How to Keep a Futures Trading Journal: What to Record and What to Ignore

A Journal Is a Dataset, Not a Diary

Traders usually start journaling with enthusiasm and quit within a month. The reason is almost always the same: the journal asked for too much effort per trade, and the effort did not obviously pay off. A good journal is small enough to complete in two minutes and structured enough to answer questions later.

The Fields That Matter

If you record nothing else, record these:

1. Instrument and direction. ES long, GC short. This lets you compare performance by market.
2. Entry, stop and exit prices. From these you can calculate everything else, including your planned risk.
3. Result in R. R is your result divided by the amount you risked. A trade that makes twice your risk is +2R, a full stop-out is -1R. R makes trades comparable across contract sizes and account growth.
4. Setup tag. One label from a short list you define in advance. If you cannot name the setup, that is itself information.
5. Followed the plan: yes or no. This single checkbox is more revealing than most indicators.

Optional Fields Worth Adding Later

• Time of day, to find the hours you trade best and worst.
• A one-line note on your state: calm, rushed, tired, annoyed.
• A screenshot of the chart at entry.

Add one field at a time, and only after the current set has become automatic.

Record the Trade Before You Know the Outcome

Write the setup tag and planned stop before or immediately after entering, not after the result. Journals filled in afterward are quietly rewritten by hindsight: every loser had a flaw, every winner was obvious. Recording the plan first keeps the data honest.

How to Review

Reviewing is where the value is. Once a week, ask four questions:

1. What was my average R on trades where I followed the plan, and on trades where I did not?
2. Which setup tag has the best and worst results over the full sample?
3. At what time of day do my losses cluster?
4. What is the one change I will make next week?

Resist drawing conclusions from fewer than 20 to 30 trades per category. Small samples produce convincing stories that are not real patterns.

Automate the Boring Part

Typing in prices by hand is the most common reason journals die. Importing trades from your platform removes that step and leaves you with the part that needs a human: tagging the setup and noting whether you followed your plan. DepthLevel's Trade Journal imports MT4 and MT5 trades and syncs cTrader accounts, then calculates R and builds the weekly review for you.