Trading Journal Templates: How to Review Good & Bad Trades Like a Pro

Jasper Osita - Market Analyst

2025-12-12 12:10:54

Most traders journal only their losing trades.

Some journal their winning trades.

Few journal both - and almost no one journals them correctly.

The truth is:

A bad trade doesn’t automatically mean a mistake.
A good trade doesn’t automatically mean good process.
A winning trade can be a terrible decision.
A losing trade can be a perfect execution.

If you don’t review properly, you reinforce the wrong habits and weaken the right ones.

This section shows you how to:

Break down every trade with precision
Separate skill from luck
Identify structural issues in your execution
Understand pattern recognition flaws
Improve system alignment
Strengthen confidence through evidence
Build your unconscious competence

When done correctly, trade reviews become your fastest path to mastery - much faster than taking more trades.

To deepen your foundation, revisit:

These concepts support the analytical layers of the templates below.

Let’s get into the structure.

1. The Four Pillars of a Proper Trade Review

Every trade - win or loss - must be reviewed through these four pillars:

A. System Quality

Did the trade follow your strategy rules?

B. Execution Quality

Did you enter and manage correctly?

C. Behavioral Quality

What was your emotional and cognitive state?

D. Market Condition Fit

Was the environment favorable for this kind of setup?

When a trade goes wrong, the cause is always one of these four pillars.

Your template will break this down systematically.

2. The Perfect Trade Review Format (Used by Professional Traders)

Here is the template:

Trade Review Template (Universal)

1. Trade Summary (What Happened?)

Pair / Asset
Session
Setup type
Entry reason
Stop-loss location
Target(s)
Result (+R or –R)

This is not analysis - it is documentation.

2. System Checklist (Was It a Valid Setup?)

Rate each item Yes / No / Partial:

HTF bias aligned?
Liquidity sweep taken?
MSS/BOS confirmed?
Valid POI?
FVG present or mitigation?
Timing aligned (London/NY)?
Market condition favorable?

If any critical confirmation is missing - the setup is invalid.

3. Execution Review (Did You Execute Well?)

Answer with Clean / Imperfect / Poor:

Entry timing
SL placement
TP execution
Risk sizing
Trade management
Patience before entry
No FOMO impulses

This section revealed to thousands of traders that execution is often the real problem, not the system.

4. Emotional Review (What Were You Feeling?)

Rate emotions before and after:

Before:

Confidence
Clarity
FOMO
Fear
Stress

After:

Satisfaction
Regret
Emotional drift

By comparing before/after, you reveal emotional shifts that influence future trades.

5. Bias Identification (Which Bias Was Active?)

Possible biases:

Recency bias
Revenge bias
Overconfidence
Fear of missing out
Confirmation bias
Illusion of control
Outcome bias

Bias detection is critical - it prevents your mental model from degrading over time.

6. Market Condition Assessment (Was This the Right Environment?)

Tag conditions:

Trending / Choppy
High volatility / Low volatility
HTF premium / discount
Pre-news / post-news
Liquidity-rich / liquidity-dry

You’ll quickly learn:

Half of losing trades come from trading in the wrong conditions.

7. What Went Right / What Went Wrong

Simple but powerful:

What I did well:

Focus on repeatable skills.

What I did poorly:

Focus on mistakes you can eliminate.

8. Lesson Reinforcement (What Changes Next?)

One rule to internalize
One behavior to reduce
One condition filter to add
One confirmation to be stricter with

This creates forward momentum, not just reflection.

9. Screenshot Markups

Attach:

Entry screenshot
HTF context
LTF execution
Mistake highlights
Lessons written on the image

This forms a powerful visual memory bank.

3. Good Trade Review - How to Reinforce Skilled Behavior

A “good trade” is NOT defined by profit.

A good trade is defined by:

Following rules
Executing cleanly
Managing emotions
Respecting market structure
Letting the system play out
Taking the correct risk
Accepting the outcome

When reviewing winning trades:

Focus on the process, not the profit.

