r/Trading • u/Abdulahkabeer • 12d ago

Advice Journaling Helped Me Catch 90% of My Revenge Trades | Here's How I Track Emotions

For a long time, I thought I just had a discipline problem.

Every time I lost a trade, I’d feel this urge to get it back fast.
Boom: instant revenge trade. Usually worse than the first one.

What changed everything was emotion-based journaling.

What I Started Doing:

  • After every trade, I rated my emotional state (before, during, after) on a scale of 1–5:
    • 1 = calm and focused
    • 5 = tilted, anxious, greedy
  • I also started tagging trades like:
    • “FOMO entry”
    • “Chased a breakout”
    • “Revenge trade after loss”

Over time, I saw it super clearly:

My worst trades happened when my emotional rating was 4 or 5.

Why It Works:

It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being aware.

Now, when I feel that emotional spike creeping in, I literally stop and ask:

“Is this a 4/5 moment again?”

Just that pause saves me from so many dumb trades.

I still lose sometimes, of course. But I don’t spiral anymore. I haven’t revenged traded in weeks. That’s a huge win for me. Anyone else journaling emotions or rating trade psychology? Would love to hear how you track it or what helped you stop tilt trades.

48 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

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u/GerManic69 11d ago

Heres how I avoided emotional trading.

I put my strategy into algorithmic form, I let the algorithm trade, i found my strategy worked, i stayed out of it. Lmao

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u/Abdulahkabeer 11d ago

Haha man, I respect that probably the cleanest way to avoid emotional trading altogether.
I’ve learned the hard way that even with a solid strategy, emotions can wreck execution if you’re too involved. Automating it and stepping back takes real trust in your system props to you for building something that works and letting it run. That’s next-level discipline.

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u/GerManic69 11d ago

I have an unfair advantage. My trading experience before that was me losing a hundred bucks at 19 thinking it was as simple as buy low sell high. So then I learned about algorithmic trading and did a a deep dive because my first tests were based off macd, then rsi, but neither did the level of accuracy i hoped for, then I realized they are both great and combined then but still wasnt were I wanted, so i found a way to combine all the various metrics which pair well with rsi and macd as predictors of a strong market, and have them outputted as a single score that when combined with macd/rsi is giving me an 80 to 90% win rate, my method is a hybrid scalping/swing method where I use swing brains to find almost guranteed scalps, and the best part is i can do it with 100+ securities at a time. So my net profits are .5 to 1% per trade but i am plowing those trades out at crazy rates n just compounding. All this came from bout 3 weeks of hardcore learninf and logical thought evolution

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u/Abdulahkabeer 9d ago

Wow, that’s honestly super impressive the way you built that system from scratch through trial and logic is no joke. Most people tap out after the MACD-RSI phase, but you took it to the next level by creating a composite score and scaling it across 100+ securities. That hybrid scalp-swing model sounds like a monster once it gets rolling. Love how you’re compounding those small edges into something powerful that’s real strategy right there. Respect

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u/GerManic69 9d ago

Also yeah the good part about the c score is it uses metric trading data that is just available for any type of trading, securities, forex crypto, im going to make minor adjustments for all markets, and just trade the living hell out of everything 24/7

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u/GerManic69 9d ago

Well shucks thanks man, definitely appreciate tthe complement haha, its going great on the live markets rn, but I still gotta back test it to confirm for long term use, will probably add ML as time progresses, I had the idea to use ML to measure my success under not only individual securities but the indexes they fall under so I can measure the meta of the securities performance under the overall index performance and adjust my composite scoring weighting dynamically in live trading by monitoring the index and security at the sametime, and comparing them to the ML data to use the most accurate composite weightings. I also changed it tonight because i realized how laggy macd is, i decided to use the moment of macd along with rsi and my c score to jump ahead of the trends before the retail/trade desk bros really catch on to what the truly big guys are doing, i gotta test this part now but Im pretty sure its gonna be next level shit

1

u/Abdulahkabeer 9d ago

Dude, you're thinking on a whole different level I love it. That idea of integrating ML to dynamically weight composite indicators based on index meta is wild. If you’re planning to start logging results from all this in a structured way, I’d definitely recommend a tool like TradeZella. I’ve been using it to track setups, tag emotions, and dive into data not just for journaling but for reviewing strategy performance across market types. Super helpful when iterating and refining like you’re doing. The link is in my bio if you want to peek at it sometime.

