Most trading journals fail for one reason: the entries don't contain anything you can learn from. "Lost on NQ, bad trade" won't help you in three months. Here's what a useful entry looks like.
The trades below are made-up examples to show the format.
A useless entry vs a useful one
Risk $200 (1R) · Target 2R · Result −0.9R (−$180)
Followed plan: NO, entered before the 5-min close confirmed
Emotion before entry: impatient, had missed the move earlier
Lesson: the setup was fine; entering early is the leak. Wait for the close.
The second entry tells you something you can act on: what went wrong, why, and whether it was the setup or you.
Example: a winning trade
Risk $150 · Target 2R · Result +2R (+$300)
Followed plan: YES · Emotion: calm
Screenshot: entry and exit marked
Note: third time this setup has worked at the London open this month. Same-time trades in NY are 1 win from 5. Consider London only.
Winning trades deserve notes too. The aim is to find out which wins come from your edge and which were luck.
Let VOLERON keep the journal for you
Trades sync in automatically, stats by setup and session build themselves, and VIOLA, your AI coach, tells you what to change next.
Try VOLERON free for 7 daysExample: a losing trade done right
Risk $200 · Result −1R (−$200)
Followed plan: YES · Emotion: calm
Note: valid setup, normal loss. Nothing to fix. Stopped for the day after the second loss, as per plan.
A −1R loss on a setup you followed is a good trade. Write that down. It teaches you to judge yourself on process, not outcome.
Example: a daily summary
Best: London MGC pullback +2R · Worst: −1R ORB
Mood: started tired, decided to cut size by half (good call)
Tomorrow: CPI at 8:30am ET, no trades until 15 min after
The fields that matter most
- Setup name, from a short fixed list
- Session
- Planned risk and result in R
- Followed plan: yes or no
- Emotion before entry
- Screenshot
- One-line lesson
These fields are what make stats like win rate by setup and session possible later. See what to track in a trading journal for the full list.