Forex trading journal: find your edge by pair and session

In forex the same trader can be profitable on EURUSD in London and lose steadily on GBPJPY in the evening, and without records that difference stays invisible. Here is what a forex trading journal should capture, why results are better measured in R than in pips, and how Haunted turns those records into analytics for free.

What to record for every forex trade

A useful entry answers two questions: what happened and why you took the trade. The first part is factual: pair, direction, session, risk as a percentage of the account, planned R:R, outcome and net P/L after commission and swap. The second part is your reasoning: which model or idea the entry belongs to, what confirmed it, how you managed the position and a chart screenshot from the moment of entry. In Haunted all of this fits into one form: outcome, net P/L, R:R, risk, session, model, tags, notes and a screenshot you simply paste from the clipboard. It works in the browser on a computer and on a phone, so a trade can be logged straight after it closes, while the details are still clear.

Pips vs R: why risk units are the fairer measure

Thirty pips on EURUSD and thirty pips on GBPJPY are different amounts of money and, more importantly, different amounts of risk. Stops differ from trade to trade, lot sizes change, and a pip count says nothing about whether a result was good relative to what you put at stake. R solves this: 1R is the amount risked on the trade, so a trade that made twice the risk is +2R and a full stop is -1R regardless of pair or lot size. Measuring in R lets you compare a scalp on the euro with a swing trade on gold and see whether your average win actually covers your average loss. Keep net P/L in the journal as well, because commission and swap belong to the real result.

Trading sessions: Asia, London and New York

Liquidity and volatility in forex follow the clock. The Asian session is usually calmer and often forms a range; London brings the strongest moves in European pairs; the overlap of London and New York, roughly the early afternoon in London time, is typically the most active period of the day. Many traders discover that their edge exists in only one of these windows and that trades outside it eat the profit. To see that, tag every trade with its session. Haunted breaks down win rate, expectancy and P/L by session, so the difference shows up in numbers instead of impressions. Keep in mind that session times shift when daylight saving time changes in Europe and the United States.

Pairs, correlation and hidden double risk

Majors such as EURUSD and GBPUSD often move together, so a long on both is closer to one trade with double risk than to two independent trades. The same applies to several yen crosses during a risk-off move. A journal exposes this: if losing days regularly show two correlated positions closed at the stop, the problem is position sizing across pairs, not the entry model. Haunted shows results by pair, and that breakdown usually answers a simple question: which pairs you should stop trading. Spreads and swap also differ widely between majors, crosses and exotics, which is why net P/L per pair matters more than a raw win rate.

Reading the stats: win rate, expectancy and drawdown

Win rate on its own means little. Expectancy, the average result per trade in R, combines it with the size of wins and losses: with a 40 percent win rate and an average win of 2.5R, expectancy is 0.4 times 2.5 minus 0.6 times 1, which equals +0.4R per trade. A positive number over 50 to 100 trades is a reasonable sign of an edge, while ten trades are mostly noise. Haunted calculates expectancy, profit factor and win rate, draws the equity curve and drawdown and shows a calendar heatmap where weak weekdays become obvious. The scorecard rates you across six dimensions, so it is clear whether the weak point is the model itself or the discipline around it.

Getting trades into the journal

Haunted does not connect to brokers or to MT4, MT5 or cTrader, and it does not pull trades automatically. Trades are entered manually or imported: from a CSV file if you already keep history in a spreadsheet, or from Notion if your old journal lives there. Manual entry sounds slower, yet for a trader who takes a few trades a day it takes about a minute each and doubles as a review: you look at the chart again, write down why you entered and notice mistakes while they are fresh. One trade can be split across several accounts, so prop and personal accounts stay in a single journal without duplicates.

FAQ

What should a forex trader write in a journal?

Pair, direction, session, risk, planned R:R, outcome and net P/L after commission and swap, plus the model, a short reason for the entry, notes on management and a chart screenshot. That is enough to analyse results by pair, session and model after a few dozen trades.

Should I measure results in pips or in R?

Use R as the main measure, because it compares trades with different stops, lot sizes and pairs on the same scale. Pips are useful for describing a move, but not for judging the quality of a result. Keep net P/L alongside R to account for costs.

Can Haunted import trades from MT4 or MT5?

No. There is no broker, MT4, MT5 or cTrader integration and no automatic sync. Trades are entered manually, with screenshots pasted from the clipboard, or imported from CSV and Notion. Manual entry takes about a minute per trade.

Can I keep personal and prop forex accounts together?

Yes. Personal and prop accounts live in one journal, each with its own balance, and prop accounts also keep drawdown limits, targets, challenge stages and payout history. Analytics can be viewed across all accounts or filtered by a single account.

Is the forex trading journal free?

Yes. Haunted is entirely free, with no paid tier for the journal and no trial. Logging, analytics, prop accounts, backtests and share links are included. Registration takes under a minute with email or Google.