Using the Trading Journal: R Multiples, Session Tags, and Mistake Tracking

Every serious evaluation plan includes a review habit, and every review habit dies the moment it depends on manually copying trades into a spreadsheet. A trading journal prop firm traders will actually maintain has to be automatic. The MyFundedPerps journal does exactly that: every trade you close on a challenge account appears on the dashboard journal with entry and exit prices, size, leverage, fees, funding, and close reason already filled in. There is no manual trade entry and nothing to sync. Your job is only the part that cannot be automated: the review.

This article covers what gets logged, how R multiples work, how to use session and hold-time tags, and a workflow for mistake tracking that turns the journal from a receipt list into an edge.

What is logged for every trade

A journal trade is one complete position lifecycle, from open to fully closed. Each row shows:

• Close time, market, side, and leverage.
• Entry size and lifecycle entry/exit prices (volume-weighted when the position filled in parts).
• Hold time with an automatic bucket.
• A session tag derived from the entry time.
• Net P&L (realized P&L minus fees, plus funding).
• R multiple, when the trade has one.

The automatic classifications use fixed definitions, which is what makes them useful for filtering later:

Because session tags are derived from entry time in UTC, they stay consistent across daylight saving changes, unlike New York local time, which is what the daily loss reset uses. Our trading the New York reset article covers that boundary separately.

R multiples: risk-normalized results

The R multiple expresses net P&L as a multiple of the risk you defined at entry: the distance from your entry price to the stop loss attached when the order was placed, times the entry size. A trade that nets twice its initial risk is +2R; one that loses its full risk is around -1R after fees.

Three rules govern when a trade has an R multiple at all:

• A trade only has an R when a stop loss was attached to the entry order.
• Trades without an attached stop, and trades opened before the feature shipped, show no value instead of an estimated one.
• Moving the stop after entry does not change the recorded initial risk.

The practical consequence: if you want R statistics on your trading, attach your stop at entry, every time. That is already the discipline a 3% daily loss limit demands (see position sizing for funded perp accounts and myfundedperps-daily-loss-limit), and the journal now rewards it with clean data. A month of trades with R multiples tells you your expectancy directly; a month without them tells you almost nothing.

The trade review page

Selecting any row opens a dedicated review page. It leads with a candlestick chart of the trade's hold window: entry and exit are marked on the candles, and the entry, exit, initial stop, and initial target are drawn as horizontal lines. The chart picks a candle interval that fits the hold, from one-minute candles for a scalp up to daily candles for a long swing.

Trade facts (prices, fees, funding, initial stop and target, hold time) are read-only. What you add is the analysis:

• Notes: free-form text, up to 2,000 characters.
• Setup: a short label for the strategy or pattern.
• Tags and Mistakes: separate lists, up to 12 of each, added with Enter. Both inputs suggest labels from your recent entries, so a recurring setup or mistake keeps one consistent name.
• Execution rating: 1 to 10. Ratings saved on the earlier 1 to 5 scale are shown doubled so they stay comparable.

Select Save Journal to store the entry; a confirmation appears when the save lands. Clearing every field and saving removes the entry and returns the trade to the review queue. Only closed trades can be journaled, and only the account owner can write entries.

Mistake tracking that actually changes behavior

The separation of Tags and Mistakes into two lists is deliberate: errors stay visible instead of dissolving into a generic tag cloud. A workable convention:

• Use Tags for neutral context: the setup family, market condition, news window, planned versus unplanned.
• Use Mistakes for process violations only: moved stop, oversized, chased entry, traded the restricted news window, revenge entry after a loss.

Keep the vocabulary small. Because inputs suggest your recent labels, five to eight mistake labels reused consistently beat thirty creative one-offs. Once a label has a dozen occurrences, you can filter the table on it and see the exact P&L cost of that habit. That number, not willpower, is what fixes it. If news windows are a recurring mistake, the funded-account windows are laid out in myfundedperps-news-trading-rules.

Working through the review queue

The review page has Previous and Next controls that step through recent trades in close order, and Save & Review Next stores the current entry and jumps straight to the next trade awaiting review. The journal table shows how many trades are awaiting review, and the Review filter narrows the table to just those.

A sustainable routine: review every trade the same day it closes, tag first and write notes only on trades that taught you something, and do a weekly pass filtering by session and hold time to check whether your Asia session or your scalps are quietly negative. The performance tiles and P&L calendar use the same analytics ranges as the Performance page.

Filters, history depth, and export

Filter the table by session or review state, or search it. The table loads the most recent trades first and pages backward on demand, up to the most recent 200 trades.

For deeper analysis, Download CSV exports the account's complete journal history: every closed trade, not just the loaded rows, with trade facts, calculated results, review status, setup, tags, mistakes, execution rating, and notes. That export is the right input for expectancy by setup, mistake cost analysis, or a pre-payout review of whether your recent trading still matches the plan that passed the evaluation.

Sharing a trade publicly

Turn on Public Trade from a trade's review page to create a public, read-only link. Anyone with the link sees the trade facts, chart, and saved journal entry; they cannot edit anything. Challenge account identifiers and owner identity are not included in the public view. Use Copy Link after enabling visibility, and turn Public Trade off at any time to revoke access immediately. Trades are private by default, and clearing a journal review does not change the visibility choice.

Frequently asked questions

Does the MyFundedPerps trading journal require manual trade entry?

No. Every trade you close on the selected challenge account appears automatically with prices, size, leverage, fees, funding, and close reason from your trading history. There is no manual entry and nothing to sync; you only add the review layer.

Why does a trade show no R multiple?

A trade only has an R multiple when a stop loss was attached to the entry order. Trades without an attached stop, or opened before the feature shipped, show no value rather than an estimate. Moving the stop later does not change the recorded initial risk.

How are session tags assigned?

From the entry time using fixed UTC windows: London is 07:00 to 13:00 UTC, New York is 13:00 to 21:00 UTC, and everything else is tagged Asia. Hold time is bucketed as Scalp (under 15 minutes), Intraday (under 24 hours), or Swing (24 hours or longer).

How far back does the journal go?

The table pages backward through your most recent 200 trades. The Download CSV export contains the account's complete journal history, every closed trade with facts, results, and your review data.

Can I share a journal trade without exposing my account?

Yes. Enable Public Trade on the review page to create a read-only link showing the trade facts, chart, and journal entry. Challenge account identifiers and owner identity are excluded, and you can revoke the link at any time.