Trade logging/journal app with screenshots - what you think?

[diigtal_soul18]

Hello peoples,

I'm a fellow trader who has been in the game for around 5 years.

In this time I've had a hard time trying to be profitable. Ultimately I blame my lack of consistency for the cause. However, I recently decided to do something about this and teamed up with a dev team to create a software to help me out with this.

The software basically helps me write out a trading plan through checklists and then follow that checklist each time I trade and save my screenshots. This helps me maintain my consistency as EACH trade I do I have to follow my checklist or NO TRADE. At the end I use it to run statistical reports and look back upon it to add notes on where I could have improved etc etc. I've been using it for awhile now and I thought it was super useful to me and wondering if it would be useful to the general community.

Anyone interested here is my trade entry screen. (Obviously the backend has a password which I can show if your really interested):
http://www.digital-soul.com.au/tradetracker/view.php?id=13244

What I would like to know from each of you:
- How many years experience do you have trading?
- Are you logging each one of your trades with screenshots
- What are you using currently to track your trades (ie. excel, word or nothing)?
- Does this sound useful to you?

Not trying to sell you anything, just wanting to know if its useful. Please help!!

 

[DionysusToast]

Depends how often you trade. It's a bit much for a day trader. I think you should try to get it all into 1 row of data. You can have notes @ the right hand side.

Also - why only record trades you take? Why not record how well the one's you didn't take would have worked out? That way you get to log how well your entries work.

 

[diigtal_soul18]

Depends how often you trade. It's a bit much for a day trader. I think you should try to get it all into 1 row of data. You can have notes @ the right hand side.

Also - why only record trades you take? Why not record how well the one's you didn't take would have worked out? That way you get to log how well your entries work.

Agree about the daytrader thing. I guess you can make it as long or as short as you like. I will try and consider putting notes on the right hand side.

The beauty of this system is that is made to be used each time your considering a trade. If the trade is cancelled, you can just flag it as 'cancelled' in the trade outcome section.

So do you currently log your trades? are you a daytrader?

 

[0007]

Good piece of work that can be easily adapted to any particular trading plan or instrument. Of huge benefit if you don't have the discipline or inclination to stick to your methodology. I'm a great believer in post-trade analysis -- this is where you can see you're going - both right and wrong. To this end it would be good to feed the data collected into a spreadsheet for graphical analysis -- again this is something that an individual could easily do.

I already have a system working on a similar principle but yours includes one or 2 additional ideas that are very worthwhile. Yours is an excellent contribution to those who are prepared to listen and learn. Thanks for sharing.

PS -- I'm a swing trader and don't do Fx so I can't speak for day traders. Time/stress/pressure should not be problem for us swingers!

 

[DionysusToast]

Agree about the daytrader thing. I guess you can make it as long or as short as you like. I will try and consider putting notes on the right hand side.

The beauty of this system is that is made to be used each time your considering a trade. If the trade is cancelled, you can just flag it as 'cancelled' in the trade outcome section.

So do you currently log your trades? are you a daytrader?

Yes I log my trades in Excel and yes I am a daytrader.

I actually log the levels I watch and then if I take a trade there I log that too - so it's one entry on the sheet each time we come to a level. I just fill in more info if I take a trade close to it.

 

[diigtal_soul18]

Yes I log my trades in Excel and yes I am a daytrader.

I actually log the levels I watch and then if I take a trade there I log that too - so it's one entry on the sheet each time we come to a level. I just fill in more info if I take a trade close to it.

DionysusToast,

Do you feel that it would be worthwhile to keep screenshots of each trade? So you can see the setup exactly as you saw it before you entered the trade?

 

[diigtal_soul18]

Good piece of work that can be easily adapted to any particular trading plan or instrument. Of huge benefit if you don't have the discipline or inclination to stick to your methodology. I'm a great believer in post-trade analysis -- this is where you can see you're going - both right and wrong. To this end it would be good to feed the data collected into a spreadsheet for graphical analysis -- again this is something that an individual could easily do.

I already have a system working on a similar principle but yours includes one or 2 additional ideas that are very worthwhile. Yours is an excellent contribution to those who are prepared to listen and learn. Thanks for sharing.

PS -- I'm a swing trader and don't do Fx so I can't speak for day traders. Time/stress/pressure should not be problem for us swingers!

0007,
Thanks for your positive review. Yes, the system stores all your information into a database and then you can export into excel if needed. The added benefit is that your tracking each screenshot so you know exactly what your setup is beforehand.

