1) how a trader's journal looks like. can you show some sample/ guidelines for maintaining a journal
2) if one wants to trade intraday swings/ short term swing should he refer to 5 min chart.
Dear Sangram,
On trader's journal, are you asking on how the journal for this price action trading will be or in general what contents should be placed on journals ? There can not be any specific rules for maintaining a journals, but how ever you should keep those points which will help you in evaluating your trading approach on a later date. Just by looking at a journal you should be able to remember that particular day's market trend, support/resistance level, trade areas, trades taken/ignored, reasons, thoughts etc..
These are the points I keep in my journals..
1. Date, Scrips, Trend, Support, Resistance
2. Contracts, Trade areas (Levels to watch for), Previous session close.
3. Open Position If any, Trading capital, (MM, Trade Risk, Biz Risk)
4. GLobal Indices, Any imp event (IIP, CPI, RBI policy etc)
5. Pre Market Trade Plans
6. Post Market Analysis
i) Market Behaviour wrt. Pre-Market trade plans
ii) Trades taken (reasons)
iii) Any specific observations/Lessons
iv) Attach charts
For intraday swings/short term swings, one can use 5 min chart's price action to fine tune the entry. But again this is no hard and fast rules. I believe nothing is absolutely right/wrong in trading. Whatever works for you is right for you. That may not be right for someone else. but that should not bother you. As long as it works for you practice it, and keep capitalizing over it. Once it stops working, it's the market's way of saying - "Something is changing, You need to adapt".
Regards and Good luck.
Taiki