directed to positive results in stock trading. The formula for successful activity in the financial markets is built on the basis of four pillars - trading strategy, brokerage company, trading algorithm and trader's diary. In this article, we will teach traders to correctly compile trade statistics and share the Excel file that we have been using since 2014 for free.

Why keep a trader's diary in Excel for beginners

First, let's pay attention to the need to fix statistics in any financial activities. Warren Buffett, George Soros, Alan Greenspan, Alexander Elder, Larry Williams and - this is a small list of successful world-class traders who record trading results and regularly analyze the collected data in their diaries.

A trader's diary is a repository of detailed statistics on each transaction with comments and conclusions, maintained by stock traders to detect and analyze errors. Depending on the scale of activity, the collection of statistics in diaries has different variations, in large investment funds this is done by special departments, in small hedge funds one or two experts or hired outsourcing. use diaries in excel, separate programs or online services.

What sections does the organization of work with trade statistics consist of:

preparing a service for entering data;
a detailed record of each transaction;
urgent (for the period) analysis of the received statistics;
identification of unprofitable factors in trade;
applying the information received to optimize the strategy.

Learning profitable strategies, knowledge of figures and do not give the desired stability in obtaining profit, the very process of collecting and analyzing statistics in diaries increases the discipline of financial market participants and gradually develops a clear adherence to the system of rules.

We conducted a survey of traders from post-Soviet countries who trade on real accounts in various brokerage companies. The first question for the participants was “What is your experience in trading?” After processing the answers, they received the following statistics - 78% have experience up to 2 years, 17% have trading experience from 2 to 5 years, and only 5% work in financial markets from 5 up to 15 years old. The second question was "Are you driving?" and this question confirmed the well-known statistics - 5% of 100% of those who came are successful in Forex. Only 513 out of 12,507 respondents record transaction statistics, which in percentage terms is 4.1%. This cannot be a coincidence, because traders who not only analyze the market, but also analyze their own mistakes, evolve from an experienced beginner into professional participant market.

How traders can use the diary and where to download the Excel file

In order for beginners not to stay at the same level of development and steadily improve their trading skills, we recommend that you start collecting information about the transactions. The following article details the process, how to use the diary, how to analyze the collected data and eliminate signs of losing trades. To do this, you do not need to buy special programs, pay monthly online services Or make your own spreadsheets.

A unique file has been developed specially for ForexLabor readers - forex trader diary in excel format, which you can download for free, use it correctly after reading the instructions, and in a month it will become noticeable how trading discipline has grown, and the number of losing trades has decreased.

The Excel table in the diary is built from the following sections:

chronological sector to indicate temporal data;
technical characteristics of the transaction;
price parameters of the position and orders assigned to it;
description of signals for entry and exit;
final comments and personal assessment of actions;
weekly and monthly results.

In the process of using Forex diaries, traders should first of all write down the time parameters for each transaction - the day of the week, at which trading session the order is placed, the exact time, timeframe, etc. - these characteristics are needed to exclude the period during which false signals. Next comes the recording specifications and price levels — the price of an open position is indicated, the percentage of risk per trade is required, StopLoss and TakeProfit levels and their ratio. This block is needed for analysis already closed deals on the currency pair chart. The next block was created to describe signals from the market; it performs the function of a filter for losing signals or signals with a zero result. The last block in the Excel diary should contain an evaluative opinion of personal actions, i.e. the trader writes down his actions and draws conclusions.

How is a diary from ForexLabor different from other excel journals?

To speed up the process of entering parameters into the table, we have added the necessary indicators to each cell of the column, when clicked, traders will open a list from which they should select a trading session, currency pair, lot size or loss-to-profit ratio, etc.

If you are interested in developing professional skills and rising to the breakeven level, and then reaching a stable profitability, download the excel file now and start trading correctly.

conclusions

When Super Profitable Trading Strategies Don't Work paid forex advisors drain the deposit one by one - it is definitely necessary to redirect the grail search vector to self-education tools. Download a trader's diary in excel format, improve your strategy and achieve results looking in the mirror of trading psychology.

