How to Journal Your Trades: A Day Trader's Daily Routine

The complete daily routine George runs on every live session… keep it open, log it in the moment, read it out loud.

From the free MicrosTrader Trading Library… 140 lessons mined from 1,042 live ES and MES futures sessions taught since 2018.

Journaling your trades means keeping a running record of every position you take: a screenshot of the chart, notes on why you entered, where your stops moved, how you managed it, and how you felt while it was live. You do it in the moment, while the details are fresh. Then you read it back out loud so it actually sticks.

This page gathers everything George teaches about the trade journal across hundreds of hours of live ES E-mini futures and MES micro futures sessions… when to write, what to capture, how to tag and grade a trade, and the one trick that makes any of it stick. Journaling ranks as the single hardest habit to get traders to do. Here is the routine that makes it painless.

“"And it should be open all day while you are trading so you can make notes throughout the day."”

— George, live session, May 26, 2025

ES futures Battle Plan chart from George’s published record

From George’s published record: ES & MES Futures Trade Plan #340 — a 70+-point move, mapped in advance.

Keep the Journal Open All Day

Start here, because it fixes almost everything else. George opens his trade journal first thing and keeps it up through the entire session. He treats it like a cockpit instrument.

Why does this matter so much? Because the alternative fails every single time. Reconstruct a whole day of trades from memory at the close and you lose the details that actually teach you something. George says it flat out… "Don't rely on journaling at the end of the day. You really want to do it throughout" (May 26, 2025). Journaling while you trade is the best practice, full stop.

“"I do like having my trade journal up all day long, start the day with it."”

— George, live session, Nov 14, 2024

George has taught this in 45+ recorded sessions… and every claim in the full lesson links to the recording it came from. The full lesson covers far more than fits here.

Read the full lesson free at MicrosTrader.com →

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📍 Originally published on MicrosTrader.com

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