The weekly trading journal:
why.

We require it. We check it's kept. And we debrief it, line by line, every week. It's probably the most unpopular thing we ask Coaching members — and by far the most powerful.

Here's why we insist, what we ask in it, and what we actually do with it.

01Why we require it

Most traders lose the same mistake over and over. Not ten different mistakes — just one. And they don't realise it because they have nothing to see it with.

The journal is for that. It's the mirror you don't have. Without it:

• You don't know how often you've broken your own plan
• You don't know under what conditions you make your worst decisions
• You confuse luck with skill
• You confuse discipline with rigidity

The journal addresses these four points in two weeks of serious keeping. Not three months. Two weeks. It's almost embarrassing.

02What we ask in it

We've seen 80-column Excel journals. Beautiful Notion notebooks. Paper folders kept with a pen. They all work — as long as the following elements are there:

• Market context. Not the analysis. The context. "Calm London open. US data at 14:30." In one sentence.
• The setup and decision. Why this entry. Why now. Why this risk.
• Mental state. Focused? Tired? On revenge from a previous loss? Be honest.
• Raw result. PnL in dollars and in R, no embellishment.
• One line of debrief. What you'd do differently if you could replay the trade.

That's it. Not ten indicators, not twenty screenshots, not three pages of analysis. Five fields, kept every day. If you already do that, you're better than 95% of traders we meet.

An empty journal is a signal. A journal with a thousand fields is another signal. The right journal fits in five lines per trade — and it's actually kept.

The TM team  ·  Coaching program note

03How we use it in debriefs

Every week, in a video call with your coach, you open your journal together. The session lasts 30 to 45 minutes. Here's what we look at:

• Repetitions. What error pattern came back this week?
• Plan deviations. Times you broke your own rule. Not to feel guilty — to understand.
• "Honest" losses vs preventable losses. Critical distinction.
• Days off. Why you didn't trade. Just as important as why you did.
• Mental state across the week. Spotting cycles. The market isn't scary — fatigue is.

At the end of each debrief, your coach gives you one thing to fix for next week. Not three. Not five. One.

04What it changes

Many members tell us the same thing after a quarter: "I haven't changed my method. I've changed my attention."

That's exactly what we hope for. The journal doesn't give you better setups. It makes you visible to yourself. And a trader who sees themselves clearly makes better decisions, regardless of the strategy used.

If you're not in the Coaching program, you can still keep a journal. The five-field format is open, you can use it as is. If you'd like to discuss it together, registration is free — and the debrief is one of the moments members talk about most.