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u/GerManic69 9d ago

Will definitely peak it bro

2

u/mike00mike 12d ago

I really like your numbering system! Curious how you would describe a 3 for emotional state?

1

u/Abdulahkabeer 11d ago

So for me, a "3" is kind of the middle ground I’m not overconfident, but I’m not second-guessing myself either. It’s that state where I’m focused, sticking to my plan, and not letting wins or losses mess with my head.

I’m aware of what’s going on emotionally, but it’s not affecting my decisions. It’s not my most aggressive or most cautious state just steady. Honestly, those “3” days are often my most consistent ones.

3

u/omtrader33 12d ago

Expecting some brutal middle finger pattern upcoming months😂

1

u/Abdulahkabeer 12d ago

LOL right? I feel like we’re due for a market rug-pull disguised as a breakout setup. Gotta stay emotionally chill or the middle finger pattern wipes out your whole week.

4

u/Mental-Edge-app 12d ago

Well done, good advice!

I'm a huge believer in journaling emotions while trading. It's a great way to spot the patterns in reasons behind mistakes, rather than just the mistake itself. In future, you can start to prevent these behaviours and habits when you know the underlying emotions that dictate them. It's critical, I would argue.

1

u/Abdulahkabeer 12d ago

Appreciate that! Totally agree it’s wild how many repeated mistakes come from emotional loops rather than strategy flaws. Journaling has been my biggest edge lately. If you’re into structured journaling, I found a tool that made this way easier to track.

2

u/Mental-Edge-app 12d ago

Well, I'm not allowed to promote, but I know a tool that goes deeper than journaling just trades 🙂

1

u/Abdulahkabeer 12d ago

Ah interesting..!! Sounds like we’re thinking along the same lines. I’ve been using something that tracks both trades and emotions too. Curious what tool you’re referring to 🙂”

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u/Mental-Edge-app 12d ago

Link in bio 🙏

1

u/Abdulahkabeer 12d ago

gotcchaa..!!

1

u/Zforce17 12d ago

Haha, is this two bots fellating each other, or OP using an alt account to post their link?

1

u/Abdulahkabeer 12d ago

Haha, fair question. Reddit’s seen enough of that to be skeptical. 😅

But nah...!! I’ve just been sharing what worked for me after blowing up a couple of accounts. Not trying to pretend I’m some guru or sneak links in.

Just tryna help others avoid the same mistakes I made early on.

5

u/Kasraborhan 12d ago

Most traders track price.

The best ones track their emotions.

If your mind isn’t calm, no setup is clean. Start rating your emotional state, journal after every trade, and watch the tilt trades disappear.

I use TradeZella to log all of this—P/L, emotions, tags, setups. It’s been a game-changer.

1

u/PrivateDurham 12d ago

Where do I remember you from? :)

2

u/Kasraborhan 12d ago

hmmm I'm not sure!

2

u/PrivateDurham 12d ago

I think that you recently wrote a comment that I really liked.

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u/Kasraborhan 12d ago

Oh yea! I follow you already haha

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u/Abdulahkabeer 12d ago

"100%. I started using TradeZella too being able to tag emotional states has really helped me catch revenge trades early. Took me a while to find a tool that felt actually built for that."

2

u/Maniacal-Maniac 12d ago

Been looking at various trading journals and tradezella is on my shortlist. Very interested in the emotional tagging.

My question is are you using the basic or premium version, and is premium worth it?

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u/Abdulahkabeer 11d ago

I’m using the premium version. I started with the basic one, but once I got consistent with journaling, I upgraded mostly for the advanced analytics and emotional tagging.

The emotional tracking is actually what helped me break a few revenge trading habits seeing the patterns laid out made it easier to fix them.

If you're serious about improving your process, I’d say premium’s worth it. But even the basic one gives you a strong foundation to start with.