Download Excel file for free

This is the case when the “most secret secret” of achieving success in trading lies on the surface, many people talk and write about it, but few people use it. This is about trader's diary. It is often called a little differently: trade journal, trader's journal, diary. But this does not change the essence, we will record absolutely everything related to our trading and analyze this data in order to raise our results in trading to absolutely new level. It doesn't matter where you trade: Forex, MICEX, NASDAQ. It doesn't matter which instruments you prefer: stocks, currency pairs, futures. It doesn't matter what platform you use to trade: Metatrader, QUIK, web terminals, even if you trade on a demo account! If you want to really progress and grow as a trader, you need to start keeping a trading diary.
Why do traders generally keep journals, diaries of transactions? After all, it would seem that there are automatic services, such as Myfxbook, about which (by the way, very I recommend reading). The fact is that services and the diary do not replace, but complement each other. The differences between them are quite significant and they perform somewhat different tasks. Services automate and simplify the collection of dry statistics, numbers, percentages, drawdowns, profitability, average stops and takes, and more. All these data become digestible and visual, they can already be effectively analyzed and evaluated. But the transaction log allows you to:

assess how much you control yourself when opening a position
in the course of trading
while closing a position
how well you follow the rules of your strategy
general discipline

You can later, in a relaxed atmosphere, take notes, look at your trading from the outside and that’s it weak sides will be in full view. Suddenly you will notice that:

break the rules of strategy
that you are too worried about an open position (susceptible)
“chasing a deal” - this means entering when there is actually no entry signal
close a profitable position early or sit out losses

This list of typical traders' sins can be continued for a long time, but I think you understood the essence perfectly. The trader's journal gives you the opportunity to work on yourself and clearly identify those points that do not allow you to succeed. you personally.

The classics of the stock game, for example, my favorite Alexander Elder, the famous author, trade journaling stands out as a key factor that distinguishes a good trader from a bad one. And here I 100% agree. Many traders are aware of the benefits of keeping a trade journal, but laziness prevails because this business requires a certain discipline and time investment. Plus, the journal also needs to be analyzed: at the end of the trading day or week, take the time to look at the entries, evaluate yourself and identify weaknesses. This is quite painstaking work.

It is up to you to decide whether the game is worth the candle or not, but if you are serious about working in the financial markets, then I think the answer is obvious. Random people, well, or those who came to trading just for fun, and not for the sake of making money, in principle, you can not keep a diary of transactions. But to everyone else - lead to without fail! At the end of the article, you can download the trader's diary in excel for free. This is a template that you can customize to suit your specific needs. How exactly to keep a journal of transactions - in excel or print and make a paper version, it's up to you. More convenient, in my opinion, is still the electronic version, but the paper one has its advantages. And so, the template itself and small explanations for it (the picture is clickable).

This trader's diary in excel format for one trading week - 5 days, from Monday to Friday. Personally, I find it more convenient for myself to start not one large file, but to make just such a breakdown - by weeks. Then we put these weekly diaries into a folder with the name of the month and put 12 folders with the names of the months into one, you guessed it, annual folder. This is my version, but you can always do what is more convenient for you personally. In addition, it is up to you to choose how detailed to keep notes, whether to describe in more detail the reasons for opening a position, what additional notes to take. It is impossible to create a universal template for a trader's trade journal that would suit absolutely everyone. So feel free to add, change, refine. The main thing is that there is a preparation.

And finally, one more piece of advice: it is very useful to supplement the diary with screenshots during opening and after closing a position. Later, when you analyze your journal, it will be a great help to clearly remember each trade and reanalyze it if necessary. Unfortunately, excel is not very adapted to working with screenshots, it's just not convenient. Therefore, I just throw screenshots with the date and time they were created into the folder with weekly diaries, and to create screenshots I use

Novice traders need to take the following statement as an axiom: "Unsystematic trading will sooner or later lead to zeroing of the deposit." Moreover, experienced currency speculators, based on several transactions, can already draw a conclusion about the weaknesses of the trading strategy and the advisability of its further use. The trader's diary helps them in this. What kind of a diary is this, how to keep it, and most importantly, how should it help in practice to increase your own profits?

