This was one of the hardest things for me to wrap my head around when I started trading retail. When I worked institutionally, I had a team of people whose job it was to make sure I didn't go on tilt — heart rate monitors tracking performance, internal monitoring teams analyzing the language I used, screens filmed at all times, people analyzing how I was trading.
If I did something deemed irresponsible, I'd get the dreaded tap on the shoulder and get put in the cool-down room for a conversation and a cup of tea with the most boring person you could possibly imagine.
When I transitioned to trading full-time on my own, I didn't have those crutches to lean on. All of those support systems I had to recreate for myself. And it actually became the period where I learned the most about my emotional triggers and had to take real accountability for them.
A Good Trader Journals While They Trade
Here's the principle: a good chef cleans while they cook, and a good trader journals while they trade.
The only way I've been able to track my emotional patterns is by noting them down the moment I feel something that doesn't feel right. Here's the harsh reality — our emotional thoughts have a very short half-life. How I feel in a trade in that very moment is a thought I only really experience once or maybe twice. Ten minutes later, I forget what it felt like to be in that position.
Without understanding or remembering those feelings, I lose the ability to change my behavior the next time I'm confronted with them. We forget those core details very quickly. The sooner we track them, the better our recollection, and the easier it is to make deliberate decisions — to go left instead of right.
My Two-Stage Journal Process
My journal is a two-stage process:
Stage 1: The Quick Notes (During Trading)
All I write down in my notebook — old school, pen and paper — is:
- The trade direction (NQ short, ES long)
- Entry price
- Number of contracts
That's the base information. Everything else I need — stop loss, P&L, exit price — I can grab from my order execution history later. I just need enough to reconcile my thoughts when I review.
Stage 2: The Emotional Tracking (In Real Time)
This is where it gets powerful. I write down every intrusive thought I have during a trade:
- "Price action bounced off this number — made me feel anxious"
- "Made me feel like the trade was gonna keep going"
- "Made me feel like my idea was right"
- "Made me feel wrong"
Then maybe price makes another 10-point move. That move happens faster than I expected, and a feeling of greed comes over me — "this is going to be a $10,000 day, best day of the year, I'm definitely getting my eggs Benny."
Then the trade reverses. I panic close. Super stressed. And I note that emotion — the greed that punished me by creating extra anxiety.
Turning Patterns Into Solutions
The more of these things I track on a per-trade basis, the more I can identify patterns and create solutions.
For example, if I catch myself being greedy and feeling like a trade is moving too quickly, I know I need to control that greed. The best way for me to do that is to get out as my P&L is increasing — not hold on for another thousand points, not hold on for that massive 10K win, but get out, get impartial, and try again if it sets up the right way.
So I've noticed a pattern. I know a potential solution. Now it's my job to test that thesis the following trading day.
The Deliberate Decision Framework
The next day, when I'm in a trade and I start to get that same feeling or pattern, I've already decided what I'm going to do. I've already decided how I'm going to veer left instead of right.
So in this situation: get the feeling, then close as P&L is increasing — up two points, I'm out. Now I track in my journal: "Got the feeling. Behaved how I said I was going to behave."
That's improvement you can measure. That's confidence you can build on.
There Are No Wrong Things to Track
If you think something might be irrelevant or just BS, write it down anyway. You don't have to include it in your final review. The point is that you can go back, remember how you felt, notice if patterns repeat, and then make a plan to break them.
Track the data. Create a test. Execute the test. Either continue with the winning solution or create another test. This is the scientific method applied to your psychology.
Your Emotional Triggers Are Your Unique Edge
One of the big misconceptions about trading is that you can just show up, copy someone's trades, turn off your brain, and become extremely rich. Maybe that works for a tiny percentage — but I have yet to meet that person. I don't believe there are any naturally gifted traders.
Trading is a psychological game disguised as a technical game. The more we focus on the technical triggers that create our psychological events, the easier it becomes to improve our technical trading and reduce those psychological triggers.
The chicken came before the egg here — fix the psychology, and the technicals follow. Not the other way around.
The Objective: Protect Yourself From Yourself
We are all our own biggest worst enemy when it comes to trading. The more we can study and fix our flaws, the better our P&L goes.
My recommendation: make tracking your emotional triggers your immediate largest focus. You can even gamify it — like we talked about with process-based objectives. Take it extremely seriously because it will unlock a tremendous amount of P&L improvement.
You'll see your self-development arc become extremely addictive, and ultimately that is the most sustainable way to maintain a long career as a trader.
This is probably the most important skill in the entire DTR framework. Take it seriously, and it will change your trading forever.
Start Journaling Your Way to Profits
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