Why I Mark Exit Reasons on Paper Before Closing My Journal

For years I wrote "target hit" or "stopped out" and moved on. That told me almost nothing when I sat down on Sunday to review the week. The habit that helped most was simpler than any template upgrade: before I close the journal, I circle one of three exit reasons on a small stamp sheet taped inside the cover.

The three tags are planned, reactive, and uncertain. Planned means the exit matched what I wrote before entry — timeframe held, level respected, risk unchanged. Reactive means something in the live session pulled me out early or late: a headline, a flicker of doubt, an impulse to protect a small gain. Uncertain means I cannot honestly say which side I was on, which is its own useful data point.

On paper this takes under a minute. I use a green, amber, and grey pencil so the week-at-a-glance page shows patterns without reading every line. After six weeks I noticed most of my losing trades clustered on reactive exits during the first hour after the London open. That was not visible in my spreadsheet because the column always said "manual close."

If you try this, keep the tag set small. More than four categories and you will debate labels instead of reviewing behaviour. The goal is not perfect taxonomy — it is a honest signal you can see when you spread twelve charts across the desk on review day.