It is not difficult to find answers to all these questions, since professionals are happy to share their observations on this matter, however, not everyone is ready to adhere to useful advice, which is why there are such a large number of people who are disappointed in Forex.

A trader's diary is a document or even a special software application in which a currency speculator enters all the important information about each transaction. This provides an invaluable opportunity to work on your mistakes over time, easily identifying those points that should be eliminated in the future. It's not hard to imagine how important this is and, indeed, many experts constantly remind you to start your own trader's diary.

At this stage, beginners usually nod their heads intelligibly, but the abundance of trading strategies and strong emotions that accompany working on Forex often contribute to the fact that such a “detail” is simply forgotten. Therefore, it is important to remember: “Only if you keep a trader’s diary, you can go to stable income working in the financial markets". Not otherwise, but in practice it turns out the following. Despite the fact that most beginners agree on the importance of keeping such a diary, according to statistics, only 2-3% "trouble" themselves with this, and, moreover, only 1% of them do it correctly.

Where to keep a trader's diary

In order for the trader's diary to give a tangible result, it is necessary to fill it out correctly, but how to do it? Usually accurate practical advice no one names, as a result of which many who would like to lead it simply do not know what to write there and how to analyze it later. Therefore, it is necessary to present a template for a trader's diary of transactions, which will help to enter only information about Forex activities that is necessary for further analysis.

How to fill out a trader's diary

The first thing you need to indicate in the trader's diary is the date of the trade. If intraday trading is conducted, then it would not be superfluous to indicate a specific time, as this will help to analyze various strategies, for example, during the most active Forex trading session.
After the date is indicated, you need to indicate the type of transaction in the trader's diary. In order not to clutter up the space in an electronic or regular document, you can use the signs familiar to Forex, taking an arrow to indicate this item, which will point up or down. In addition to the direction, here you also need to specify the traded currency pair and write down the take profit and stop loss levels.

Next important point- the purpose of opening a position. That is, here everyone should ask himself a question and provide an answer to it, and you need to ask yourself why the deal was opened. Here it is necessary to indicate the specific reasons that influenced the placement of a trading order. This will later help to minimize the influence of emotions and indicate what exactly each small Forex participant should analyze in order to increase their own professionalism.

In addition, the very existence of this clause and the need to write something in it often helps to prevent a deal for which there is no sufficient reason, since, having begun to describe all the pros, many beginners are forced to observe with surprise that some of the arguments are simply "pulled by the ears." At least a sober assessment of the reasons for opening trading operation will help to cut off a large number of fairly risky transactions, which, of course, will have a positive effect on the state of the deposit.

An important point is the circumstances that led to the closure of the Forex trading operation. There may be different variants, the presence of which depends on the strategy used and the circumstances:
- fixing take profit;
- actuation of "insurance" in the form of "stop-loss"
- market drawdown;
- the total time that the order spent in the Forex market.
The last item should summarize the results of the activity, showing the amount of profit or loss. At the same time, it will be important to add here for comparison the initial expectations of the ratios of risk and expected return.

When to Analyze

It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question of when it would be better to analyze data from a Forex trader's diary, but, nevertheless, there are certain recommendations that can be used. Before considering them, it is necessary to correctly define the goals of the analysis, which are usually two:

1) check the overall performance of a particular trading strategy;

2) identify the reasons for the defeat in any one transaction.

Now, understanding what tasks are facing the currency speculator, who must analyze the information from the diary, you can get acquainted with some of the main points when conducting it.

