Cadet · Cadet Field Skills · About 25–35 minutes
Safety rule: Never edit your original decision after you learn whether the trade won or lost.
Your mission today
By the end you can log a complete demo trade, including the planned loss, actual result and rule compliance.
Before you start
Bring your F03.2 written plan, a demo chart and an empty journal page. Every trade and price below is imaginary.
1. A trading journal is a record, not a trophy shelf
A pilot's logbook records completed flights, not just flights with perfect weather. A trading journal serves the same purpose. It captures what you knew and what you decided before an outcome existed. A journal that contains only winning screenshots is not useful. It hides losing attempts, confusing decisions and opportunities that you correctly skipped. Start with a dated entry and the exact instrument. EURUSD may be a currency pair on a chart, but the broker contract behind the symbol also matters. Record whether you used a demo or live account. For this lesson, use demo only. Add the account currency and platform timezone because a timestamp without a timezone can mislead another reader. Finally, record the version of your written plan. Without a version, you cannot tell whether later rules were applied to an earlier decision.
2. Record the planned loss before the outcome
Imagine a fictional EURUSD long. The first executable Ask is 1.08520, and the protective stop is at Bid 1.08420. The planned price loss is 10 pips. At an invented position value of $1 per pip, that is −$10 before additional costs or poor fills. Write that number down before showing yourself the next candle. Now suppose the stop fills at 1.08420 and a separate $0.60 commission applies. The actual net result is −$10.60, under these simplified assumptions. If instead a later Bid exit had reached 1.08670, gross price profit would have been +15 pips, or +$15, before commission. That is a separate imagined outcome, not a prediction. Do not rewrite the entry, stop or plan after seeing the result. Preserve what the student honestly knew at the first decision.
3. The seven journal fields you really need
Use seven columns for your first week. The first is date, time and timezone. Second is product and contract details. Third is the chart evidence available at decision time. Fourth is the action: TRADE, WAIT or SKIP. Fifth is the planned quote-side entry, stop and cash risk. Sixth is what actually happened, including fills and costs. Seventh is whether you followed the written rules. The fill is the price at which an order actually executes; it can differ from the requested price. Keep the screenshot taken before the decision separate from the screenshot taken afterward. If the platform disconnects or a value is missing, mark UNKNOWN rather than rebuilding a plausible story from memory. A blank with an explanation is more honest than an invented number. Practise with five rows before considering anything more complicated.
4. Grade the decision and the result separately
Imagine two demo traders. The first follows every stated rule, limits risk to $10 and loses $10 at a normal stop. That is a losing financial outcome but may be a sound process decision. The second breaks a $10 risk limit, exposes $25 and earns $30. That is a positive financial outcome but a process breach. Your journal needs two separate judgements. Mark the money result in its own column and mark rule compliance in another. Process compliance means the action satisfied the written conditions that existed before the outcome. A single win does not prove the plan works. A single loss does not prove the plan is defective. Keeping both records will make future reviews more accurate and prevent lucky mistakes from becoming dangerous habits.
5. Record skipped trades as well as filled orders
A skip has no profit or loss, but it still contains a real decision. Suppose the demo EURUSD spread widens above your stated maximum of one pip. Write SKIP with the displayed Bid, Ask and timestamp. If the next candle moves favourably, resist the urge to delete the skip. The decision followed the original cost rule. Another case might be WAIT because the required M15 bar is unfinished. When it eventually closes, take a new screenshot and reassess the conditions. In a proper journal, these are two different entries rather than one reconstructed story. Count how many opportunities were offered, not just how many trades were placed. That helps you identify whether a written strategy is rarely available or whether your own execution needs practice. Both findings can be useful without risking money.
6. The weekly review is a small investigation
At the end of five demo sessions, sort your entries into four groups: followed plan and won; followed plan and lost; broke plan and won; broke plan and lost. Add a fifth group for justified skips. Do not treat the groups as proof of a profitable strategy. Their immediate value is showing whether you recorded enough evidence to explain each action. For every loss, recompute the pips and cash amount from the actual quote sides. Check whether commission was already included before subtracting it again. Choose one recurring process problem, such as late entries or missing timestamps. State a small, measurable improvement for next week's demo practice. Keep a copy of the original journal rather than editing the past to make your new habit look successful. A honest ten-row record beats a thousand screenshots with no decision time.
Common mistake
A learner saves a winning chart and adds a perfect-looking entry afterward. That entry was never visible in real time. Fix this by taking the first screenshot before revealing the outcome.
Plain-English glossary
- Journal: dated evidence of decisions, including skips and losses.
- Fill: the actual executed order price.
- Net result: price profit or loss after applicable charges.
- Process compliance: whether the action followed the written rules.
- UNKNOWN: a field that cannot be verified from available evidence.
Try it yourself
Create five demo journal entries. Include one hypothetical loss, one win, one WAIT, one SKIP and one invalid trade. Save before/after screenshots, the original decision timestamp, cash-risk calculations, actual cost assumptions and the compliance judgement.
What you can now do
- Explain the key concept without guessing a future market move.
- Calculate the loss before considering a possible gain.
- Document a TRADE, WAIT or SKIP decision using evidence.
Next lesson
F03.4 · Why Losing Feels Bad (And What to Do). Learn how to respond without changing your rules.
