Reviewing screenshots of trades I skipped

[FXS London Scalper]

Most journals only cover trades that were taken. A useful addition: take a screenshot whenever you see a valid setup by your rules and don't take it, with a one-line note on why.

After a couple of months, sort the folder into three groups:

• Good reasons: news within 10 minutes, spread too wide, daily limit already reached.
• Hesitation: usually after a loss.
• Noticed too late.

The hesitation group is the important one. For each, score what would have happened by your rules. If a good share would have reached the target, your real results are worse than your rules' results, not because of bad trades but because of missed good ones. A worked example: 10 hesitation skips, 6 of which would have made 1.5R and 4 lost 1R, is +5R you didn't take.

The late group tells you something different, usually that too many charts are open. Fewer pairs in the morning is the common fix.

Two cautions. Be honest about logging skips in real time; reconstructing them afterwards invites hindsight. And score them with the same rules as live trades, including costs.

Do others track missed trades? It's an awkward exercise, because you see money you didn't make, but it shows more about discipline than the taken trades do.