1. Despite the fact that, in principle, it is not forbidden to analyze data from a trader's diary immediately after the completion of a trading operation, it is still better to refrain from doing so. If you really can't wait to try to find out the reason for the defeat, because such zeal is observed among those who were forced to close the position in the negative, then you can use the following alternative.

Its essence lies in the fact that the trader's diary is studied not only immediately after the completion of the transaction, but also again after a certain period of time. It is advisable not to delay this moment, but you should not rush with it either. It all depends on the timeframes on which trading is conducted. The rational grain of this approach lies in the fact that each Forex trading person, when re-analyzing, does not look at the deal through the prism of overwhelming emotions, which means that the benefits of such a study of one’s own mistakes and successes grow many times over.

2. There are a few unspoken rules that professionals apply. The first of them is that you can’t work on Forex with a bad mood, and the other is that after making about 3 unsuccessful transactions in a row, you need to take a break from trading financial instruments. In the latter case, the reason for this behavior is explained quite simply. Negative statistics with a 100% probability indicate one of two things:

or something happens in the market that the trading strategy of an individual trader does not take into account, which means that it would be better to simply wait out the dangerous period;
or the trader follows the emotions, making an unprepared entry into the market in the hope of "recouping".

This is a time when there is a thirst for activity, but it is better to refrain from trading Forex, and it will be very useful to use your strength to conduct a thoughtful analysis of your diary of work as a trader.

Trader's assistant

Now modern traders receive comprehensive support, so the programmers of many DCs create various useful “little things” that make their work easier. The trader's diary was no exception. Therefore, for those who want to use scientific know-how, they can spend a little time looking for special software or just download a ready-made excel trader's diary.

In any case, whether you are using a home document or some special program, the trader's diary needs to be correctly “understood” based on all of the above, using the information recorded in it to test your skills and the strategy used to predict the Forex market.

Outcome

Having figured out what a trader's diary is and how to keep it, you can improve your Forex performance many times over without much effort. Therefore, in no case should such an important tool be discounted and used in every possible way to improve professional skills.

What does it take to be successful in trading? How to close deals in a plus? How to understand where I made a mistake? In fact, there is no need to look for the answer somewhere deep. The "best-kept secret" of achieving profitable trading lies on the surface. Much is written about him, he is often discussed. We are talking about the trader's diary.

Let's say right away: absolutely all professional, successful traders on the stock exchange keep a trader's trade journal.

It is a mistake to think that the main thing in trading is the ability to build Forex channels, trend lines, read Forex indicators. The main thing is to learn to see and take into account your mistakes, control emotions. This is where the trader's diary helps.

The trader's journal is called differently: both the Forex trader's diary, and the trader's transaction journal, etc. Nevertheless, the essence does not change: the trader writes down absolutely everything that is related to trading, after which he will analyze the received data. This is necessary in order to increase your trading results to a whole new level.

And it doesn't really matter where you prefer to trade: it can be Forex, NASDAQ, MICEX. All this is not important. The main thing is what trader's trading instruments you use while trading: stocks, options, currency pairs, futures. And it doesn't matter which trading platform Closer to you: it can be web terminals, Metatrader, QUIK, yes, even a demo account!

You will progress, really grow professionally only if you start keeping a diary of a Forex trader.

Trader's journal: how to keep it?

Once you have decided that you need a diary, the question arises: "Where can I get it?"

You can keep a trader's transaction log in Excel, many traders use this option. Firstly, this is the simplest and most accessible trader's diary. A sample of how to keep a journal in Excel can be found on the Internet in specialized forums. You can download the trader's diary. This option is also popular when a trader simply downloads a template and fills it out. It's fast and convenient. Yes, you can even keep a trader's journal by hand in a notepad. The main thing is that you feel comfortable!

In the picture you can see how the trader's trade log looks like in Excel.

Once you have decided that you will keep a trader's diary, a sample of it appearance defined, another question arises: why conduct it? What to write there?

Deal log: what is it for?

