Most traders who journal do it inconsistently. They log the winners in detail, write "bad trade" next to the losers, and stop journaling entirely after a rough week. The traders who actually improve from journaling do the opposite — they're most rigorous about documenting the losses and the rule violations, because that's where the patterns live.

Here's what to track on every NQ trade, and more importantly, why each field matters for actually improving your edge.

Pre-Trade Fields

These are recorded before you enter the trade. The discipline of writing them down before you pull the trigger is half the value.

// Context
DATE + SESSION TIME
Obvious, but critical for pattern analysis. You'll eventually discover you lose money consistently on Mondays or in the 11–12 window. You can't see that without clean date and time data on every trade.
PRE-MARKET BIAS
Bullish / Bearish / Neutral — and the level that defines it. This is your stated thesis before the open. Recording it creates accountability. If you took a short when your bias was bullish, you need to know that — and explain it.
DAY TYPE CLASSIFICATION
This is the most important pre-trade field for NQ specifically. Open Drive, Sweep Continue, Breakout Trap, or Rotation. Your strategy should be matched to the day type. If your day type was Rotation but you took a trend-following trade, that's a process error — regardless of whether the trade made money.
OVERNIGHT RANGE
Record the globex range in points. Reviewing this alongside trade outcomes helps you understand how your setups perform in different volatility environments.
// Trade Setup
SETUP TYPE
ORB breakout, VWAP reclaim, VWAP rejection, sweep entry, etc. Over time this shows you which setups have positive expectancy for you personally — and which ones you think work but don't.
CONTRACT (MNQ / NQ) + SIZE
Track exactly what you traded. If you sized up on a losing trade or sized down on a winner, you want to know that.
ENTRY PRICE + PLANNED STOP
Your planned stop — not where you actually stopped. This reveals whether you're taking trades with defined risk or entering without a clear invalidation level.
PLANNED TARGET
Where were you trying to get to? Tracking planned vs actual exit shows whether you're cutting winners short or letting losers run past your stop.

Post-Trade Fields

ACTUAL ENTRY / EXIT / STOP
What actually happened vs what you planned. The gap between planned and actual is where most traders lose money — slippage, emotion, and hesitation all live here.
P&L IN POINTS (not dollars)
Record points first, then dollars. This keeps your analysis clean if you change contract size over time, and it keeps your focus on execution quality rather than dollar amounts.
R:R REALIZED
Your actual risk-to-reward ratio on the trade. A 2R winner means you made twice your risk. A 0.5R loss means you held past your stop. Tracking R:R over 50+ trades tells you your real edge — not your win rate.
RULE VIOLATIONS (Y/N + DESCRIPTION)
The most important post-trade field. Did you follow your process? Moving a stop, adding to a losing position, entering without a clear setup, trading outside your defined hours — these need to be flagged explicitly. A trade can be profitable and still be a rule violation. A trade can be a loss and still be perfectly executed. Separating process from outcome is how you improve.
EMOTIONAL STATE (1–5 SCALE)
1 = disciplined and clear, 5 = frustrated, revenge trading, or overconfident. This is the field most traders skip because it feels unnecessary. It isn't. You'll find your worst trades cluster around 4–5. Knowing your emotional state before you enter a trade is risk management.
NOTES / SCREENSHOT
A chart screenshot with your entry, exit, and stop marked. One sentence about what you saw and why you took the trade. Review these weekly — you'll start seeing your own patterns faster than any coach could show you.

Weekly Review Fields

Once a week, aggregate your journal into these summary metrics:

// The insight most traders miss

Separate your P&L on rule-compliant trades from your P&L on rule violations. If your compliant trades are profitable but your overall P&L is negative, the problem isn't your strategy — it's your discipline. That's a completely different fix.

The NQ Trade Journal — Built for This System

The Comborb NQ Trade Journal is a structured spreadsheet pre-built with every field in this article, weekly review calculations, and performance charts that update automatically. Built specifically for NQ and MNQ day traders using day type classification.

$17 — one-time
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Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss.