# What to Write in the Notes Field of Every Trade > The notes field is the most underused part of any trading journal. Here is exactly what to write to make your notes useful during review. **Tags:** trading-journal, notes, journaling, trade-reflection **URL:** https://traderjournal.app/trading-journal/what-to-write-in-notes-field-every-trade --- # What to Write in the Notes Field of Every Trade Most traders either write nothing in their trade notes or write something so vague it is useless during review. "Took the setup." "Market moved against me." "Good trade." These entries exist but contribute nothing to your learning. Here is what to actually write. --- ## The Core Question Your Note Should Answer A useful trade note answers one question: if you read this note six weeks from now without looking at the chart, would you understand what happened? If yes, the note is good. If not, it needs more. --- ## The Setup Description Start with a brief description of what you saw that made you enter. Be specific about the technical conditions: Poor: "Entered a breakout." Better: "Entered a breakout of the 4-hour range that had been forming for 3 days. The breakout candle closed above the resistance at 1.0875 with volume confirmation." The second version tells you the timeframe, the duration of the pattern, the specific price level, and what confirmation you saw. All of this is useful context during review. --- ## Your Directional Reasoning Why did you expect price to move in the direction you traded? This does not need to be a full market thesis, but it should include the primary reason: "Higher timeframe trend is clearly bullish - daily chart shows a series of higher highs. This is a trend continuation entry." Or: "Price has been in a range for two weeks. This entry is a fade of the range high after a failed breakout attempt yesterday." One or two sentences is enough. --- ## Your Confidence Level An honest note about how confident you felt at entry is surprisingly useful in retrospect. "Moderate confidence - the setup was clean but I am slightly unsure about the timing relative to tonight's Fed announcement." When you review losing trades, understanding that you had reservations at entry teaches you to either respect those reservations more or to ignore them more rationally. Either way, the information is useful. --- ## What Actually Happened After the trade closes, add a brief description of how it developed: "Price moved immediately in my direction for 20 pips then consolidated. Held through the consolidation, eventually hit TP." Or: "Price moved in my favor initially then reversed sharply after the ECB announcement. Hit stop loss." This is the trade narrative. It contextualizes the outcome. --- ## What You Would Do Differently This is optional but high-value. One sentence on what you would change if you were taking this trade again: "I would have waited for the 4-hour candle to close rather than entering on the 15-minute confirmation. The entry price was 8 pips worse than ideal." Over time, these "would do differently" notes reveal your most consistent execution weaknesses. --- ## Note-Taking Speed Guidelines Full notes like the above take 2-3 minutes. For most traders, that is realistic after each trade. For scalpers or high-frequency traders, a shortened format works: **Setup code - context - outcome** Example: "MOB / EUR session, clean break / TP hit on first push" This takes 10 seconds and still provides categorizable, reviewable information. --- ## The Minimum Acceptable Note On bad days, when you do not have the energy for full notes, write at minimum: - One word for the setup type (as a tag) - One word for how you felt entering (optional) - One sentence on the outcome if it was unusual "Pullback entry. Reversed after news spike that I should have avoided." That is enough. The trade data handles the numbers. This small amount of context is the difference between a record you can learn from and a record that is just a list of prices. --- Build your note-taking habit alongside automatic trade sync. Download Trader Journal at android.traderjournal.app or ios.traderjournal.app.