Most forex brokers these days keep a record of your trading activities. Properly read and interpreted, they can keep you up to date on your losses, profits, margin usage, and buying power. So it’s hard to see why you should do the same on your side—it’s all the same information after all, isn’t it?

Veteran trader Selwyn Gishen thinks otherwise. In an article for Investopedia.com, Gishen makes the case for tracking your own investing, from planning with perspective to getting a fresh new look at your trading methods. Here are some of his main points:

A rear-view mirror

Keeping your own trading journal helps put a historical perspective on your decisions. Besides keeping all your trade activities in one place, it gives you one-shot view of the state of your investing and how your previous trades have led you where you are now. So it’s like a performance database—it lets you know how active you’ve been, which currency pairs have served you best, and how long it takes to get the best profit margins.

Planning future investments

According to Gishen, a good forex trade journal should record more than actual trades—it should also reflect your plans based on your performance. This allows you to learn from your mistakes and think twice before taking on even the slightest bit of risk. Too many traders act on wishful thinking, but with solid facts to back up your decisions, you can trade more confidently and take on more calculated risks.

Understanding your methods

One of the most important benefits of logging your trading is methodology verification, Gishen says. Tracking your trades lets you see how well you can do under certain mindsets and in certain market conditions. Anyone who’s been in the business will know that trending markets and range-bound markets don’t yield the same returns in the same amount of time. Gishen suggests keeping the journal detailed and comprehensive so you can make more advanced analyses over time.

Analyzing your habits

Studies show that traders’ decisions aren’t as random as they seem—they are influenced by a wide range of external factors, including the trader’s moods. Logging these factors into your journal will help you determine these influences and overcome them when logic is obviously the better guide. It allows you to “plan” for your losses so they don’t affect you as much, and anticipate gains more accurately so you don’t set yourself up for disappointment.