Trade Notes: Your Path to Better Trading
Most trading journals decide for you what matters and where you are allowed to write it. Journalit takes the opposite approach. Every trade note combines structured trade data with an open markdown workspace, so you get both clean analytics and a place to think properly.
Why trade notes matter
The note is not just a record of what happened. It is where the trade becomes reviewable, comparable, and useful for future decision-making.
Your Infinite Trading Canvas
What makes Journalit different is that each trade note gives you both structure and freedom.
Structured view at the top
Core trade data such as P&L, timing, setup, and execution context stays consistent across all notes.
Unlimited markdown below
Use the rest of the note for screenshots, reasoning, psychology notes, lessons, and anything else your workflow needs.
Your own analysis style
You are not trapped inside someone else's opinion of what a proper trade review should look like.
What this flexibility actually gives you
Unlimited screenshots and charts
Add as many visuals as you need without fighting note limits.
Embedded videos
Drop in execution footage or supporting recordings when that helps the review.
Custom sections
Build analysis blocks that match your own process, not a generic journal template.
Links and references
Connect trades to outside research, news, or contextual resources.
Markdown-native formatting
Use headings, lists, tables, quotes, and any other markdown structure that helps you think clearly.
Reusable templates
Create different note patterns for different trade types or review styles.
Bottom line
You get the consistency needed for analytics and the flexibility needed for actual learning.
Different Types of Trade Notes
The system creates different note types automatically depending on the trade state.
OPEN Trades
For positions still in progress, including time-in-trade context and ongoing adjustments.
CLOSED Trades
For completed trades with full P&L, execution details, and post-trade reflection.
MISSED Trades
For setups you identified but did not take, which is valuable for understanding missed opportunity and pattern recognition.
BREAKEVEN Trades
For trades that resolved flat and still deserve review when execution quality mattered.
Trade Editing Made Simple
You can edit trade details directly from the note instead of hunting across platform histories or spreadsheets.
Execution details
Update entry and exit prices, timing, size, and direction.
Costs and adjustments
Modify commission, swap, dividend events, and other realised cashflow items when needed.
Visual attachments
Add or remove screenshots directly from the trade note workflow.
Review metadata
Change setups, mistakes, tags, accounts, and custom fields without leaving the note context.
Automatic recalculation
Journalit recalculates P&L and updates related analytics automatically, so note edits stay consistent with your dashboards and reports.
Loss Review: Learning from Losses
Loss Review appears automatically for trades that close at a loss. The point is not to moralise losing. The point is to convert losing trades into useful, structured information.
What went wrong
Review entry quality, sizing, exits, and any breakdown in execution logic.
Emotional factors
Capture whether fear, greed, hesitation, frustration, or overconfidence affected the trade.
Rule violations
Identify which parts of your process were ignored or bent.
Lessons learned
Turn the loss into specific behavioural or tactical adjustments.
Instead of moving on from a bad trade with vague regret, you leave behind a review record that can be searched, compared, and aggregated later.
Customise the Loss Review according to YOUR needs
Open the Layout Builder to edit your win and loss review templates. Use it to customise the review questions, structure, and prompts.
Smart Navigation Between Trades
Trade notes are connected to the rest of your journal, so you can move through related context without manually browsing folders.
Same-day trades
Jump to other trades from the same day through the timeline view.
Daily Review
Move back to the DRC that planned or contextualised the trade.
Weekly and monthly reviews
See how one trade fits into broader performance patterns.
Yearly summaries
Place the trade inside longer-term performance history.
Visual Trade Analysis
Trade notes are not just text-heavy records. They are designed to preserve the visual context of the trade as well.
Screenshots
Keep your actual trade screenshots and supporting chart images organised with the note.
TradingView integration
Paste TradingView share links and let Journalit convert them into more useful image references.
Entry/Exit timeline
See a visual representation of how the trade was executed.
Performance metrics
Review immediate P&L, percentage movement, realised cashflow components, and position statistics in context.
Trade classification
Understand whether the trade was a breakout, reversal, continuation, or another tagged pattern.
These visuals are not decoration. They make it easier to recognise repeatable conditions in your best trades and warning signs in your worst ones.
Trade Note Structure
Trade notes combine key metrics, structured custom fields, and note content in one reviewable layout.
Custom fields section
Structured custom trade fields appear in their own section so they are easy to scan during review.
Key trade context
Top-level metrics, realised cashflow details, and thesis stay visible without forcing you to dig through the rest of the note.
Consistent note types
The same custom-field display approach is used across regular, missed, and backtest trade notes.
Trade Metadata That Matters
Metadata becomes powerful once it compounds across many trades.
Setup types
Track which technical or strategic patterns you traded.
Mistake categories
Measure recurring execution errors and see which ones cost the most.
Account attribution
Understand how the same trader behaves across different accounts or account types.
Custom tags
Create your own classification system beyond the defaults.
Dividend events
Record one or more dividend cashflow events on a trade when yield or corporate actions matter to realised performance.
Market conditions
Capture volatility, session, and news context that may influence outcomes.
Broker comments
MetaTrader users can review synced broker-side comments directly inside the trade metadata section when those comments carry execution or reconciliation context.
Review Status Tracking
Review tracking helps make post-trade analysis a real habit instead of a vague intention.
Reviewed vs unreviewed state
See clearly which trades have actually been analysed and which still need attention.
Discipline support
Stops important trades from disappearing into the archive without proper reflection.
Timestamped habit tracking
Journalit records when a trade was marked reviewed, which helps reinforce routine.
Integration with Daily Reviews
Trade notes do not exist in isolation. They connect directly to your Daily Review workflow.
Plan the trade in your DRC
Use the Daily Review to prepare ideas, scenarios, and intentions.
Execute and capture the trade
The trade note becomes the record of what actually happened.
Compare plan versus action
This is where the real edge often appears: the gap between what you planned and what you actually did.
Related page
You can find out more about the DRC in Review Notes.
Custom Fields for Your Trading Style
You are not locked into a fixed definition of what trade data should include.
Risk-reward ratios
Useful when your strategy depends heavily on target structure.
Time in trade
Useful for scalping, intraday execution studies, or patience analysis.
News events
Useful when macro releases or catalysts affect your setups.
Technical indicators
Useful for systematic or indicator-driven review processes.
Emotional state tracking
Useful when behavioural data is part of your review edge.
These custom fields feed back into review workflows and broader analytics rather than sitting as dead text. They can also appear in the dedicated custom fields section inside the trade note itself, which makes structured context easier to scan during review.
Related page
You can find out more about custom fields in Customisability via Settings.
The Bottom Line
Trade notes are not busy work
They are the layer that turns trades into usable intelligence. Without notes, wins and losses stay isolated events. With notes, they become a searchable, comparable system for improvement.
Trade notes help you identify what is working, what is not, and what specific changes are worth making next. The goal is not perfect trading. The goal is systematic reflection that makes future trading better.