As traders, and most of us still with a full-time job, time is a precious resource. Even though we know that analysis and preparation is the most important thing when trying to become successful, most people do not want to do it simply because it costs time. “How can I enter a trade faster into Edgewonk?” is thus our topic today. We have compiled the 5 biggest time-savers that will help you enter a trade in less than 2 minutes. Do you think spending 2 minutes per trade is worth it if you in return discover your trading edge, improve your trading performance and become a more complete trader overall? Decide for yourself.
1. Organize your workspace
This sets the foundation. If you have 2 screens, it is very easy. Use one screen for Edgewonk and display your account statement and your broker terminal on the other one.
If you only have one screen available, we suggest you minimize the ribbon in the journal so that you can get more space for Edgewonk and then put Edgewonk and your broker account statement next to each other or on top of each other.
2. Entering a date within seconds
You shouldn’t spend too much time entering the date and we noticed that some of our users write out the full date – there is a big time saver for you.
Instead of writing “2015-Sep-09”, you can just type in “9-28” and then Edgewonk converts it automatically to the correct date.
Another Excel shortcut is: CTRL + ; (semi-kolon) which inserts today’s date into the selected cell.
3. Using Excel’s pre-selection
Excel is pretty smart and it remembers your previous data entry. For example, if you have entered the setup “Breakout” before, the next time you want to enter a trade with the Breakout setup, it is enough to just type in a “B” and Excel will pre-select “Breakout” for you and you can confirm it.
4. Use the Tab-key to jump forward and to confirm your selection
After Excel has pre-selected an entry (previous tip), you can use the Tab-key on your keyboard and apply the pre-selected item. Excel then automatically hops to the next column and you can go on with your data entry.
5. Price: Copy/Paste from your broker statement
click to enlarge
Copy and pasting is possible in Edgewonk. So, you can just go to your broker statement and copy the values you want to transfer into Edgewonk. In Edgewonk, select the cell, right-click and select the choose the pasting method from the image below. You can paste multiple entries, as long as they all belong into one column.
Using these 5 tips will help you reduce the time you need for entering new trades into your Edgewonk trading journal and start discovering your edge even sooner.