Why you need a Trading Journal and 5 Things you must have in your trading journal. http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/course/trading-diary-journal.html PLEASE LIKE AND SHARE THIS VIDEO SO WE CAN DO MORE! A trading journal or trading diary is dull but it will give you the biggest improvements in your trading and personal development as a trader. Most traders are focused on the next big trade but they are missing out if they don't document their trading. 1) Mental State - this is how you're feeling on the day you're trading. This will allow you to identify the mental states that you should be avoiding or periods where you should be trading. 2) Trade Performance - document every single trade during the period. Your entry, your position size, why you got into it, what setup, how the trade went, the amount of profit or loss you made or suffered and what the trade did before and after you got in. 3) Market conditions - trends? was it a news economic announcement? was the market choppy? ..etc 4) Positives + Negatives - be brutally honest about your trading performance. Positives could be 'I analysed the market', 'I waited for the trade', 'I didn't go too big'. Negatives could be 'I closed the trade before my target', 'I traded in too much size.'..etc 5) % Goals Achieved. Making an X per trade is not an achievable goal. Are you sticking to your goals in your trading plan?