Daily Trading Journal: Review the Whole Session

A daily trading journal summarises a session: what you planned, what you actually traded, the result after costs and what needs attention. Keep individual trade records underneath that summary. A daily total cannot show the sequence of decisions by itself. You can copy the prompts below into your own notes and complete them when you finish the session.

Keep a daily summary beside the trade records

A trade entry records a particular position and the decisions around it. A daily summary asks what happened across the session: missing entries, repeated deviations, costs and unfinished positions. For the position-level fields, use what to track in a journal. For faster trading, the day trading journal guide adds sequence and timing.

CME’s trade-log lesson includes recording reasons, trade timing and a daily review of conclusions. The prompts here turn that idea into a practical worksheet, without prescribing a fixed writing time or promising a financial outcome.

Daily prompts to copy into your notes

Example: a day with no net gain or loss

Fictional session with assumed costs: the first trade buys 20 shares at ₹100 and sells at ₹106. Its gross gain is (₹106 − ₹100) × 20 = ₹120. After ₹15 costs, the gain is ₹105. The later trade buys 10 shares at ₹200 and sells at ₹191: its price loss is (₹200 − ₹191) × 10 = ₹90, or ₹105 including another ₹15 costs.

Across the session, gross results total ₹120 − ₹90 = ₹30 and costs total ₹15 + ₹15 = ₹30. Net result is therefore ₹0. These invented trades illustrate the calculation; the assumed costs are not a broker tariff.

The daily note can now ask why the later trade was taken and whether either decision deviated from the plan. A flat result does not answer those questions, and it does not mean every trade had no gain or loss. Keep the individual reasons beside the totals.

Close the record without closing an open position on paper

• Compare the journal’s entries with the trades you actually completed. Mark late or incomplete records rather than silently leaving them out.
• Use the same cost basis throughout the total. Do not subtract a fee again if it is already included in a net figure.
• Keep open-position changes separate from closed results. A position’s current value can change even when you make no new trade.
• Write what needs checking next. A vague promise to be more disciplined is difficult to evaluate later.

If positions remain open overnight, the swing journal guide covers dated holding notes. If you need help maintaining the habit itself, use the journaling routine.

Record a day without trades honestly

A no-trade note can state that your condition did not appear, that you were unavailable or that you chose not to act. Do not create a dummy trade to preserve a streak. Distinguish no trading from missing records, and avoid automatically treating the absence of new trades as an unchanged account value.

OneTradeJournal has manual trade logging, emotion and plan-deviation fields and a P&L calendar. Those features can support a daily review from your logged entries. This copyable daily worksheet is editorial guidance; it does not imply a separate built-in daily-notes form. Behaviour flags are heuristics, meaning simple pattern checks, and cannot diagnose your state of mind or prevent an order.

Sources

• CME Group: Keep a trade log and daily review - checked 15 October 2026.
• OneTradeJournal: manual fields and reports - checked 15 October 2026.