Well, let's figure out why do Forex traders keep their trade logs? As you know, there are automatic services, the same Myfxbook. But the only thing is that all automatic services and the same trader's diary in Excel do not replace, but harmoniously complement each other. And the differences between services and ordinary diaries are very significant, and their functions are different. For example, all kinds of services simply automate and greatly simplify the collection of various dry Forex statistics, numbers, percentages, drawdowns, profitability, average Stops and Takes, and more. All of the above data comes to a readable and visual form, after which they can already be easily evaluated and analyzed effectively.

But what then does the trader's journal do?

Trader's diary in Excel allows you to:

Clearly assess how much you are able to control yourself during the opening of transactions;
In the course of trading;
During the period of closing a position;
Are you really following the rules of your Forex trading strategy clearly and competently;
The log reflects the general discipline of the trader.

After some time, you can in a more relaxed atmosphere, take all your notes, analyze the trade from the outside, and you will immediately see all your weaknesses as a trader. Everything will be in full view! You will suddenly notice that:

Unexpectedly for yourself, you violate the rules of your own strategy;
Too long and often nervous about an already open position (this means that you are subject to the fears of the trader);
During trading, you are "chasing a deal" - you enter when there was actually no signal to enter;
You close a profitable position too early;
Or, on the contrary, sit out losses.

You have now seen a list of the most popular, typical sins of most traders. And this list can be continued indefinitely. We think you have already grasped the main message. The trader's journal allows the trader to identify his mistakes and start working on himself. After studying the diary, you will be able to clearly identify the moments that prevent you personally from achieving success.

All professionals in the world of trading, for example, Alexander Elder, the creator of the popular Three Screens strategy, keep a trader's diary as a fundamental, key factor that makes it possible to distinguish a good trader from a lazy one.

Of course, most traders know about the benefits of keeping a diary, but laziness defeats them. After all, journaling requires a lot of time, perseverance, iron discipline, and of course a systematic analysis of the entries: this can be done both at the end of the trading day and the week. In a word, regular and conscientious journaling of transactions is a very painstaking work.

Whether you need it or not is up to you. However, if you are really set on serious results in the financial markets, we think the answer will be obvious. For those who accidentally got into the world of trading to have fun and are not going to stay here for a long time, the trade journal will not help. Yes, they don't need it.

In addition to all of the above, the choice of how best to keep your records and how regularly is up to you. Remember that there is simply no universal template for creating a trader's diary. Everyone leads it in a way that suits them. So you can safely refine your own, supplement it with details, describe the reasons why this or that position was opened. The main thing is that you have a preparation.

And one last tip from us: it will be great if you become supplement your trader's diary with screenshots that were taken during the opening and after the closing trading position. When you start to analyze your diary, these screenshots will help you to remember the trades you have made.

Let's draw a line on this. We have learned that the trade log is indeed very important for a trader. Especially for a beginner financial market. So do not be lazy, download, create your own trading diary and add a "chronicle" of your transactions there.

Good luck trading!

A student's diary is a kind of reflection of the results of his studies at school. Must be a diary and the Forex trader, who performs almost the same function. In order to be a good student, you need to strive to correct your mistakes, due to which bad marks are put in the diary. And to be a successful trader, you also need to correct the shortcomings of your trading activities, using for this their entries in the Forex trader's diary.

To achieve effective results, it is not enough to have a profitable trading strategy. The human factor also has an important influence on the process and result of trading, which implies the observance of a certain discipline and constant attention. It is the lack of concentration, as well as unreasonable actions, guided by fear, greed, that can lead at least to a loss-making result of a single transaction, and at most - to draining the deposit. Managing your emotions and reactions will allow you to achieve high results in the Forex market. Developing your own strategic line (not a trading strategy!) and following it is the key to success when trading in any financial markets.

