Introduction to Trade Tracking/Journaling and
April 30, 2026
Long before I created SwingTradeBot, I was keeping a trading journal (inconsistently). I’ve actually been a paid subscriber to a few different journaling software systems over the years. In the early days of SwingTradeBot, I considered keeping a journal in SwingTradeBot, but it always seemed like too much work and too much of a distraction from my original core focus.
We’ve also fielded many questions/feature requests over the years regarding real-world transaction tracking. There was a forum thread about this and the following message from 2021:
And this is from 2018:
So this journal idea has always been in the back of my mind. Over the past few years, As AI-based coding gets better, And the more I used it, the more it suddenly didn’t seem so difficult to add journaling to the system. Most of this new content was written in a way that involved me giving somewhat detailed instructions to AI agents and having them implement them at warp speed.
I was also tired of entering my trades (portfolio positions) into SwingTradeBot and then re-entering them into an external trading journal software. So I decided to bring everything “home”. so…
SwingTradeBot is evolving
- Inventory scanner and signal services
- no way A complete system to improve your trading performance
What’s new
- Track every trade from entry to exit
- record why you went in and you went out
- Keep a diary of your thoughts while trading
- Performance analysis across all transactions
- Look where you’re putting your money on the table
- Measure whether your strategy is actually working.
your transaction feedback loop
🧩 New system (how it all fits together)
1. Trade Intelligence Layer (Foundation)
- Entry → Reduction/Reduction → Exit
- Reasons for entry and exit (structured tags)
- Journal notes (rich text, timestamps included)
- MFE/MAE (how the transaction performed during opening)
- Post-closing analysis (what happened after closing)
Why This Matters
- Did you leave too early?
- Did you follow your plan?
- What settings actually work?
- What habits are hurting you?
- trade journaling
- behavioral analysis
- Set up performance tracking
- End of quality assessment
2. Portfolio Intelligence Layer
- daily portfolio assets
- Cash Flow (Deposits and Withdrawals) — *** Coming soon!
- Flow Adjusted Return (TWR)
- maximum reduction
- equity curve
Why This Matters
- True performance over time
- Risk (not just returns)
- consistency
- decline (and recovery)
- Real performance tracking
- risk analysis
- a reliable indicator
3. Simulation and Coaching Layer (Next Steps)
- What happens if you stop making this mistake?
- What if we only exchange the best settings?
- How consistent is my strategy really?
- Monte Carlo Simulation
- Scenario testing (e.g. eliminating “FOMO trading”)
- Profit Factors and Expectation Analysis
- Behavior-Based Insights
- Decision support
- Habit correction
- a real advantage
big change
before
- stock search
- Find settings
- trading place
now
- Scan → Transaction → Analysis → Improvement → Repeat
From tools to systems
- Trade Journal → Action Engine
- Portfolio Tracker → Performance System
- Simulator → Decision Lab
Some examples of what you will see
- “Your ‘A+ Setup’ trade has a rate of return of 2.1.”
- “Trades tagged ‘scary – early’ are still up 4.3% after you liquidate them.”
- “Your average trade has a planned risk/reward of 2.5:1, but you are only capturing 0.8R.”
- “The best deals are open for five to nine days.”
Early Years — And What’s Next?
- More advanced performance metrics
- Strategy level analysis
- Deeper Behavioral Insights
- Simulation tools to test improvements before taking capital risks
why i made this
Try it
- Record your next trade in your SwingTradeBot portfolio.
- Please add your reason for participation/signal for participation.
- Track completion through task buttons/menus in the portfolio table.
- Then see what the data tells you.
Use our position size calculator to find out your trading parameters. Once you have that set, use the “Send to Portfolio” button to fill out the form to add the position to my SwingTradeBot Portfolio.
You will now see several new fields in that Add Portfolio form:
-
- Initial stop: It’s always been around, but now it’s important to input for R-multiple calculations and other post-trade analysis.
- Target price: It is used in the Performance Dashboard to analyze how well it “predicts” movement.
- Signal/Settings: You can enter the signal that is the basis for the item.
- Participation notes: Think of this as a way to tag (assign sentiment) transactions.
Once positions (trades) are added to the portfolio, they can be managed via the “Actions” button in the portfolio table. “Downsize,” “partial liquidation,” and “exit” actions are all recorded in a behind-the-scenes trading journal. Hitting the delete button will erase all traces of that location.
Clicking on the “View Transaction” action will take you to the transaction details page where you can see the following:
The bottom of the page looks like this:
And below that you can upload your own (possibly annotated) images. You can add up to 10 images per transaction.
At the top of the page there is a “Performance Dashboard” button.
We’ll take you to the heart of the journal, with tons of analysis. I won’t cover everything right now, but here are some screenshots. — Top of page:
A little lower:
And the bottom:
So I’m still tweaking things and will be adding more in the coming weeks. But I thought it was good enough to present and get feedback from a wider audience. We’ll talk more about the Transaction Details page and Performance Dashboard/Analytics page later. But now you can take a page tour to get an overview of what’s currently available on that page.
final thoughts
Journal Site Function Performance Analysis Portfolio Management Portfolio Trading Field
