Let’s be honest—keeping a trading journal isn’t easy.
But you know what’s even harder?
Blowing your trading account.
Quitting forex altogether after repeated failures.
And spending your days nostalgically remembering when life’s biggest choice was picking one of five TV channels.
So which would you rather face?
Maintaining a journal may seem tedious, but it forces you to look at your trades clearly and objectively—not through the unreliable lens of memory. It helps you view trades as part of a bigger picture, rather than isolated, random events.
Yeah, it sounds like a lot of work.
And it is.
But anything worth mastering takes effort.
Think of a trading journal like an athlete’s training routine. Pro athletes spend far more time preparing than they do actually competing.
Tim Grover, Michael Jordan’s personal trainer, once said:
“Michael could drop 40 or 50 points in a game, and the next morning, he’d be right back at practice. He never took a day off. His mental toughness was off the charts—but it came from being physically ready every single day. He’d always say, ‘I practice so hard because it makes the games easy.’”
Legendary coach John Wooden, who led his team to a record 10 NCAA championships, ran disciplined two-hour practices five days a week—for just one 40-minute game.
Let that sink in: 10 hours of practice for 40 minutes of performance.
But that’s not all—Coach Wooden also kept detailed logs of every single practice session. If his team hit a slump, he’d dig into those logs to find clues, like what drills had improved shooting in the past.
And this was long before computers or iPads. He understood the power of meticulous record-keeping.
A trading journal is your practice ground.
It’s where growth happens.
It’s where lessons are found.
The act of journaling isn’t complicated—but it does demand time, consistency, and discipline.
Make the effort.
Your future trading self will thank you.