rick Just stumbled upon your post. To the topic of the thread,...

rick

Just stumbled upon your post.
To the topic of the thread, in my trading days I kept a diary which turned out to be very useful in future years in refining my techniquies. Far more useful then I anticipated.

What I found most useful was more the trade plan than the bookkeeping.
Specifically:
Why I chose the stock (or asset class/instrument)
Why I bought (FA/TA explanation)
What price I bought in at
What price I planned to cut my losses at
Where I saw price going + timeframe
The price/timeframe at which I planned to exit
The price/timeframe at which did exit


This was invaluable for refining my trading plans.
In my case at least, the plans I thought were the winners turned out to be less profitable than others I gave less focus to.

I hope this advice is of some value & I'm assuming your not keeping a second diary with this included already.