Ask:

Why did this setup work?
Which confirmations were strongest?
Did the market reward your process?
Could you scale this setup in future?
Did you stay calm throughout?
Did you exit at a logical location?
Did your behavior match your identity as a trader?

Good trade reviews hard-wire the processes that create consistency.

Without this, you lose the opportunity to strengthen your strengths.

4. Bad Trade Review - How to Extract Gold From Losses

A bad trade review must answer one question:

“Was this a bad trade or a valid loss?”

A Valid Loss

Setup was clean
Conditions aligned
Rules followed
SL placed correctly
Market simply didn’t follow through

Valid losses must be embraced - they build resilience and trust in your edge.

A Bad Trade

Bad trades fall into categories:

System Error:

Rule flaw or strategy weakness.

Execution Error:

Mistimed entry, bad SL, poor TP.

Behavior Error:

FOMO, fear, revenge, hesitation.

Environment Error:

Trading when tired, distracted, stressed.

These must be isolated and removed systematically.

5. The “5 Why’s” Root Cause Analysis (Elite-Level Learning)

Used by engineers, now applied to trading.

Example:

Why did I lose this trade?

Because price reversed immediately.

Why?

Because I entered before liquidity sweep.

Why?

Because I feared missing the move.

Why?

Because I previously missed a winning setup.

Why?

Because I haven’t accepted that not every move is mine.

This transforms emotional mistakes into actionable clarity.

6. The Journal of Patterns - Where Mastery Emerges

After 20–50 reviews, patterns begin appearing:

Certain setups win consistently
Certain confirmations are mandatory
Certain conditions kill performance
Certain behaviors cause repeated errors
Certain times of day perform best
Certain emotional states lead to disaster
Certain rule violations cost the most money

This is where your journal becomes powerful:

You stop guessing - and start knowing.

That is the beginning of professionalism.

Real-Life Analogy - Recording Your Sparring Sessions

Boxers record their sparring sessions to study:

Timing
Footwork
Mistakes
Defensive gaps
Strong combinations
Fatigue points

Not because they love watching themselves lose rounds…

but because every recording contains patterns.

Your trade review plays the same role.

Each review carries hidden patterns - ones that make or break your future performance.

Final Thoughts

Your trades are not just entries and exits - they are data points revealing who you are as a trader.

A proper trade review template turns every outcome into:

clarity
structure
self-awareness
skill growth
emotional stability
system refinement

The fastest traders to reach consistency aren’t the most talented -

they are the ones who review the deepest.

This is your edge.

Use it.

FAQs

1. How long should a trade review take?

5–10 minutes for regular trades.

15–20 minutes for trades that reveal new patterns.

2. Should I review every trade?

Yes - until mastery.

After that, review only high-impact trades.

3. What if the trade was pure luck?

Document it.

Luck disguises bad habits.

4. Should I track screenshots?

Absolutely.

Visual memory accelerates pattern recognition.

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Suggested Learning Path

If you’re not sure where to start, follow this roadmap:

Start with Trading Psychology → Build the mindset first.
Move into Risk Management → Learn how to protect capital.
Explore Strategies & Tools → Candlesticks, Fibonacci, MAs, Indicators.
Apply to Assets → Gold, Indices, Forex sessions.
Advance to Smart Money Concepts (SMC) → Learn how institutions trade.
Specialize → Stop Hunts, News Trading, Turmoil Navigation.

This way, you’ll grow from foundation → application → mastery, instead of jumping around randomly.

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This content may have been written by a third party. ACY makes no representation or warranty and assumes no liability as to the accuracy or completeness of the information provided, nor any loss arising from any investment based on a recommendation, forecast or other information supplies by any third-party. This content is information only, and does not constitute financial, investment or other advice on which you can rely.

Author

Jasper has been in the markets since 2019 trading currencies, indices and commodities like Gold. His approach in the market is heavily accompanied by technical analysis and of course, supported by fundamentals. He has a background in trading proprietary firms and has been teaching students how to navigate themselves in the markets from basic to advance concepts.

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