So an Evernote trading journal isn’t working for you?

• Evernote Trading Journal Template
• Evernote Templates Stock Trading Journal
• Evernote Stock Trading Journal
• Using Evernote As A Journal
• Bullet Journal Evernote
• Evernote Journal Template

Pen and paper not doing it either?

1. A trading journal is like a “diary” that records your trading information for each trade you execute. So you can see your trading behaviour and learn from your past trades. The dynamics of a trading journal.
2. A well-kept trading journal is a must-have tool for the professional trader, as well as for the novice trader who deals in equities, bonds, and options as a business. A trading journal helps you to have all your trading data at your fingertips, for the purposes of: making capital gains tax returns (hint: don’t always trust your broker to be accurate).

Well in trading, there is usually more than one way to skin a pip.

Get organized and productive with the leading note-taking app. Download Evernote for Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android and create your free account. If you prefer to create your own trade journal, a great option is Evernote. Evernote is perfect for detailed note taking. Evernote has a sleek and intuitive design. Journal enters can be easily organized with filter and tagging options. Do you keep a trading journal? Tim Bohen is talking about the importance of keeping a trade journal that meets all 5 of these criteria!🔴 Subscribe for more.

You just have to be open to new ideas. If you have been having trouble finding a good journaling solution, then this blog post might be just what you have been looking for.

Journaling is a vital part of successful trading. You cannot expect to get better if you do not know what you are doing wrong.

It’s the reason why NFL players watch game tape. It’s why 11-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater reviewed all of his contest results, when he wasn’t winning.

Did you know that Trello can also be used as a free Forex trading journal?

This is a great video on how to do it, by my friend Omar. I met him at the Truth About FX Conference in London. You can learn from him and other friendly traders inside the Naked Forex Now forum.

If you prefer the text version, it is provided below the video.

…and he shows you a cool way to add Loom into the mix too.

How to Create a Trading Journal with Trello

Let’s start with Trello. It’s a tool that is popular with development teams, but it can also be a great way to organize your trading journal.

The first step is to sign up for a free account at Trello.

Once you are in, create a new board.

Call it “Trading Journal” or if you can think of something more creative, feel free to have at it. Click on the Create button and you are ready to start journaling your trades.

Now that you have a brand spanking new board, it’s time to decide how you will organize your journal. There are a ton of ways that you can customize your trading log, but here are a few tips.

It will usually help to create a new board for every year, like Omar does in the video. This is true, even if you are a longer-term trader or a short-term trader.

This is a good set of lists that you can start with:

• Performance by month
• Open positions
• Pending orders
• Watch list
• Closed trades by month
• Discarded trades

Experiment with different configurations and figure out what works best for you.

Trading Workflow

The cool thing about Trello is that you can create a “card” for every trade idea. Then you can move that card through the the entire workflow process and document it’s progress at every step along the way. You would move an idea that actually becomes a trade, like this:

1. Watch List
2. Pending order
3. Open positions
4. Closed trades

If a trade idea did not materialize into an actual trade, then you would simply move the trade from the Watch List to the Discarded Trades board. This is very useful because you can see which trades would have worked out and which trades were a bust. When you look back on these discarded trades, you can start to fine tune your ability to spot great trading setups.

Now that you understand the overview, let’s take a look at how this would actually work.

You would start by creating a new card in the Watch List list. For the title, I would recommend starting with the date, then the currency pair.

If you want to include the setup, that could help you identify the trade too. Then write in some notes and the timeframe that you are looking at.

Every time you move the card to a new board, you will add a comment to the card. It might look something like this.

Obviously, you would probably want to be more detailed that I was in the picture above.

But that was just for demonstration. 🙂

Custom Background Picture

Oh, and if you want to create a custom background, like in the video, then go to Show More in the upper right corner of the screen. Then click on Change Background and you can choose a new photo or a solid color.

If you want a cool picture for your background, then Pexels or Unsplash are great places to get free photos.

How to Document Your Trades with Loom

Alrighty…now that you understand how to use Trello, Loom is a great way to create screenshots and video notes.

Why do you need video notes?

Well, you don’t absolutely need video notes.

However, videos do give you one very important piece of information that you cannot get from written trading journal notes.

Vidar driver download. …how you were feeling at the time you entered the trade.

You might write that you were feeling good about the trade. But your voice might say something different.

I can see that you are still skeptical.

Well then, do this…

Install this simple plugin in Chrome, then video journal three trades.

Just three trades.

Then go back to those videos a week later and see how valuable you think they are. If they work for you, then great!

Keep doing it.

If not, then stick to the text journal. It’s all about finding what works for you.

I personally find it very useful. Here is a video journal from my personal trading log.

How to be Sure That You Actually Maintain a Trading Journal

Now that you know how to use Trello and Loom to maintain a trading journal, that’s the easy part.

The hard part is actually doing it.

These three tips will help. But the bottom line is that you need to make the process as simple as possible.

So start small.

For certain personality types, there can be a tendency to be too detailed, when writing entries in a journal. Then they never get started because they want everything to be perfect. If you are like that, then just start by writing down a few notes after the trade has closed.

