Write the reason before you enter; reasons written afterwards tend to fit the result.
Measure results in R, so trades of different sizes and markets compare fairly.
Review once a week on a day you are not trading, and change one thing at a time.
Why every trade
Memory keeps the big winners and the painful losses and drops the rest. A journal keeps all of them. After twenty or thirty trades it shows what your setups actually do, which markets suit you, and where you break your own rules.
Journal the trades you skip as well. A setup you passed on because it failed your checklist is part of the record: if skipped setups keep working, your checklist may be too strict; if they keep failing, it is doing its job.
A journal also slows you down in a useful way. If you have to write a reason before each entry, impulsive trades become harder to take, because “it looked like it was going up” is an uncomfortable sentence to write.
The journal card: ten fields
- Date and time, in UTC to match the Calendar tab.
- Symbol and direction, for example EURUSD buy.
- Setup name, such as “pullback to support in a 4h uptrend”.
- Reason, in one sentence, written before the entry.
- Entry, stop and take profit prices.
- Risk in dollars and as a percentage, for example $50 at 0.5%.
- Planned ratio, for example 1:2.
- Result in dollars and in R.
- Plan followed? Yes or no, and what changed.
- One lesson, in a single line.
Fill it fast with the Terminal
Take a Chart snapshot when you plan the trade and another when it closes. The two pictures show what you saw and what happened, without your memory editing either.
The History tab in the Positions / Orders / History panel holds the fills, so you can copy the entry, exit and result. Order value & limits shows the commission. The account panel shows today’s P/L and the trade count, which you can note at the end of each day next to how much of your daily loss limit you used.
Measure in R, not dollars
R is the result divided by the amount you risked. A trade that risked $50 and made $100 is +2R. A full stop is −1R. A trade closed early for $20 is +0.4R.
R makes trades comparable across markets and sizes. A week of +2R, −1R, −1R, +1.5R and −1R totals +0.5R. That tells you more than a dollar total, because it does not change when your account or risk changes. It also shows quickly when losses are bigger than −1R, which almost always means a stop was moved or skipped.
A weekly review
- Sort the week’s trades by setup name.
- Add up R per setup. Which ones paid, and which only cost?
- Count the trades where you did not follow your plan, and their total R.
- Check your days against your limits: on a $10,000 1-Step Challenge account the daily loss limit is $500. Did any day come close?
- Choose one change for next week, and only one.
Do the review on a day you are not trading, so the numbers guide the next week instead of the last trade.
Quiz
Check yourself
0 / 3
Lesson complete
Nice work. … of 15 lessons in Trading basics in the MyFundedCapital Terminal done.
MyFundedCapital School
Trading basics in the MyFundedCapital Terminal checklist
Rules as of 17 Oct 2026. Tick each line before your next session.
1. What is the difference between market, limit and stop orders?
- A market order buys at the ask and sells at the bid, so you pay the spread the moment you enter.
- A limit waits for a better price; a stop waits for price to prove a move. Neither is sure to fill.
- Add a stop loss before you send any order; the ticket shows what it costs against both loss limits.
2. How do you read a price chart?
- Each candle is one period: its body runs from open to close, its wicks to the high and low.
- Read top-down: direction on 1D or 4h, structure on 1h, entry on 15m or lower.
- Your planned stop shows on the chart as a line, so you see the risk before you send.
3. Which candlestick patterns should a beginner know?
- Body = open to close, wicks = the extremes. Long wicks show where price was rejected.
- A pattern counts only after its candle closes, and only at a level you marked earlier.
- Put the stop beyond the pattern’s wick and size the trade from that distance.
4. What are support and resistance levels?
- Mark levels on 1D and 4h first; they carry more weight than levels found on 1m.
- A broken resistance often turns into support on the retest, and the other way round.
- Stops go beyond the zone with a buffer; a stop on the line is where many others sit too.
5. How do you identify a trend in trading?
- Structure first: higher highs and higher lows up, lower highs and lower lows down.
- The higher timeframe sets the direction; the lower one only times the entry.
- A break of the last higher low puts an uptrend in question; it does not prove a reversal.
6. What are moving averages and how do you use them?
- The period counts candles, not days: a 50 EMA on 1h averages the last 50 hourly closes.
- Use the slope for direction and the line as a zone in pullbacks, not as a precise signal.
- Moving averages lag. Your stop still goes beyond structure, never just past the line.
7. What is the RSI indicator and how do you read it?
- RSI measures momentum, not value. “Overbought” is not a sell signal by itself.
- In an uptrend RSI tends to hold above the middle; in a downtrend below it.
- Use RSI to confirm a setup at a level in the trend direction, never alone.
8. What is the MACD indicator and how does it work?
- Above zero, the faster average is above the slower one: the trend leans up. Below zero, down.
- A shrinking histogram warns that momentum is fading before a crossover appears.
- MACD is built from moving averages, so it confirms; it does not predict.
9. How do you use the ATR indicator to set a stop loss?
- ATR measures how far price usually moves per candle. It says nothing about direction.
- A stop tighter than one normal candle is often hit by noise, not by a failed idea.
- When ATR rises, the stop widens and the volume shrinks. The dollars at risk stay the same.
10. How do you confirm a trading signal before you enter?
- A signal needs context, location and a trigger. One of the three alone is a guess.
- Use one tool per job; three oscillators agreeing are one opinion, not three.
- Expert advisors and trading bots are allowed only by agreement: write to support first.
11. What is the risk-reward ratio in trading?
- R:R = distance to the stop : distance to the take profit. Both come from the chart.
- At 1:2 about one winner in three breaks even before costs; at 1:1 you need one in two.
- Set the target at the next level. A ratio you want is not a ratio the chart offers.
12. Where should you place a stop loss?
- The chart sets the stop’s place; your risk per trade sets the size. Never the other way round.
- Every order should carry a stop; the ticket warns when the loss is not limited.
- Move a stop only in your favour, and only for a reason on the chart.
13. How do you size a position in the MyFundedCapital Terminal?
- Size from the stop and a fixed risk; the volume is the result, not the starting point.
- Risk % mode sizes from a share of equity and shows Risk at SL before you send.
- Fit to limits is a ceiling. Your own risk per trade is usually far below it.
14. What should you record in a trading journal for every trade?
- Write the reason before you enter; reasons written afterwards tend to fit the result.
- Measure results in R, so trades of different sizes and markets compare fairly.
- Review once a week on a day you are not trading, and change one thing at a time.
15. How do you place your first trade step by step?
- Rehearse in the free demo: live prices and the real rules, no sign-up, orders switched off.
- Plan on the chart first; open the ticket only when entry, stop and target are clear.
- Read Risk at SL and the daily and overall limits before and after, then send.
myfundedcapital.com/learn/
Questions
Should I use a spreadsheet or a notebook?
Either works. A spreadsheet makes adding up R per setup easier; a notebook can be quicker to fill during the session. Use the one you actually keep up every day.
How long should a weekly review take?
Half an hour is usually enough for a week of trades. Longer reviews tend to drift into rewriting the whole plan, which is rarely what you need.
Related lessons
Tools and rules
Rules shown here come from the help center and the live rulebook; your program terms apply.
