For about two months I swapped my typed end-of-day journal for voice notes after the NY close. Here is the comparison.
Voice notes, the good side: much faster. I could record three minutes while tidying the desk, and I talked more freely about how I felt during the session. Things came out that I would never bother typing, like "I was irritated from 09:15 onwards and I think it was the first loss".
Voice notes, the bad side: almost impossible to review. On Sunday I did not want to listen to five recordings of myself rambling. Searching for "the day I moved my stop on cable" meant scrubbing through audio. And numbers spoken aloud got lost; I stopped recording R values properly.
Typed journal: slower and drier, but searchable, easy to scan, and the numbers stay in columns where a spreadsheet can use them.
What I settled on: a typed entry with the hard data for every trade, done straight after the session, plus an optional voice note of a minute or two on days when something emotional happened. I transcribe the voice note in one sentence into the typed journal, so the important part is searchable.
If you struggle to keep any journal going, voice notes are better than nothing. For reviewing, typing wins.
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Voice notes vs typed journal after NY close
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LondonScalper
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Shadow Trader
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Re: Voice notes vs typed journal after NY close
LondonScalper, the one sentence transcription is the clever part. I tried voice notes for a few weeks last year and dropped them for the same reason you describe, because nobody wants to listen back to a week of their own tired voice.
What worked better for me was a fixed prompt before recording. I answer three questions out loud in under two minutes: when did I first feel off, what trade followed, and would I take that trade again tomorrow.
Because the questions never change, the transcription is quick and the notes line up week to week. After a month I could see that most of my bad afternoons started with a loss before 09:30, which matches your 09:15 example almost exactly.
Phone dictation also helps with the numbers problem. I say the R value as part of the first sentence and the phone types it, so it lands in the journal without me having to remember it later.
Do you tag the days that got a voice note? I mark them with a V in the spreadsheet, and filtering on that column has turned out to be a useful review by itself.
What worked better for me was a fixed prompt before recording. I answer three questions out loud in under two minutes: when did I first feel off, what trade followed, and would I take that trade again tomorrow.
Because the questions never change, the transcription is quick and the notes line up week to week. After a month I could see that most of my bad afternoons started with a loss before 09:30, which matches your 09:15 example almost exactly.
Phone dictation also helps with the numbers problem. I say the R value as part of the first sentence and the phone types it, so it lands in the journal without me having to remember it later.
Do you tag the days that got a voice note? I mark them with a V in the spreadsheet, and filtering on that column has turned out to be a useful review by itself.