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The Notebook of Mistakes (Story)

A composite story based on patterns many traders experience. Names are illustrative.

Let's call him Rotimi. Early in his trading journey, he kept a notebook with a single heading on the first page: "Mistakes I Will Not Repeat."

Whenever he made an error, he wrote it down with the date, what happened, why he did it, and what he'd do instead.

Entries looked like this: "Moved stop in gold because I felt nervous. Cost 2R extra. Next time, accept the loss." Or: "Traded after two losses because I was angry. Lost another 1R. Next time, close the platform."

At first, writing them felt like punishment. But after a few months, he began to see something. The same few mistakes appeared again and again. They weren't random errors. They were habits.

He started reading the notebook before each session. It wasn't pleasant, but it worked. Mistakes he'd read about just minutes earlier became harder to repeat.

After a year, the notebook had dozens of entries, but the new ones were rare. The old ones were crossed out with a note: "Fixed."

When a younger trader asked him for advice, he handed over a blank notebook and said: "Start here."

Your mistakes are expensive, so get something for them. Record them, read them, and watch them shrink.

I tried Rotimi's notebook idea for a few months. The rule that made it useful was writing the mistake as a specific action, not a feeling. "Moved stop wider after entry" is something you can catch next time. "Was impatient" isn't.

Rotimi also used to reread the notebook every Sunday, not just write in it. That's the bit most people skip. Writing it down helps a little, but rereading it before the week starts is what actually stops the repeat. He also added a tally next to each mistake every time it happened again. After a few months, three or four mistakes had most of the tallies, like entering before the candle closed and moving stops. Those went on a small card next to his screen. The rest of the notebook stayed as a record, but the card was what he looked at during the session.