If you are on the opposite end of the spectrum and aren’t detailed enough, but usually just get started right away, then you can probably start by journaling the trade through the entire process. Keep each comment short and go from there. If you have a lot of trades a week, start by journaling just one trade a week.

Conclusion

A trading journal is key element of successful trading, but not enough traders do it properly. Once you can go back and review what you are doing wrong and what you are doing right, I think you will find that your trading will start to progress much faster.

One reason for not journaling is that we don’t want to face our mistakes. It can be painful to admit to ourselves that we are not good traders. It can be painful to think that we lost money.

But the obstacle is the way.

With all the great free tools out there, like Evernote and Trello, you have no excuses.

So get started now.

Disclaimer: Some links on this page are affiliate links. We do make a commission if you purchase through these links, but it does not cost you anything extra and we only promote products and services that we personally use and wholeheartedly believe in. A portion of the proceeds are donated to my charity partners.

Traders are great at disagreeing. They disagree on everything from trading strategies to ways of measuring profitability. But there’s one thing that all successful traders agree on, and that is maintaining a trading journal that records your trades.

Why You Need A Trading Journal

Selwyn Gishen wrote a succinct article over at Investopedia on why you need a trading journal. It boils down to:

• Getting an idea of your historical performance
• Giving you a basis for your future trades
• Evaluating and fine-tuning your trading system
• Recognizing the need to change any destructive trading behavior

How To Choose Your Trading Journal Software

You might be a pen and paper person. But as you accumulate trade data, it becomes unfeasible to analyze them on paper. You need the help of a computer.

Hence, a trading journal software is mandatory.

When choosing your trading journal software, you need to consider the following:

• Trading Instruments (Stocks? Futures? Forex? or multiple instruments?)
• Brokerage (You can save time if your brokerage records are compatible with your software.)
• Trading Style (Trading horizon, frequency, objectives, etc.)

Drivers tosinv laptops & desktops. Regardless of your trading configuration, you will always face a trade-off between convenience and ease of customization.

Below, I’ve organized the top trading journal software into three sections.

1. Dedicated Trading Journal Software
2. General Purpose Software As Trading Journals
3. Screen Recording For Recording Intraday Trading

#1: Dedicated Trading Journal Software

Specialized software packages that are well-suited for your trading needs are ideal. You can import your data and start analyzing them immediately. You will also find it easy to record new trades.

However, you might find them inflexible as your needs change over time. Hence, it’s important to choose by carefully reviewing their features.

All the programs here offer a free plan or trial. Be sure to test them before signing up.

TraderVue

TraderVue is a well-established trading journal software that also offers solutions to prop firms.

Run through its features, and you will realize that their team is well-attuned to the real needs of traders.

Other than the standard journalling features and comprehensive reporting, here are a few highlights I find helpful:

• Filtering and tagging of trades make it easy to group trades for analysis.
• The multi-currency option avoids hassle for traders holding separate balances.
• Access sharing with your trading coach to get feedback on specific trades.
• Risk analysis based on R multiples.

Automatic importing of data is available for a large number of popular stocks, forex, and futures brokers. And even if your broker is not supported, manual import is possible.

The only drawback is that its free tier is very limited.

Most active traders will need to subscribe to paid tiers to make the most out of their trading records and analysis. The good news is that the pricing is not exorbitant given the array of features they offer and the value you can get from them. The key is to match your journalling needs to the suitable tier (Silver or Gold).

You can get a free trial to evaluate their platform, and sign up only if you like what you see.

Evernote Trading Journal Template

Trademetria

Like Tradervue, Trademetria offers an impressive set of features.

• Import function for over 140 brokers.
• Over 30 reported trading metrics to help you find out what market conditions work for your trading strategies.
• Full WYSIWYG editor for entering your trades.
• Automatic chart displays of your entries/exits, offering visuals for your trade review.
• Advanced intraday performance reporting.
• Run simulations using your past trades.

Available for a recurring monthly fee. It has a free tier that might work for traders who do not trade frequently.

Trading Journal Spreadsheet

Trading Journal Spreadsheet offers an intuitive and powerful trade journal tool.

It leverages Microsoft Excel’s advanced features to create a feature-filled trading journal software.

One resulting key advantage is that you get a copy of TJS on your computer and you can run it as long as you have excel. You own everything you put in it. Some traders might like this greater control over the software over a SaaS solution.

It also includes:

• What-if analysis (presented as a pretty matrix)
• Expectancy graph generated from simulated trades
• Position sizing tool based on fixed fractional model
• Ability to consolidate your own trading worksheets
• MAE/MFE analysis
• Multi-broker tracker (however, you need to import the data manually in most cases)

One interesting feature worth highlighting is that it can keep track of positions with multiple entries and exits (scaling strategies).

The best part is that you can get TJS with a one-time payment that is tiered according to the number of markets you would like to create journals for.

TradeBench

TradeBench helps you calculate your position size and manage your risk. It comes with a dashboard and charts to help you visualize your progress.

If you’re looking for a basic no-frills solution, check out TradeBench.

It’s free for anyone who joins their mailing list. More details here.

