Part 5 · Chapter 6 · Final Chapter

Building a Trading Plan & Journal

AT A GLANCE

A written plan and journal make trading repeatable. You'll set goals, rules, and review habits to improve faster and avoid emotional decisions.

Trading PlanTrade JournalWeekly ReviewsBehavioral PatternsPlan Compliance

Who Is This For?

  • Traders seeking consistency and accountability
  • Anyone recovering from impulsive trading habits

Learning Objectives

  • 1.Draft a trading plan with setups, risk rules, and markets
  • 2.Journal trades with entry/exit rationale and emotions
  • 3.Run weekly reviews to refine strategies

Congratulations — this is the final chapter of the CryptoLens Academy! Everything you've learned across 30 chapters — blockchain, DeFi, tokenomics, TA, risk management, and more — comes together in your trading plan. This is where knowledge becomes practice.

Section 1

Crafting Your Plan

A trading plan answers three questions before you ever open a trade: What do I trade? How do I trade it? When do I NOT trade?

📋 Interactive Trading Plan Builder

Plan Completeness0%
1. Markets I Trade

Select the markets you'll focus on. Fewer is better — mastery beats breadth.

2. Timeframes

Pick 1-2 primary timeframes. Higher timeframes = stronger signals, less noise.

3. Setups I Take

Define exactly which patterns/scenarios trigger a trade. If it's not on this list, you don't trade it.

4. Risk Rules
2%
3%
3
3x
5. When I Do NOT Trade

Knowing when to sit out is as important as knowing when to enter. Check all that apply:

Section 2

Journaling Structure

Every trade tells a story. Your journal captures it so you can learn from both wins and losses.

📓 Trade Journal Entry Template

Section 3

Review & Iterate

📊 Weekly Review Dashboard

Enter your weekly stats to see your performance metrics:

Win Rate
40%
Avg Win / Avg Loss
2.1R
Net P&L
+$280
Expectancy / Trade
+$28
Profit Factor
1.39
Plan Compliance
70%
✅ Positive expectancy with good plan compliance — your system is working. Keep collecting data.

🔍 Behavior Pattern Detector

Check any patterns you noticed in your trades this week:

✅ No negative patterns detected — excellent discipline! Keep it up.

🏆 Trading Process Scorecard

Rate your current trading process honestly. This is your baseline to improve from:

Process Score0%

🚨 Significant process gaps. Before focusing on strategy or analysis, build these habits. A great strategy with poor process still fails.

Watch Out

Common Mistakes & Gotchas

📋
I wrote a great plan but trade on 'gut feeling' when I see a juicy setup outside my rules
A plan you don't follow is worse than no plan — it creates false confidence. If you consistently take off-plan trades, either your plan is too restrictive (adjust it with data), or you lack discipline (reduce size until you build the habit).
🙈
I journal my winners in detail but skip logging losses — they're too painful to look at
Losses contain MORE useful information than wins. A win might be lucky. A loss reveals what went wrong — was it the setup, the sizing, the exit? Journaling only wins gives you a distorted view of your actual edge.
🔄
My system lost 3 trades in a row, so I'm switching to a completely new strategy
Three losses is noise, not signal. You need 30-50+ trades minimum to evaluate a strategy. Switching too fast means you never give any system enough data to prove (or disprove) itself. Stick to the plan, review monthly.
🫣
I had a terrible month but I'll skip the review — I already know what happened
Bad months are the MOST important to review. 'I know what happened' is usually emotional recall, not analysis. The data often reveals different problems than what you assume. Maybe your setups were fine but your sizing was too large.

📋 Golden Rule: Trading is a process, not a prediction game. The traders who last aren't the ones with the best calls — they're the ones with the best habits. Plan the trade, trade the plan, journal the result, review and improve. Repeat.

Final Quiz

Knowledge Check

1

What should a trading plan include?

2

Why journal emotions alongside trades?

3

How often should you review your trades?

4

How many trades do you need before evaluating a strategy?

5

What's the most valuable thing to journal about losing trades?

🎓

Academy Complete!

You've completed all 30 chapters across 5 parts of the CryptoLens Cryptocurrency Academy. From blockchain fundamentals to building your trading plan — you now have the knowledge to approach crypto markets with confidence and discipline.

⛓️
Part 1
Blockchain Basics
✓ 6/6
📊
Part 2
Investor Essentials
✓ 6/6
🏦
Part 3
DeFi Deep Dive
✓ 6/6
🪙
Part 4
Tokenomics
✓ 6/6
🎯
Part 5
Use Cases
✓ 6/6
Immediate action: Create your trading plan using the builder above and journal your next three trades
Ongoing habit: Review your journal weekly, identify one pattern to fix, and adjust your plan
Stay updated: Visit CryptoLens for research reports, market analysis, and advanced strategies