This function is only available with the AgenaTrader Andromeda or higher versions of the trading platform.
AgenaTrader records each trade and keeps an automated trading journal. This enables you to clearly understand and evaluate trading behavior.
Workflow
- You can open your Trading Journal via Main -> New -> Trading Journal or by clicking the corresponding icon in the tool bar.
- Choose the criteria, you want to filter: You can activate one ore more entries, exits accounts, instrument types, time frames and direction (long / short). In case you do not choose anything in "Direction"-box, both long and short trades will be displayed.
- Specify, whether you want to filter for entry- or exit-time and define exact date and time for start and end point.
- Click "Show Journal".
Settings Menu
FAMILIAR FUNCTIONS:
- Entry
- Exit
- Accounts
- InstrumentType
- Direction
- TimeFrame
- Date From/To
NEW:
- Button: Show Journal
Click this button to load the trade journal with the affected settings.
- TRADE RATING (global)
You can evaluate your trades in the JournalTab using the Entry/Exit/TradeManagement Rating, from which the TotalRating for each trade is calculated. Here, the average of all TotalRatings is shown as the overall Rating of your trading. The more stars you achieve, the better you have stuck to your trading rules and the more positively you have rated your trades.
- Balance Change
Is the total profit/loss generated by all trades loaded in the journal.
| Available Columns | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Account | the account in which the trade was executed. |
| Exchange | Stock Exchange |
| Type | the instrument type (currency, stocks etc.). |
| Instrument name | name of the instrument. |
| Symbol | symbol of the instrument on the exchange. |
| Direction | long or short trade. |
| Timeframe | trade timeframe |
| Entry Time | date and time of the trade opening. |
| Entry reason | the entry strategy. |
| Entry price | price of the entry order. |
| Average Price | trade average price |
| Volume Open | Open position size |
| Exit time | date and time of exit. |
| Exit price | price at execution. |
| Exit reason | reason for the exit from the trade. |
| Initial Stop Price | If you have started a trade with the AT++ automatism, the price at which you have placed your initial stop is displayed. For discretionary trades, the initial stop can usually no longer be read and the display remains at 0.00. With the initial stop price, the RiskMultiples are measured in the PerformanceGraph, whereby 1 risk is defined as the distance between the entry and the initial stop price. |
| Volume Closed | Closed position size |
| Exit Currency | exit trade currency |
| P&L | profit or loss. |
| P&L % | The profit/loss as a percentage value of the current account balance at the respective time of the trade exit. |
| Max. Profit During Trade | This calculates the maximum profit that you could have extracted from the trade. The price development during the trade is analyzed and the maximum profit that could have been reached if you had exited at the high point is outputted. Note: partial exits are not taken into account; the maximum profit is calculated with the initial trade size. |
| Max. Loss During Trade | Calculation analogous to “max. profit during trade”, here pertaining to the maximum loss during the trade. |
| Strategy Tag | You can categorize trades with tags and then have the total P&L per strategy tag calculated in the later evaluation in the SummaryTag. In doing so, you can summarize several different signals of a strategy under one tag, giving you an overview of figures from the whole strategy. |
| Fees | incurred commissions. |
| Swap | amount you have to pay for financing overnight-short-positions or leveraged positions |
| Commentary | allows you to see the previously entered comments or add a new comment (a double-click will open an editor, where you can also insert images). |
| Entry Rating | Rate your entry into the trade. You can select a text preset or create your own text ratings in the settings window. Each text rating has a specific number of stars assigned to it; 5 stars is the highest. You can change the number of stars per text preset in the settings tab. |
| Exit Rating | Rate your exit from the trade; the principle is the same as the Entry Rating. |
| Trade Management Rating | Rate your trade management during the trade; the principle is the same as the Entry Rating. |
| Total Rating | Here you see the automatically calculated overall rating for your trade. Based on how you have rated your entry, exit and the trade management, the total score is determined here. This score cannot be changed directly, but instead only by changing the Entry/Exit/Trade Management Ratings. The average of all Total Ratings is displayed at the very top of the Trading Journal as a star rating. |
| Snapshot | The “Open” button opens a screenshot that is automatically created upon closing of the trade. You can set the chart template for the screenshot under Configuration Escort->Chart-> Snapshot Template. By right-clicking on the “Open” button, you can also delete a screenshot again if you wish. |
With a double mouse click on splitter bar you may open chart where selected trades was running:
Performance graph Tab
| Available Columns | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Amount | Shows your performance per trade in absolute numbers (in the currency that you have selected in the Configuration Escort->General) |
| Percent | Shows your performance per trade as a percentage value relative to the current account balance in the respective account in which the trade was carried out. The current account balance is always the account balance that was available on your account at the time of the closing of the trade. |
| Risk Multiple | Here, your performance per trade is outputted as a risk multiple. For an explanation of risk multiples, please read more under “Initial Stop Price”. In this graph, the generated risk multiples are displayed. |
| Use Daily Chart | When you activate “Use Daily Chart”, all your intraday trading activities on a daily basis are summarized. This means that per day, for the display, all trades that were closed on this day are accumulated. |
Indicators (TradingJournal+ Feature):
In the new TradingJournal, you can load any indicator to your equity curve, from which you can draw new conclusions, e.g. whether your equity curve is currently below the average or above it. This provides you with valuable new insights about your trading performance and its development.
