Keeping a "not taken" list: trades skipped and why

[FXS London Scalper]

Most journals record only trades taken. A short list of setups seen but not taken can be just as revealing.

What to record for each skipped setup:

• Time, pair, setup type.
• Why it was skipped: rules said no, fear, distraction, already at the daily limit.
• What happened afterwards: would it have hit target or stop?

What it can show:

• Skips for "fear" that would have worked often point to confidence problems after losses.
• Skips for "rules said no" that would have lost confirm the rules work.
• Many skipped good setups during certain hours might mean fatigue.

A caution: hindsight makes skipped trades look easier than they were. Record the decision at the time, not later.

A few weeks of this list usually gives something to work on.

Keep the list short to make it sustainable: one line per skipped setup is enough. After a month, sort by reason and look at the outcomes for each reason separately.

Do you track trades you didn't take?

[Amanhasnoname]

I started a skipped list after a week where I felt I was missing everything, and the list showed the opposite. Most of what I called missed trades were setups that broke one of my own rules, like entering within five minutes of a data release. When I looked at them afterwards, roughly half would have been losers anyway, so the filter was doing its job.

The category that taught me something was the fear skips. I had six of them in two weeks, all taken after a losing trade earlier that morning, and four would have reached target. That gave me a concrete reason to cut my size after a loss instead of freezing, so I now take the next valid setup at half size rather than skipping it.

On the hindsight problem, I write the decision in a single line before I look at the next candles, usually on my phone while the trade is still unfolding. Reading it back later keeps me honest about what I actually knew.