Journal
Risk & psychologyA contemporaneous record of decisions and the reasoning behind them.
In plain terms
It contradicts your memory, which is precisely its value.
1492 terms
Glossary
Every term is defined twice: once the way a filing would put it, and once the way somebody would explain it to you across a table. The second one is usually the one that sticks.
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Trading journal
Risk & psychologyA written record of each trade’s reasoning, made before the outcome is known.
In plain terms
Memory rewrites your reasoning to match the result. This is the only defence.
Post-mortem
Risk & psychologyA review of a closed position conducted against what you wrote before entering it.
In plain terms
Do it once calm, and read the original journal entry, because memory quietly rewrites the reasoning to match the result. Change at most one thing, then gather another thirty trades before judging it.