Stock Market Glossary
Trading diary
Structured documentation of your own trades including justification and teaching.
In brief: Structured documentation of your own trades including justification and teaching.
Meaning in practice
A trading diary records setup, entry, exit and emotional state. It is the most important learning tool because it makes bias and repeat errors visible – without documentation, every strategy remains a gut feeling.
Context for investors and traders
The term describes a common behavioural bias that can become especially visible during sharp market moves. It is not a judgement on individual investors, but a prompt to make decisions understandable and repeatable.
How to use this in practice
A simple decision process is an effective countermeasure: note the trigger, set objective and risk, then act. It makes clear whether a decision rests on testable information or on FOMO, fear or the urge to recover a loss quickly.
What to keep in mind
Review decisions at calm intervals instead of after every market move. Changing rules retrospectively removes the benchmark; following them rigidly should still leave room for genuinely relevant new information.
