The Journal is a weekly summary of my BTC trading system’s performance along with notes, observations, and lessons collected and mused upon each week.
My trading week runs from Monday to Sunday. While BTC is a 24/7 market, I don’t normally trade on weekends due to low volume, however should the conditions and setups be present, then weekend trades can happen.
The Journal Structure
Each journal entry will (mostly) follow this structure:
- Introduction: …It’s an introduction, sometimes known as an intro.
- The Numbers: A scorecard that tracks the key metrics that matter to my trading system. The current week is compared to the System as a whole in order to show not only performance, but most importantly, progress.
| Metric | This Week | System · Figures Include Current Week |
|---|---|---|
| Final R | The total R return at the end of the trading week. | The weekly average R return of the System, based on all trades. |
| Trades |
Total number of trades taken, including wins and losses. W = win…I hope you knew that. |
The average number of trades taken per week by the System. Average wins and losses are not shown here. You should see Win Rate instead. |
| Win Rate | Winning trades divided by total trades taken during the week. | The win rate across all trades taken by the System. |
| Average Win | The average R return from winning trades during the week. |
The average R return from all winning trades in the System. High is good. Higher is better. |
| Average Loss | The average negative R return from losing trades during the week. |
The average negative R return across all losing trades in the System. Low is good. Lower is better. |
| Average R/Trade | The average R return across all trades taken during the week. | The average R return per trade across the entire System. |
| Rule Adherence | The percentage of trades where I followed the System rules completely. |
The percentage of trades where I followed the System rules completely. Note: I only started tracking this from Week 07. |
- Last week → This Week: A recap of what I wanted to take away from the previous week and bring into the current week. This helps to provide a little more background if you don’t want to read the previous entry.
- The Market: An overview on my market observations on BTC and maybe sometimes other markets (they’re all connected and stuff). This will show you how I see the market and what my eyes are generally looking for (which is…quite basic). I’ll have charts and pictures here.
- The Trade: A breakdown and analysis of the most important trade, or trading opportunity, from my week. This is probably what you’re here for, however do try and pay particular attention to The Trading Number where I explain how one of the numbers tracked by the System played an important role in the trade.
- The Audit + Next Week: The key takeaway from the trading week and what I plan to look further into or carry over to the following week.
A Note On Weeks 01–06
Weeks 01 through to 06 were something of an exploration stage for TRADING#NUMBERS, so those aren’t as polished or as useful as entries that follow.
After reviewing them and getting friends to read, I realised they could have been a bit random and also inward facing. They also lacked some clarity, direction and consistency.
Rather than delete them, I’ve left them. Memories are always nice right? Feel free to read them. They are legit authentic though.
For concepts that aren’t fully explained in The Journal, please refer to System Notes for more detailed explainer content. These will mainly be for ideas I feel are most important. Anything else? Go the library or something.
Remember, The Journal isn’t financial advice. There are no signals or trade calls available anywhere. The System and it’s breakdown is not for sale.
The Journal is to show you what and why I am doing things, what I expect, and ultimately how I can use all of this to better the System.
I’m figuring all this out one week at a time. Everything is still very much a work-in-progress, and that’s the point.
Thanks for reading.
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