Plain writing about keeping a trading journal and reading the numbers it produces, the trader's own state included. Every article uses real formulas and worked examples; most of them point at the screen in SetupBook where the number lives.
A plain comparison of the trading journals you can use without paying, checked in October 2026. Trade limits, import and sync, markets, mobile and languages for Tradervue, TradesViz, StonkJournal, TraderWaves, SetupBook and a spreadsheet.
4 min read
A practical guide to keeping a trading journal you will not abandon. The three fields that are enough, what to add when you have two minutes, a template to copy, and the habits that keep it alive.
6 min read
Step by step exports from MetaTrader 4 and 5, Binance spot and futures, TradingView's list of trades and any CSV, the time zone trap, what a good import checks, and how to tag two hundred old trades in ten minutes.
5 min read
Maximum adverse and maximum favourable excursion are the two numbers that judge your stops and your exits. What they are, a worked example in R, the four patterns they reveal, and how to record them by hand.
4 min read
Most funded-account challenges are failed on rules, not on edge. How a trading journal should track the daily loss limit, the maximum drawdown and the profit target, and warn you before a trade breaks one.
5 min read
A spreadsheet is a fine first trading journal. Here is exactly where it stops working (partial exits, shorts, multipliers, drawdown, mistake cost, phones, broker reports) and what to do when it does.
5 min read
"Control your emotions" is advice nobody can act on. Five taps a day are. How to measure your state like a psychologist would, read it against your trades, and find the pattern that is costing you money.
5 min read
A fixed weekly review is where a trading journal pays off. The seven steps, the questions that produce answers instead of feelings, what not to do, and how to turn the review into a one-page report.
4 min read
A trading journal is a record of every trade and the numbers that come out of it. What belongs in one, what it should compute for you, and why most journals die in week three.
5 min read
"Be more disciplined" is useless advice. A dollar figure next to each mistake is not. How to tag trading mistakes, compute what each one costs, read them on the equity curve and actually change one.
5 min read
The formulas behind the five numbers every trading journal should show, with worked examples, the ranges that mean something, and the mistakes that make them lie.
6 min read