Is there any sense in recording your observations and conclusions? This question is answered affirmatively by many traders. They believe that keeping a trading journal contributes to self-discipline and helps to systematize the experience gained.

Apart from a traditionally used journal, there are other ways to record your observations. It is a well-known fact that people are divided into auditory learners, visual learners and kinesthetic learners (also known as “tactile learners”) on the basis of the prevalent cognitive channel.

Auditory learners perceive information through listening. They tend to utter their thoughts and conclusions. Music means much for these people; it sets their mood and emotional state. People of this type are even likely to use a dictation machine to record and reproduce their thoughts.

Pictures and images dominate the mind of visual learners. Visual materials are crucial for cognition of these people. That is why charts, schemes and figures are the most powerful perception tools for them. In this context the Mind Mapping method introduced by British scientist Tony Buzan appears to be effective. The essence of this method is establishing associative relationships among concepts and visualizing these relationships. According to T.Buzan, associative thought processes are the most efficient in learning and memorizing, as our mind stores information in the form of associative maps. Mapping is based on employing graphical representations, colours, three-dimensional images, letters etc. A cognitive map is supposed to be a consistent hierarchy of concepts. An example of a mind map is represented below. It hardly reflects peculiarities of your trading system, yet it might facilitate the process of knowledge systematization. The mind mapping technique is applicable in numerous spheres of life indeed.

As for kinesthetic learners, they rely rather on their feelings, emotions and tactile sensations. They need more time for pondering and making a decision. Kinesthetic learners attach great significance to atmosphere and comfortable overall environment.

Try choosing a way of keeping a trading journal or data memorizing proceeding from your own personality type.

What are techniques of other traders? Many have a special notebook to record parameters of each particular trade, describe a trading strategy, including indicators employed and signals considered. In such a notebook you can also explain why a decision to open or close a trade was made. Later these records will be helpful for you to revise and correct your strategy. If you are a short-term trader, you can draw conclusions at the end of each day. Such a notebook allows fixing effective strategies, capital management methods, principles of indicators functioning and useful recommendations. It is also worth taking notes while testing new strategies and software products.

Some make screenshots with comments and store them in folders bearing certain dates. Many traders employ Excel for necessary calculations. Others prefer blogging in the Internet.

A journal of any format is especially important to keep at first stages of work so that you could systematize information, analyze your mistakes and trade sticking to the scheme elaborated. If you plan to trade on several accounts or with several brokers, you certainly need to keep records to avoid confusion. One can have on mind just a few ideas at once, since the human brain capacity is not unlimited. We tend to forget information, so well-structured and logically consistent records appear to be useful for recalling something important and putting thoughts in order.

As you can see, there are numerous ways of record keeping. It is up to you whether keeping a journal is helpful on Forex.

Added by Anna Shubina ,
InstaForex Clients’ relationship manage