Forex trading journal: what to record and how to review it
A forex trading journal is a record of every trade you take and the reasons behind it. Forex adds details that stock journals rarely need: many pairs, three main sessions, spreads and swaps, and results that can be counted in pips, in money or in risk units. A journal that captures these lets you see where your own edge — or your own leak — actually is.
What to record for every trade
- Pair and direction (long or short).
- Time of entry and the session it fell in: Asian, London or New York.
- Setup and the reason you took it, in one sentence.
- Entry, stop loss, take profit and lot size.
- Risk in money and as a percentage of the account, so you can express the result in R.
- Result in pips, in money and in R.
- Spread, commission and swap.
- Any news release close to the trade.
- How you felt before and after, and a screenshot of the chart.
Why pips alone are not enough
A pip count ignores lot size and the value of a pip, which differs between pairs. Ten pips on a large position can cost more than forty pips on a small one. Record the result in money and in R as well, and compare trades on that basis.
Patterns worth looking for in forex
- Result by session: do you do better in London than in New York?
- Result by pair: a few pairs often carry most of the profit, and one pair most of the losses.
- Result by day of the week and by hour.
- Trades around news releases compared with quiet periods.
- Holding time and swap: do trades kept overnight behave differently?
Let MetaTrader fill it in for you
Typing every trade by hand is the main reason people stop journaling. With the MetaTrader 4 and 5 add-on, each trade arrives on its own with entry, exit, stop loss, lot size, commission and swap. You only add what the platform cannot know: the setup, your reasoning and how you felt.
A weekly review in 15 minutes
- Look at the total in money and in R, not only in pips.
- Split the week by session and by pair and find the weakest group.
- Read the trades that broke your rules and count what they cost.
- Pick one thing to change next week — only one.
- Write it at the top of your journal and check it on Friday.
A journal shows what you did and what it cost. It does not predict what the market will do, and it is not investment advice.