# How to Add Notes and Tags to Your Trades > Notes and tags turn a trade log into a real journal. Here is how to use them in Trader Journal and what to write for maximum review value. **Tags:** notes, tags, journaling, trade-detail **URL:** https://traderjournal.app/app-guide/how-to-add-notes-tags-trades --- # How to Add Notes and Tags to Your Trades The trade list in Trader Journal updates automatically via the EA sync. But the raw data - entry price, exit price, P&L - is only part of what makes a journal useful. The context you add manually is what makes it possible to improve. --- ## Opening the Trade Detail Page In the Trades tab or the Dashboard's recent trades list, tap any trade to open the Trade Detail page. The detail page shows all the automated data at the top (P&L, prices, times, pips, commission, swap breakdown, risk-reward diagram). The journal fields are in the lower section. --- ## The Notes Field The notes field is a multi-line text area where you write about the trade in plain text. There is no specific format required - write whatever is useful to future you. Useful things to include: - **The setup:** "Entered on a breakout above the morning range high after two hours of consolidation" - **Your confidence level at entry:** "Strong conviction, price had tested this level three times" - **What happened during the trade:** "Price moved immediately in my favor then stalled at the previous day's high" - **How the trade closed:** "Hit TP naturally" or "Closed manually after seeing a strong reversal candle" - **Market context:** "NFP week, spreads were wider than usual" Even two or three sentences is enough. The goal is enough context that when you review this trade in three months, you can understand what happened without needing to look at a chart. --- ## Tags Tags are comma-separated keywords that categorize the trade. They are useful for grouping and filtering trades by setup type, session, or other criteria. Examples of useful tag systems: **By setup type:** breakout, pullback, reversal, range, news **By session:** london, new-york, asian, overlap **By entry quality:** A-grade, B-grade, C-grade **By emotional state:** patient, impulsive, fomo, disciplined **By outcome reason:** hit-tp, hit-sl, manual-close-profit, manual-close-loss Use whatever taxonomy makes sense for your trading style. The important thing is consistency - use the same tags across trades so you can compare groups. --- ## The Mistake Field The mistake field is separate from the notes field for a reason. It is specifically for logging what you did wrong on the trade. This is not a punishment exercise. The mistake field serves a practical function: when you review your losing trades, you can quickly see whether the loss was the result of an error (and therefore something you can fix) or just a valid setup that did not work (which is expected and acceptable). Examples: - "Entered before the candle closed - premature entry" - "Stop was too tight, based on round number not structure" - "Ignored the conflicting signal on the higher timeframe" - "Good execution, no mistakes - loss was within expected variance" That last example is important. Not every losing trade is a mistake. A journal that only logs errors on losing trades creates a false correlation between losses and mistakes. --- ## Star Rating The 1-5 star rating is a quick grade for the overall quality of the trade as an execution of your plan. - 5 stars: perfect execution, followed the plan exactly - 4 stars: minor deviation from plan, did not significantly impact outcome - 3 stars: some rule-breaking, outcome acceptable - 2 stars: significant rule violation - 1 star: completely off-plan The star rating lets you filter your trades by quality and compare the performance of well-executed trades vs poorly executed ones. Most traders find their 5-star trades outperform their 1-star trades significantly - which reinforces the value of following the plan. --- ## When to Add Journal Entries Immediately after the trade closes is best. The details fade quickly. Even if you only write one sentence and a few tags now, you can add more detail during your evening review session. Tap Save after adding notes, tags, mistakes, and rating to commit your entry.