May I ask what the '2 additional ideas' are? I think I already know but I'm still curious to hear how mine was different.

I'm also giving out free accounts if your ever interested. I would love for someone to give me continual feedback on what needs improving while they are using it themselves.

I also have a demo to view the backend if your free to fill in this short 10 question survey. I'm opening it for anyone who is willing.

Trading Questionnaire

At the end of the survey you have all the login details to go in and view the plan in editing mode.

 

[0007]

0007,
Thanks for your positive review. Yes, the system stores all your information into a database and then you can export into excel if needed. The added benefit is that your tracking each screenshot so you know exactly what your setup is beforehand.

May I ask what the '2 additional ideas' are? I think I already know but I'm still curious to hear how mine was different.

I'm also giving out free accounts if your ever interested. I would love for someone to give me continual feedback on what needs improving while they are using it themselves.

I also have a demo to view the backend if your free to fill in this short 10 question survey. I'm opening it for anyone who is willing.

Trading Questionnaire

At the end of the survey you have all the login details to go in and view the plan in editing mode.

The thing I like most about your system is that you have carefully thought about all your parameters and made sure that your system accounts for them. Over the years I've been down a similar sort of route and got to the point where there were so many items on my checklist that it began to be a bit counterproductive. I think it really depends on your style of trading -- I've come to the conclusion that the 80/20(Pareto) principle applies in that a relatively small number of things account for most of the success (or failure) in my trading. In line with that, I've been able to tailor my trading methodology to a very simple paradigm which allows me to concentrate on just a very few simple basics -- but they wouldn't work for day trading or Fx on short timeframe where short-term influences skew the patterns in my experience -- and before you know it you end up (unsuccessfully) trading" noise". Obviously a personal thing because there are successful day and Fx traders!

The main thing I picked up from your checklist is the "probability enhancers" --something I've done sort of subconsciously but it's nice to see it in writing and properly defined. My trading is all about probability and getting positive probabilities all heading in the same direction -- and that's what your checklist does. That's why they use them in aviation -- to make sure the essentials are accounted for and that trivia doesn't interfere.

The other thing is the "affirmation". I used to be quite sceptical of all the "psychological mumbo jumbo nonsense" but that was when I was struggling to cope with the trading basics. I think it's quite difficult to appreciate the psychological aspects at the start. I must try the affirmation --so far, whenever I have a duff trade I convince myself that the world is not about to cave in on me by having a look over the spreadsheets and letting the figures cheer me up. The temptation then is to find yet another metric and see how you can process it -- all good fun but I suspect the affirmation might be quicker!
Thanks for access to the demo -- will have a play with it.

 

[diigtal_soul18]

The thing I like most about your system is that you have carefully thought about all your parameters and made sure that your system accounts for them. Over the years I've been down a similar sort of route and got to the point where there were so many items on my checklist that it began to be a bit counterproductive. I think it really depends on your style of trading --

0007,
Thanks for your survey entry. I highly value your in-depth replies. You sound like a wise man and I would love to get more of your input. Please give me a bit of time to setup your personal account. I will email you the details on the email you have provided me on the survey.

 

[barjon]

good stuff, DS

One thing I find useful is "pros" and "cons" for each trade. Excel adds them up and if anything becomes significant it may gravitate to a conditional rule for a time until market conditions change and its significance falls away.

 

[nunrgguy]

It's easy enough to do the whole thing in excel with a bit of VB.
I had a similar app that ran in Access but because of the running (and circular) calculations re expectency etc it became very slow and clunky. It also had a few bits that launched excel anyway for working out position size....

But re keeping screenshots with a spreadsheet. the easiest way to do it is have a column or two for shots and use hyperlinks to the screen shots which are just kept in a folder.

 

[diigtal_soul18]

It's easy enough to do the whole thing in excel with a bit of VB.
I had a similar app that ran in Access but because of the running (and circular) calculations re expectency etc it became very slow and clunky. It also had a few bits that launched excel anyway for working out position size....

But re keeping screenshots with a spreadsheet. the easiest way to do it is have a column or two for shots and use hyperlinks to the screen shots which are just kept in a folder.

This is a valid point. I too tried to make it through Access. I also found a number of limitations. Not to mention hardware failure which led me to conclude that a web app would be most appropriate as it sits on redundant servers.

Yes, trades can be logged in basic form through Excel, but excel isn't a platform to manage your trading plan and ensure you follow your plan consistently. I see this system as a 'consistency manager' rather then a 'trade log'.