How to Start a Trading Journal: What to Track, Template Fields and a Weekly Review Routine

A practical, step-by-step guide to starting a trading journal: begin with five fields, add the ones that answer real questions, measure results in R-multiples, and review weekly so the data changes your behavior.

In this guide

1. 1. What a Trading Journal Is (and Why a Trade Log Is Not Enough)
2. 2. Start Lean: The Five Fields to Log First
3. 3. The Full Template: Before, During and After the Trade
4. 4. Measure Everything in R-Multiples
5. 5. Why Small Samples Lie: How Many Trades You Need
6. 6. The Weekly Review Routine
7. 7. Spreadsheet, Notebook or Software?
8. 8. Seven Journaling Mistakes That Make Traders Quit
9. 9. Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ

How do I start a trading journal as a complete beginner?

Pick a medium you will actually use, such as a spreadsheet, and log five things for every trade: date and time, instrument and direction, setup name, result in R, and one sentence about why you entered. Record each trade right after it closes and review the whole set once a week. Add more fields only when a specific question requires them.

What should I track in a trading journal?

At minimum: date, instrument, direction, setup, result and your reasoning. As you grow, add the planned entry, stop and target, the planned risk, whether you followed your plan, a mistake tag, a chart screenshot and your emotional state. Everything should help answer a real question about your edge or your behavior.

What is an R-multiple and why use it?

An R-multiple is the profit or loss of a trade divided by the amount you planned to risk. A trade that makes twice your planned risk is +2R. Using R lets you compare trades of different sizes and instruments and makes metrics such as expectancy and drawdown meaningful.

How many trades do I need before my journal statistics are reliable?

A common minimum is about thirty trades per setup, but results from under one hundred trades should be treated as provisional because the error on a measured win rate is still large. Decide your evaluation sample size before you start collecting.

Is a spreadsheet good enough for a trading journal?

Yes, especially at the start or at low trade volume. As volume grows, manual entry becomes slow and error-prone, and software that imports your executions, calculates metrics and attaches screenshots saves time and improves data quality.