Trading Diary Pro

This paid software has a bulk import function that works with dozens of brokers (full list here). It is ideal for anyone that uses their supported brokers and want to avoid manual data entry.

It also has a useful tagging function. You can create your tagging system so that you can filter your trades by any attributes.

Options traders will also find Trading Diary Pro helpful as it recognizes various options strategy.

Trading Diary Pro costs $149. Note that there’s an upgrade fee of $49 per year after the first year.

It offers a free 30-day trial. Click here to learn more.

Edgewonk

Edgewonk is a trading journal the focuses on helping you find and analyze your trading edge. It is highly customizable and works for most instruments. (Cryptocurrency is a recent addition.)

It also uses proprietary algorithms that make suggestions for improving your trading performance.

TraderSync

TraderSync is designed for stock traders. It summarizes your trade records into beautiful dashboards, complete with recommendations on how to trade better.

There is a free option, but only the paid plans give you smart feedback on your trading performance.

TradeInsights

TradeInsights is a free trading journal that works entirely online. Nothing to download. You can easily import your trades from a variety of platforms.

It has the essential functions for keeping a healthy trading journal and has an optional leaderboard that offers a social aspect to your journaling.

TradesViz

TradesViz is a well-polished trading journal that sets itself apart with its extensive visualization options.

Given its 200+ charts, you can insights into your trading results easily instead of meddling with an Excel spreadsheet.

This platform has dozens of functions, and you might feel overwhelmed at first. But no worries, to help with that, TradesViz generates critical insights from your trading records automatically to get you started.

The full-featured product starts at $15 per month. Before you subscribe, it’s a good idea to test-drive it with a free Basic plan.

#2: General Purpose Software As Trading Journals

Compared to the trading journal programs, you need to spend more time setting up general-purpose software (spreadsheet and note-taking software) to use them as trading journals.

The good news is, once you are proficient, there’s no limit on what you can record and analyze with them.

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel is a powerful spreadsheet that has more functions than you’ll need for any trading journal.

You have complete control over what fields to include, their formatting, and how to analyze the trade records. Drivers virtual ink usb devices. This autonomy might be overwhelming, especially for new traders who are unfamiliar with spreadsheet programs. But for traders who are proficient with spreadsheet manipulation, I strongly encourage you to design a trading journal with Excel.

There are free alternatives like Google Sheets and Calc (OpenOffice). They will work for your trading journal as well, but you’ll find it easier to find resources helping you with Microsoft Excel.

For a starting point on what fields to include in your Excel journal, check out these resources:

To make the most out of a spreadsheet trading journal, align it with your trading approach.

For instance, in my price action course, the included Excel Toolkit has sections that correspond to different parts of the course trading framework.

Evernote

Evernote is a robust note-taking software. It excels at connecting pieces of information in a friendly manner.

If you’ve given serious thought to journalling your trades, you’ll realize that each trade has many moving parts. For each trade, you have your analysis, your chart screenshot, your trading results, trade confirmations, emotions journal, etc.

But no worries, Evernote will help you keep track of them.

Evernote Templates Stock Trading Journal

Want to see how it works as a trading journal? Hugh Kimura over at Trading Heroes shows you how he uses Evernote as his forex trading journal.

#3: Screen Recording For Intraday Traders

Evernote Stock Trading Journal

Screen recording software is useful for intraday traders. They record your trading sessions and allow you to replay them for post-trade analysis.

They cannot replace a trading journal as you still need your trade records in a database (table) for performance analysis. But for intraday traders, screen recording can form a valuable part of your trading journal.

• My Screen Recorder – A lightweight Windows software that trader Mike Bellafiore uses to record his trading screens.
• Camstudio – For those looking for a bare-bones screen recording software, look no further. Check Camstudio – a free software released under the GPL.
• Video Trade Recorder For MetaTrader – If MetaTrader (MT4 or MT5) is your only charting and trading platform, this is a great option. It runs with MetaTrader in the background and can record multiple chart screens (including those minimized). A low price tag of $35.
• Camtasia by TechSmith – This is one of the best programs you can get for recording your screen, but it does not come cheap. ($249)
• SnagIt by TechSmith – This is a lighter software that works well for recording your trading sessions. ($49.95)

The same company created Camtasia and SnagIt, but their features overlap. This is a source of confusion. But based on TechSmith’s clarification on this page, SnagIt is suitable for documenting your trading sessions. But if you are recording for an audience and require a more polished product, you should go for Camtasia.

Want to share your screen recordings with your trading buddies? Camtasia and SnagIt users can check out Screencast – an online service for sharing your screen recordings seamlessly.

Using Evernote As A Journal

Before You Take Out Your Wallet

Check if your charting platform has an integrated trade journal. It could just be the seamless solution you need.

Examples

• NinjaTrader has a trade performance report that provides summary statistics and a field for trade journalling.
• Forex Tester 3 (only for simulation trading) has similar functions.

Bullet Journal Evernote

Show me a trader with good records and I’ll show you a good trader.

Evernote Journal Template

– Dr. Alexander Elder, author of The New Trading For A Living