What top traders think about a trading journal

Do you know what top traders have in common? Yes, they are all disciplined and consistent, but one element that a lot of them share is the habit of keeping a trading journal.



Below, we put together quotes from what top professional traders say about keeping a trading journal.

1. "As a professional trader and managing partner of a trading firm, I cannot take you seriously as a trader if you do not journal. To me this would be like a football player not lifting weights." Mike Bellafiore - SMB Capital Partner


2. "A trading journal keeps you constructive, keeps you learning, and keeps you working on the things that are most important. It is not a tool for simply rehashing the day; it is a tool for self-development." Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D. - Head of Trader Development at Tudor Investments


3. "It is emotionally difficult to review your mistakes, since the speculator must wade through his own bad trades and blunders. And these are not just simple blunders; these are blunders that cost money. Anyone who has lost money by investing poorly knows how difficult it is to re-examine what occurred. The examination of a losing trade is tortuous but necessary to ensure that it will not happen again." Jesse Livermore - Legendary Trader and Investor


4. "A trading journal is probably the most important, and most often neglected, tool in determining your success or failure in the market." Toni Hansen - Professional Trader, Author of 9 books and Educator


5. "Successful traders know that a consistent and systematic review of their daily trading activities is the direct path to growing and improving." Dr. Van Tharp, Trading coach and book author


6.  "A review of statistics can help determine if a trader is overtrading in too many equities, scalping and trading too rapidly and missing opportunities, or trading too slowly and also missing opportunities to take profits." Dr. Ari Kiev, Trading coach and book author


7.  "Trading without a diary is like shaving without a mirror.” Dr. Alexander Elder, Author of Trading for a Living.


8. "Make a trading journal your first trading habit. It will become the key to all your good trades in the future." Investopedia.com


9. "Show me a trader with good records and I’ll show you a good trader." Dr. Alexander Elder, Author of Trading for a Living.


10. "My personal belief is that we are rapidly reaching a time when a trader’s potential will be evaluated objectively, through carefully crafted metrics, and not just subjectively through self-report and simple P/L summaries.  As markets become more efficient, trading firms will increasingly turn to such objective tools to assess the factors that lie beyond motivation." Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D. - Head of Trader Development at Tudor Investments


11. If you can’t measure it, you probably can’t manage it. Things you measure tend to improve. Ed Seykota - Trend trader legend and author