Keeping Records

[t1on]

Hi guys,

Im new to trading and have been reading through these forums trying to learn as much as I can.

I notice that many of you refer to the same days last year/month etc in your posts. Im going to start keeping records and I was wondering if any sucessful traders would be kind enough to share with me what they think is important to record, and how they go about it.

Thanks

[rubysglory]

Hi. Welcome to BA. If using a spreadsheet like excel, may I suggest that as a minimum columns left to right should perhaps include Date, Day Of Week, Running Balance (Bankroll), Stake , Average Trade Price In, Average Trade Price Out, P&L and Commissiom Rate. You then run a formula to link P&L and Commission rate to get your Running Balance. Other data may also include ROI, Liability As Percentage Of Bankroll etc. Over the longer term, all of these can then be filtered and sorted and converted to an array of charts to help identify performance and trends etc. What I do is keep manual handwritten notes whilst trading and then at the end of each session take some 'wind down time' to data input into my ' balance sheet ' whilst reflecting on what went wrong or right. All the best.

rg

[t1on]

Thanks very much for that. Hadn't thought of a few of them, and didnt want to regret missing things out further down the line.

Appreciate the help.