Unit 4 · Level 2 · The Trader's Journal
The journal: your edge
A trading journal records every trade: why you entered, where your stop and target were, what happened, and how you FELT. It converts your trading from a blur of vibes into data you can improve. It is, without exaggeration, the cheapest edge in trading.
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What you get asked
The single most important thing a journal captures is…
Fills are recorded automatically (Formiga does it for you). The REASON only exists if you write it down, and reasons are what you're really testing.
Match the journal field to its future question
Each field exists to answer a question months later. A journal is a letter to future-you.
After 50 journaled trades you notice: level-retest entries average +0.8R, breakout-chases average −0.4R. What do you do?
The data just handed you your edge. THIS is why journals exist. Without one, both setups blur into 'sometimes I win'. With one, your own history coaches you.
Journal the trade ___ you place it; reasons written after the outcome are fiction.
Hindsight rewrites memory shamelessly. Pre-trade notes are the only honest ones. (Formiga will nudge you at order time for exactly this reason.)
Formi's hard truth: whose trades does a journal expose most brutally?
And that sting is precisely the medicine. Writing 'entered because it was pumping, no stop, felt FOMO' hurts once, and prevents the same trade fifty times. Cheap tuition. 🐜
The rest of this unit
Journaling, expectancy, the pre-trade checklist, and the weekly review: how skill compounds.