Trading Diary - Android App that helps traders to keep a trading journal

[FXhunter]

Hello everybody,
As I trader I know how important it is to keep a trading journal, but in my almost five years of trading experience I've never kept it (I've tried a couple of times, but with no success). Now I wish I would have all my trades written somewhere to analyze them.

Even if the authors of successful trading books encourage us to keep a trading journal we fail to keep it. Why?
Here are some reasons:

• we think it's nothing more than losing our time
• we prefer to use the time to search for other trading strategies
• we don't have the template of the diary in the moment we would like to write something

Some time ago I decided to develop this Android application because I hope that this way I will be able to keep my diary and also help others who have the same problem.

Here is the link where I describe the application
ForexCa - Trading Diary
but I will post all the information about it here in this thread, so you don't have to go anywhere.

And here is the link to the free limited version on the Android Market
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.forexca.tradingdiary

I've attached the Excel template I used in this application. If you save it as a csv, you will be able to import your trades to the Trading Diary Android App.

Feel free to suggest how can I improve it.

In the following posts I will describe the application.

 

[FXhunter]

The Main View of the Application

Here is the main View of the application, where the general information about your trades is displayed. You can see things like profit, loss, profit factor, percent profitable and so on. You can also see the action bar where you can choose to look at your trading journal entries, write a new entry, search trough your journal, view your profit chart or use the risk calculator.

Filtering the Diary Entries

By clicking the Filter on the main view you will be able to filter the trades, even by the fact that they were profitable or not, or by typing part of the note.

The List of Your Trades

Here you can see the list of the trades you added to the Trading Diary. The information you are seeing here is this:
- in the top-left corner there is the contract
- in the top-right corner there is the profit/loss
- in the middle there is the note
- in the bottom-left corner there is the entry date and time
- in the bottom-right corner there is the exit date and time

Entry List Menu

Long clicking on the entry in the list view, the menu will be displayed. Here you can change something in your entry by clicking Update Entry, delete the entry by clicking Delete Entry or you can see the details by choosing Details. You also can see the details by clicking the entry in the Entry List.

Diary Entry Details View

Here you can see the details of the trades you entered in the New Entry View.

The View of the New Entry

Here is where you add new information about your trades. You can add information like the Contract, the Entry/Exit Strategy, Entry/Exit date and time, profit, feelings and notes. From the main view you will be able to filter the trading entries by typing a part of the note.

 

[FXhunter]

Let's make a contest.
Give me an idea how can I improve my Android App by 27th of December. On the 27th of December I will choose two best ideas and I will give the two winners a coupon for activating the full version.
Here you can download the free version:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.forexca.tradingdiary

 

[diigtal_soul18]

How are you going with this FX hunter? It doesn't look like you got much reviews?

 

[FXhunter]

Not as I was expecting maybe my expectations were too high, as they were when I first came to trading. Then I realized that in order to become a good trader you have to work hard. I believe that the same is true when you develop an application, you have to work to promote it even if it's useful.

Yeah, you are right, I didn't get any reviews here

 

[diigtal_soul18]

Not as I was expecting maybe my expectations were too high, as they were when I first came to trading. Then I realized that in order to become a good trader you have to work hard. I believe that the same is true when you develop an application, you have to work to promote it even if it's useful.

Yeah, you are right, I didn't get any reviews here

Did you find much success in other forums? Hows your response been to the app?

 

[FXhunter]

No I didn't find much success in other forums. I just think that a trading journal is not of much interest for a lot of traders. I remember myself till a couple of years ago. I didn't keep a diary before, even if everybody was saying that it was important.

I think that traders are more attracted by trading systems, rather than by tools that can help with the psychological side of trading.
What do you think?

 

[0007]

I think that traders are more attracted by trading systems, rather than by tools that can help with the psychological side of trading.
What do you think?

I suspect that you're right! Lots of forums are full of people searching and displaying systems. It seems to be a widespread myth that it's only a question of finding the right system and following the rules and you can be instantly rich -- isn't that what many advertisers push? It takes a long time for people to realise the truth -- that there is no easy path and that you really do have to understand what it's all about before you can make any progress in terms of profitability -- and I also suspect that a lot of people don't have the staying power.

It took me an awful lot of hard work and research/reading/going down blind alleys before I was even in a position to understand the basics of what it's all about. It's a long way down the road of progress before you realise that record-keeping and pre-/post trade analysis are vital steps. As many people have said before -- nobody gets to be an expert in anything without much hard work and being reasonably bright. For a start, that cuts out a lot of people. With media and a culture that places emphasis on everything being easy and within everybody's reach is it any wonder?