Most retail journals are too detailed to maintain or too sparse to be useful. The right journal is small enough that you actually fill it in and rich enough that the patterns surface.
Minimum viable journal
For every closed trade, record:
- Date / time / pair / direction
- Setup name (the rule you traded)
- Entry, stop, planned target
- Risk in $ and %
- Outcome in R-multiples (closed / +1.5R / -1R / etc.)
- Mistake tag, if any (early entry, moved stop, traded outside plan)
- Emotion tag (calm / fear / FOMO / tilt)
- One-sentence note
- Screenshot of entry and exit
Weekly review
30 minutes, every Sunday:
- Total trades, win rate, average R-win, average R-loss, expectancy.
- Top 3 mistake tags by frequency.
- One specific change for next week.
Monthly review
Identify which setup carries your edge and which one is leaking. Drop or rebuild the leaking one.
Tools
Spreadsheet works fine. Notion / Airtable / Edgewonk / TradesViz also work. The best tool is the one you actually use.
Next steps on ShaFX
- Free trading calculators — position size, pip value, margin, risk/reward, drawdown.
- Take a quiz on this topic and see what you missed.
- Glossary — precise definitions for every term used here.
- Compare brokers using our methodology.
Educational only. This article is general information for trader education. It is not financial advice, tax advice, legal advice, or a recommendation to trade. Trading CFDs and forex is high-risk and most retail investor accounts lose money. Read the Risk Disclosure.