Trading Journal and Risk: Ten Short Answers

A trading journal is a record of the decision behind each trade, not only its numbers: what you planned before entering, why you took it, how much you risked, how you felt and how it ended. A broker statement keeps the entry, exit, size and result; only the journal keeps why you entered, where the stop went and whether you followed the plan, plus the trades you passed on. After a few weeks it shows which hour, setup or mood your losses cluster in. Start with these fields: date, instrument and direction, the planned entry, stop and target, the risk, the reason, and one word for how you felt.

• What a trading journal is and how to keep oneThe full guide: what to record, how a journal differs from a statement, and the five logging steps in Navrya.

You keep a trading journal by writing before the entry, after the exit, and reading it at a fixed weekly time. Before the order, note the planned entry, stop and target, the risk, the reason and one word for how you feel. After the exit, record the result in R and whether you followed the plan. Navrya's trade form has five steps, Status, Timeframe, What you saw, Emotions and Screenshot, and the calculator sizes the trade from your risk percentage. Budget a minute or two per entry, a minute per exit and half an hour of weekly review; days without trades count too.

• The trading journal guide, step by stepSetting up, planning in a session, logging a trade in five steps and reading what the journal says about you.

The academy's template guide starts with twelve columns: the date, symbol and direction; the entry, stop and target; the size and the exit; the result in R; the reason, the emotion before the entry, and the lesson. Fixed fields let the review sort and count trades. One of the four computed columns is the result in R, (exit − entry) ÷ (entry − stop), which reads −1 when the stop is hit and needs a stop recorded at entry. The academy's free Excel template has 27 columns, four of them formulas, plus a CSV for other apps. Download it, log skipped trades too, and test it for two weeks.

• Trading journal template for ExcelThe 27-column file, its four formulas, what each field is for, and where each field lives in Navrya.

An AI trading journal is a journal that reads a logged trade against your own plan, strategy and session and writes a review when you ask. Navrya is one: no signals, no predictions, no broker or exchange connection, no orders placed. It reads the trade's numbers, up to four screenshots, the session's scenarios, the strategy's rules and your analysis profile. It returns a summary, mistakes by area and severity, strengths, and each rule marked followed, broken or unclear. Its probabilities are estimates, not predictions, and not financial advice. Log one week without AI, then review a few trades for the mistake that repeats.

• What an AI trading journal readsExactly what Navrya sends to the model, what comes back, how a screenshot is read, and the limits.

You calculate position size by dividing the money you accept losing by what one unit loses at the stop. Risk per trade in money first; for example, 1% of $10,000 is $100. Put the stop where the idea is wrong and measure the distance. Find the cost of that distance on one unit: $10 per pip per lot on EURUSD. Divide: $100 ÷ (25 pips × $10) gives 0.40 lot. Round down, never up, and count spread and commission in the risk. Leverage changes the margin and the liquidation estimate, not the risk. Check it in the guide's position size calculator, and record the size you actually opened beside it.

• How to calculate position size, with a calculatorThe formula, worked examples for forex, yen pairs, gold, stocks and crypto, and the six most common sizing mistakes.

The risk reward ratio compares what a trade can lose, entry to stop, with what it aims to win, entry to target. Risking 25 pips to make 50 is 2R, written 1:2. The break-even win rate is the share of wins at which a ratio neither makes nor loses money, and it equals 1 ÷ (1 + R): 50% at 1:1, 33.3% at 1:2 and 25% at 1:3. With a 0.1R cost per trade, the 1:2 figure rises to 36.7%. Neither number means much alone. Write each closed trade's result in R and compare your real win rate with the line for your real average win.

• Risk reward ratio and break-even win rateThe break-even table, the effect of costs, expectancy, and a calculator for all three.

Revenge trading is an entry taken to win a loss back rather than because the plan called for it. Three marks give it away: it arrives faster than your usual rhythm, it is bigger than your usual size, and it skips at least one of your rules. You stop revenge trading with rules written before the session: a daily loss limit in R, a wait after any loss, a pause after a run of losses and no size increase. After a loss, one question before the next order: would you take this trade if the last one had won? If not, there is no trade.

• Revenge trading: how to stop the trade after a lossThe seven signs, example circuit breakers, the post-loss checklist and what to record.

Risk management in trading is three decisions before the market opens: how much one trade may cost, how far a day or the whole account may fall, and when you stop. Size follows from the first decision and the stop: (balance × risk per trade) ÷ stop distance in percent, so, for example, $10,000 at 1% with a 2% stop gives a position worth $5,000. Size to the stop, never the reverse, and never raise size after a loss. Navrya shows each rule's state and checks a trade against the day's allowance, but blocks no order and is not financial advice. Write your three numbers down before the next session.

• Risk management in trading: the three decisionsThe eight rules, what leverage changes, account rules, the pre-trade check and the tilt meter in Navrya.

A year-end trading review is a reading of twelve months of journal entries that produces five numbers and three decisions. The five numbers are win rate by setup, average R by setup, total R by session, the cost in R of your most-broken rule, and planned trades against unplanned ones. The three decisions are what to keep, cut and test next year. An annual trading review reads the journal, not the broker statement, because only the journal knows why each trade was taken. Do it after the year's last trade is logged, with the academy's free template, which computes the five numbers.

• Year-end trading review template and weekly routineThe five numbers, the three decisions, the xlsx template and the weekly loop that makes a year reviewable.

A trading psychology journal is a record of the feeling behind each trade, written while it is fresh. It needs four notes: the emotion before the entry, in one word, before you place the order; the emotion after the exit, within the hour; the rule followed or broken; and one sentence on next time, without blame. Pick six to eight words and use only those, so notes stay comparable. After a month, group the notes by emotion, count each group and find the feeling before your largest losses. The journal shows the pattern; changing it usually needs a plan you can follow on a bad day.

• Trading psychology journal: emotions after tradesWhat to write, when to write it, a small vocabulary, and how to read a month of notes.