Most traders who lose money make the same mistake: they don't know why they're losing. They have fuzzy memories of past trades, reconstructed afterward to justify their biases. A trading journal cuts through that. It makes decisions objective, measurable, and analyzable.
DYOR offers a dedicated feature for this: Observations, accessible from /observations. It's an integrated trading journal, linked to the coins you follow.
Why Keeping a Journal Changes Everything
When you write down a trade idea before entering, you crystallize your reasoning. You can come back to it later and compare: was my thesis correct? Did the trade work for the right reasons or by luck?
Without a journal, memory reconstructs. A winning trade becomes "I read the market well". A losing trade becomes "the market was manipulated". With a journal, the data speaks for itself.
Concrete benefits:
- Objectivity: you see what actually works for you, not what you think works
- Personal pattern recognition: you spot your recurring setups — and your recurring mistakes
- Discipline: writing down an idea forces you to formalize it, eliminating impulsive entries
- Debrief: crypto markets move fast. Reviewing your observations from 30 or 60 days ago is accelerated learning
Creating an Observation
In /observations, click "New observation". The form is intentionally simple:
Coin: the token in question. Type the symbol (BTC, ETH, SOL…) — the dropdown suggests coins available on DYOR.
Direction: Long or Short. Force yourself to take a clear position. "I don't know" isn't an observation — it's inaction.
Note: the most important field. Write your reasoning: why this setup, what entry level you're targeting, what stop, what target, what timeframe. The more precise, the more useful the observation will be in retrospect.
Targeted entry, stop loss, target, timeframe, main reason for the setup (ex: "ATH breakout with 2x volume, bullish trend on daily, RSI not yet overbought"). 2-3 lines are enough.
The "Price Then vs Now" Tracking
One of the most useful features of DYOR Observations: automatic comparison between the price when you created the observation and the current price.
This lets you see, without bias, if your analysis was correct — regardless of whether you actually took the trade or not. You noted a long on SOL at $120? DYOR shows you the price is now at $145. Your thesis was correct, even if you didn't dare enter.
This tracking eliminates the "I should have" bias — it replaces emotion with data.
Available Filters
The Observations dashboard offers several filters to navigate your history:
- Direction: filter by long only, short only, or both
- Status: active observations (trade still ongoing or thesis not yet invalidated) vs archived
- Period: last 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or a custom range
These filters become really useful when you have 50+ accumulated observations. You can then analyze: of my last 20 long setups, how many worked? In what period does my success rate drop?
The Retrospective: The Most Powerful Use
Keeping the journal is half the work. Exploiting it is the other half.
Reserve 30 minutes each week or month to review your observations:
- Reread your reasoning from 30 days ago. Is it consistent with what you know today?
- Identify your recurring biases: do you systematically enter too early? Too late? Do you ignore your own stops?
- Spot your winning setups: is there a configuration (market category, timeframe, indicator) that appears in your successful trades?
- Note your errors not in terms of results but in terms of process: did you follow your initial plan?
Without a journal, you'll remember your winning trades with precision and forget the losing ones in detail. A journal doesn't lie — it's sometimes uncomfortable, and that's exactly why it works.
Combining Observations and Paper Trading
Observations are ideal for noting trade ideas you follow without actually entering. But if you want to go further — test a complete strategy with simulated entries and exits — use Paper Trading DYOR in complement.
The recommended workflow:
- You spot a setup → you create an Observation to note your reasoning
- If the setup is strong and you want to test your execution discipline → you open a simulated trade in Paper Trading
- After closing → you return to the Observation to note what happened
With this workflow, you have both a journal of your ideas and a record of your execution. It's continuous training, without risking a dime.
Where to Start
If you've never kept a trading journal, start simple:
- Every time you spot an interesting setup on DYOR (via Smart Setups or the Trend Scanner), create an Observation
- Write just 3 things: coin, direction, main reason
- Come back to it in 2 weeks
You'll be surprised by what you learn about how you read the market. That's the real edge — knowing yourself as well as you know the charts.