Trading journal questions to ask after every trade

The best journal questions are short and specific. Here are twelve for after every trade, grouped by process, setup, numbers and state of mind.

Twelve questions after every trade

The best journal questions are short enough to answer in under five minutes and specific enough to show patterns. Use these twelve, and drop any you never use.

Process

Did I follow my rules, yes or no?
Was this planned, or did I react to something?

Setup

Which named setup was this?
What were the market conditions and session?

Numbers

Did the stop and target match my plan, and was the size right?
Is the net result, after commission and swap, what I expected?
Did I cut the winner early or hold the loser too long?

State of mind

How did I feel before entering?
Did fatigue, rush or frustration change how I traded?
Did I enter soon after a loss?

Takeaway

Was this a good trade that lost, or a mistake?
What would I repeat, and what would I change next time?

A hypothetical filled-in example

Question	Example answer
1. Followed my rules?	No
2. Planned or reactive?	Reactive: I saw a fast move and jumped in
3. Setup?	No clear setup
4. Conditions and session?	New York open, high volatility
5. Stop, target, size right?	Stop was wider than planned; size was normal
6. Result as expected?	No: -35 after costs
8. Feeling before?	Impatient; I had missed the earlier move
12. Repeat or change?	Change: only enter on listed setups

The numbers and answers are invented to show the format. Notice that three one-line answers already point to a rule: no entries without a listed setup. That is what the questions are for.

Common mistakes with journal questions

Writing essays. Long entries get abandoned within weeks. One line per answer is enough.
Answering only after wins. The useful answers come from the trades you would rather not look at.
Never reading them back. The answers only matter when you count and compare them.
Changing the questions constantly. Keep them stable for a month so the data can be compared.

How to use the answers

Put the first question as a yes or no property so you can count it.
Keep the rest as short text or one-word selects.
Once a week, filter to No on question 1 and read those trades together.
Once a month, count which emotion appears before your worst trades.

For what to record and how to keep it short, see what an MT5 trading journal should record, the trading checklist template and the trading psychology journal. The weekly review checklist shows how to read them.

Cut the data entry

Questions 5 and 6 are about numbers your platform already has. AI Trading Journal fills in size, prices, stop, target, times and net result automatically from your MT5 account, so you only answer the questions that need you.

This page is general education. It is not trading or investment advice.

Questions to ask before entering

The twelve questions above are for after a trade. These five are for before, and they are the ones that prevent a bad entry from needing an after-the-fact answer:

Which of my listed setups is this, in one phrase?
Where is the stop, and how many dollars is it at my lot size?
What would make this idea wrong before the stop is hit?
Am I entering because the setup is there, or because I want to be in a trade?
If I lose this one, will I still take my next planned trade calmly?

Questions for particular situations

Situation	Question to add
After a big win	Did I change my size or my rules because of it?
After three losses in a row	Were they plan-following losses, or did I break rules?
After missing a move	What did I do in the next hour?
After a news spike	Was I exposed on purpose, or did I forget?
At the end of a week with no trades	Did I pass because the setups were absent, or because I was afraid?

Make the answers countable

Question type	Property type in Notion or a spreadsheet	What you can then count
Followed my rules?	Yes or No (select or checkbox)	Share of trades followed; results with and without
Which setup?	Select from a fixed list	Results by setup
Feeling before	Select with five or six options	Results by emotion
Conditions	Select: trend, range, news	Results by market state
Repeat or change	Short text	Read together once a month

Free text is useful for the last question, but anything you want to count should be a fixed choice. A list of five feelings gives you a table after a month; fifty different sentences give you a reading project.

Good questions and bad ones

Weak	Better	Why
How was the trade?	Did I follow my rules, yes or no?	A weak question allows a vague answer; a strong one has one
What did I learn?	What one rule would have prevented the loss?	Specific questions produce rules
Was it good?	Was it a good decision that lost, or a mistake?	Separates the decision from the outcome
Why did I lose?	Did the stop get hit as planned, or did I change anything?	Looks at process before blaming the market

Keep the set stable, then prune

Use the same questions for at least a month so the answers can be compared. At the end of the month, count how often you actually answered each one. Drop the questions you skipped more than a third of the time, and replace them with one drawn from your costliest recent mistake. A short, stable set that you answer every time beats a long list you abandon. For ideas to go with it, see the trading psychology journal and the weekly review checklist.

Frequently asked questions

What questions should I ask after each trade?

Did I follow my rules, which setup was it, were the numbers as planned, how did I feel, was it a good trade that lost or a mistake, and what would I repeat or change.

How many journal questions are too many?

If it takes more than about five minutes you will stop. Start with five and add more only when you use them.

How do I review journal answers?

Count them. Filter to the trades where you broke your rules and compare their results with the rest, once a week.

Related guides

Answer the questions; let the numbers fill in

Free for 7 days, no card required. After that, a one-time $19.99 purchase. No subscription. Also on the Microsoft Store.

One-time $19.99, no monthly fee · your MT5 login never leaves your PC · trades go into your own journal on your PC, not through our servers.

Start free 7-day trial