# Trade journal template (NQ Stack — education only)

Copy this file for each trading day. Backtests are hypothetical; your journal is how you find out what *you* actually do. Not financial advice.

## Daily header
- Date:
- Account (personal / prop eval / prop funded / sim):
- Account size at start of day ($):
- Daily loss limit I set ($):  — Did I stop at/before it? (y/n)
- Strategies I am following today:
- High-impact news today (ET):
- State before trading (sleep / stress / focus, 1–5):

## Pre-trade checklist (tick before every entry)
- [ ] The signal matches the written rules exactly (no "it looks close")
- [ ] I am flat — no other strategy is in a trade (one position at a time)
- [ ] Within the strategy's entry window / not after the cut-off time
- [ ] Contract count from my sizing table (micros/minis) — not "a bit more"
- [ ] Stop is placed immediately after the fill (bracket / OCO)
- [ ] I know where the flat-by-close / time exit is
- [ ] Daily loss limit not hit

## Trade log (one block per trade)
- Strategy / instrument / contract (e.g. NQ Connors RSI Reclaim · MNQ):
- Direction:
- Signal time (ET) / entry fill time (ET):
- Signal-bar close price vs. my fill (slippage in ticks):
- Stop price / planned risk ($) / contracts:
- Exit price / time / reason (stop, trail, opposite signal, time-of-day flat, manual):
- Net P&L ($, after fees):
- Followed rules? (y/n) If no, why:
- Signals I skipped because I was already in a trade (list):
- What I felt before / after (1–5) and one sentence why:

## End-of-day review (3 minutes)
- Net P&L today ($):
- Rule breaks (count) and what triggered them:
- Best decision / worst decision:
- Anything to bring to the weekly review:

## Weekly review (use the weekly validation report next to it)
- Net P&L / max intraweek drawdown ($):
- Live results vs. the strategy's backtest: trades taken, win rate, average slippage
- Did the validation report change any strategy's status (Pass / Watch / Flagged / Removed)? What will I change (nothing / size down / stop following)?
- Rule-break count this week vs. last week:
- Current drawdown from my equity peak ($, %) — am I inside the budget I sized for?