You need to learn from your mistakes - this rule can be attributed to Forex market participants. As a beginner, the bidder constantly makes the same mistakes, responding inappropriately to similar situations - and basically all this happens on. The so-called Forex trader's diary will help to cope with this problem - it is also a trader's transaction log. In this diary, the user enters information about each open order: reasons, time, trading result, experience gained. In the future, in a calm environment, you should analyze your activities, the logic of opening, closing transactions, and if the transaction was unprofitable, then understand what mistakes were made: incorrect interpretation of market signals, hasty entry or exit based on emotions, incorrect or other reasons.

The result of keeping a Forex trader's diary is an increase in self-confidence, the ability to control one's emotions, one's actions depending on the market situation, as well as honing the logic of trading actions, market processes, understanding the trading process and the result.

Filling out a trader's diary.

How does keeping a trader's trade journal affect the success of trading? For example, a trade was opened, seemingly on the basis of an ideal signal. The take profit level is still far away, or the price has rushed in the other direction, and emotions force you to unreasonably close the deal or take another action that does not correspond to the strategy. If this situation is recorded in a diary, then in the future its analysis will reveal mistakes that next time you will have to try not to make. An entry in the diary can be made both after the transaction is made, and before the order is opened.

Entries in the diary should be objective, the information should be detailed and detailed. But at the same time, the information should clearly indicate the pros and cons of both a single transaction and a trading strategy as a whole. More specifically, records should contain the following information:

- date and time of order opening, its direction, opening price, SL and TP values, basis for entering a trade, time of reaching SL or TP by the price;
- the result of the operation: time, price at which the order was closed, for what reason it was closed, the result obtained, and most importantly - conclusions based on the experience gained on each transaction (the image is clickable):

If necessary, you can add a screen of the chart, where the moments of entry and exit should be displayed. The presence of a chart in such a note allows you to compare the profit received with the one that could have been obtained if the trader had not succumbed to his emotions and had not made an earlier or later exit from the market. You can also add information about your psychological state, which accompanied you throughout the operation. The analysis of this particular item will help you learn to control your emotions in the future.

As you can see from the above, more detailed information about the order in the log is the best basis for learning from your mistakes and forming a complete strategy.

The most important advantage of keeping a trader's trade journal is the ability to determine the cause of a particular result: whether the reason for an unsuccessful operation is a strategy error or an external factor (for example, the same emotions).

Those traders who are engaged, and do not have the opportunity to enter data on each transaction in the diary, can fill it out at the end of the trading day. The same filling mode is allowed for those who trade on long-term strategies.

Trading analysis based on the trader's diary.

The analysis of entries in the trader's diary is preceded by the division of transactions into categories, for example, into profitable and unprofitable ones. For losing trades, the reasons for their result are determined - are there general circumstances in the market that led to the loss.

You can also analyze the results of trading by sorting transactions into successful and unprofitable, taking into account the time factor. In this case, it may turn out that the analysis will reveal the most successful periods of time during the day when transactions are most successful.

It will also be possible to increase the efficiency of trading when a trader excludes from his portfolio those instruments for which the analysis shows the largest percentage of losing trades in overall result(in the case when trading is carried out on several at the same time).

Logging can be done in Microsoft Excel. A trader's diary in Excel is a home-made version, but it differs in that a trader can fill it out in such a way that it can be convenient to analyze the situation in the future. There are specialized programs for keeping a trader's diary on the Internet, some of them are paid. Which option to use - this question is decided by each trader independently.

For beginners in the Forex market, after reading all the above information, we do not recommend shrugging it off - A - they say - this is all nonsense! . Let's bring specific example. It was during the analysis of the diary of a Forex trader that interesting information was revealed - a large percentage transactions were knocked out "to zero", after which the price calmly moved further in the right direction. The reason is the early transfer of SL to the zone. It would seem that the simplest solution suggests itself - to transfer SL to breakeven much later - for example, after the price passes a strictly defined number of points. But in this case, the percentage of losing trades increased sharply! This information allowed us to search for a solution to this problem, and the solution was found - this is the rule of the Safe. But about this...