Trade Journal: A Five-Column Review Template

A journal that records only entries and exits teaches nothing. The five-column structure below captures the decision, not just the trade, which is where the edge actually lives.

The five columns

1. Setup — Name the pattern explicitly: "RSI < 30 + lower Bollinger touch on 1H." Generic labels ("bounce," "breakout") produce no edge data.
2. Hypothesis — The if/then statement written before entry. Example: "If price closes back above the 20-EMA with volume > 1.5x the 20-day average, I expect a move to the upper band. Invalidation = a 5-min close below today's low."
3. Execution — Entry, stop, target, size, and fill quality. Score 1–5: did you chase? Was there slippage? Did you size correctly?
4. Outcome — R-multiple (realized P&L / risk), max adverse excursion, max favorable excursion, time in trade. R-multiple lets you compare trades of different sizes.
5. Lesson — One concrete sentence. Not "be patient," but "wait for the 5-min close above the EMA; 4 of my 6 losses were EMA taps that never closed above it."

How to fill it

Columns 1–2 are written before entry. Column 3 during. Columns 4–5 after exit. A journal filled only after the trade is fiction — the hypothesis gets rewritten to match the outcome.

Weekly review

Sort all trades by the Setup column. Compute win rate and average R per setup. Any setup below 0.3R average or under 35% win rate across 20+ trades gets paused or revised. Copy every Lesson entry into a checklist item in your rules document — that is how the journal compounds into a better system rather than a diary of regret.

Why five and not ten

More columns means fewer entries. Five forces discipline without becoming homework. The setup name and hypothesis together encode your strategy; execution and outcome encode reality; the lesson closes the loop. Anything beyond that (screenshots, news, mood) belongs in optional notes, not required fields.