Drawing objects (TradingJournal+ Feature):
Just like in a normal chart, you can also use all possible drawing objects in the Performance Graph.
Benchmark (TradingJournal+ Feature):
You can only activate the Benchmark function if you are using “Percent” as a display method and additionally activate “Use daily chart”. The Benchmark dropdown is then enabled, and you can choose from one of the biggest, most informative indices worldwide, which is then placed in the chart as a comparative marker. You can now rate how good your own performance is in comparison to the selected index. For the index as well as for your own trading result, the percentage changes are shown per day and can therefore be compared. If your percent equity curve is above the index, you have beaten the market. If you click and hold the left mouse button in the chart, you can view the value of your equity curve as well as the percent value of the Benchmark at any time in the DataBox, enabling you to also carry out more detailed evaluations.
Summary Tab (TradingJournal+ Feature):
| Available Columns | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Key Metrics | The core element of the TradingJournal is the rating of the trading figures – here you can examine all figures that have been calculated for all trades that you have loaded in the JournalTab. The calculation of the figures was taken from the backtest module; for a description of the individual values, please read more in the description of the backtest module. Backtest |
| Best Performers | Here, the 10 best and 10 worst instruments are listed, calculated for the net profit & loss per instrument. |
| P&L Trade Graph | This displays graphs that depict your profit & loss per day, per week, per month and per trade. |
| P&L Time Graph | This displays graphs that depict your profit & loss for every weekday and in periods of 2 hours at a time. Each of your trades is assigned to the weekday and the 2-hour interval in which it was closed. In the x-axis, you can see by the number in brackets how many trades have been assigned to the weekday/time span. These graphs make it very easy to closely analyze whether there are weekdays or time intervals in your trading that turn out particularly positively/negatively. |
| Win/Loss Graph | In this graph, you see the depiction of your ratio of profit-to-loss trades and overall profit to overall loss. |
| Long/Short Graph | In this graph, you see the depiction of how many long and short trades you have carried out. |
| Strategy Ranking | In the Strategy Ranking, you can right-click to select whether strategy tags should be used or not. If you activate “Use tags”, the P&L for all trades to which you have assigned the respective tag is shown cumulatively. In the second column, you also see the number of trades that were assigned to this tag. If you deactivate “Use tags”, the cumulative P&L and the number of trades for each entry signal traded at least once is displayed. All trades that were started without an AT++ strategy are displayed as “Discretionary”. |
Trade Collection Tab (TradingJournal+ Feature)
The TradeCollection is a “photo album” of your trades: a screenshot of all closed trades is automatically created, and then appears in the TradeCollection. In addition, all important information for every trade is displayed next to the screenshot. If you have already written comments on a trade in the JournalTab or in the TradesTab, these are synchronized and similarly displayed here in the comment field for every trade. The TotalRating, which you can assign yourself for every trade in the JournalTab, is also displayed here, so that you can see at a glance how you yourself have rated a trade. The TradeCollection gives you the opportunity to study and understand your trades after the fact in order to recognize errors and learn from them, which is one of the most important processes for a trader – whether beginner or pro.
Settings Tab
In this Tab you can set how many stars a specific rating should receive, in addition you can create your own rating-texts which you then can use for your trade-ratings in the JournalTab.