Gino's Blog : Keeping a journal

As some or most of you know, I've been keeping a jounal of my screens, picks, winners and losers. I look back every once in a while and check my notes to determine what I did right. But more importantly, what I did wrong. The winners seem to always take care of themselves, so keeping track of the losers is where the real learning comes from. You need to be able to analyze what made you pick that one, on that day. Taking good notes and adding to them once you figure out why it lost is very important. Was the volume low on the breakout? Did you over anticipate a buy signal on your bollinger bands, MACD or whatever indicator? Was it just a whipsaw?

Keeping your jounal accurate and honest will allow you to look back and find any patterns that you may have fallen into. Like trying to get into a trade too early or out too late. Trial and error is one of the best ways to learn but learning from your mistakes can only be good if you realize you are making mistakes and you can determine what those mistakes are.

Once you know what your particular bad habit or destructive pattern is, you'll easily be able to watch for it, deal with it and stop yourself from repeating it over and over again.

Here's a few quotes to get you thinking.

“It always helps to know the answer when you are working toward the solution of a problem” Unknown.

“A jouney of a thousand miles begins with one step” Chinese philosipher, I think.

“If a man stands with his left foot on a hot stove and a right foot in a refridgerator, the statistician would say, on the average, he is comfortable” Walter Heller.

“Thus all the action of men must necessarily be referred to seven causes;
chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, anger, and desire.” Aristotle.

“The law of cause and effect does not hide in the realm of the unexpected when intelligent beings go looking for it.” Gertrude Atherton.

“. . . and now remains that we find out the cause of this effect, or rather say, the cause of this defect, for this effect defective comes by cause.” William Shakespeare.