Do you log your trades?

We all know what we're meant to do; Plan your trade and trade your plan.

My question is, how many do it? Do you plan your trades?

Do you have a trading log? If so, has it been useful? If not, why not?

"Those who are unaware of history are destined to repeat it."

You are meant to do it for a good reason

I've traded for 13 years, and logged trades for 10 of those, both on paper and digitally. Digital version I do through my blog in weekly reports, my paper logs are invaluable in doing weekly retrospectives on different trades.

It doesn't really matter which way you log trades, just do what feels right to you, but you will find it has a cleansing effect that can only help your trading. The research is there in other fields on the benefits of writing things down in both productivity and mind clarity, there is certainly no reason that doesn't apply to trading (probably more so actually).

The other side effect of getting in the habit of logging trades is you will find you start logging system ideas as well. These could be mighty valuable down the track as pieces start falling together. Best of luck mate.

I think it really depends on your strategy. I prefer saving screens with opened chart for future analysis. Sometimes I save 2-4 timeframes. It´s not so time consuming and perfectly enough for analysis.

I couldn't agree more. I think it's absolutely critical to becoming a better trader. The issue that I've always had is.....

It's so time consuming to do! I've always found it a real chore which is a shame. Just wondering how much weight others put on it's necessity.

I like the screenshot / log idea too, it's a good combo. Do you guys use excel on your computer for the log part?

Video log works good too! Can just go through chart while recording your own video with sound for quick and easy access!

Please I'd like to know where I can get some video logging software, thanks.

Agree. I´ve just recorded the reaction for BOE news today (M1 chart).

Duckduckgo that shit! I use Gtk-recordmydesktop

I know some of the big prop firms use video recording to play back their trades for the day. Sounds like a fantastic way to reflect on your day.

Yes certainly video logging and recording is of great value, for me personally my maturity in trading has come from this kind of analysis..

I used to keep a journal for the first few years of my trading with screen dumps, the lot. It did help me understand myself a bit better when I was new to the game. However when I became more familiar with my system, which I execute according to the rules of the strategy and nothing else, the diary became less and less relevant.

Keeping tabs on your finances and drawdowns is probably more important than getting too anal about why you entered a particular trade imho.

If you have a set strategy try making a trade journal on here, and set up a trade explorer as well. At one time i used to use myfxbook, but i found FF to be much more straight forward, and with me spending most of discussions on here, thought it's a better place to share it. Also check out StockTwits and Trading View, both of them sites are great for logging your trade sentiment and get ideas from other people too.