Journal Quick Capture Panel
A trading journal that requires opening a spreadsheet mid-session never gets filled in consistently - the friction of switching windows means most entries never get written. This panel keeps the whole capture to three clicks and an optional line of text, entered directly on the chart, appended to disk immediately so a crash or restart never loses an entry already logged. Five mood buttons (Calm, Focus, Rushed, Anxious, Tilted) and six one-word tag toggles (Plan, ImpulseIn, Revenge, GoodExit, LateExit, NewsRisk) cover the common cases with a single click each; a one-line edit box is there for anything specific. Capture Entry writes one CSV row - timestamp, chart symbol, mood, tags joined by semicolons, note - and clears the tags and note for the next entry, keeping the mood selection since it usually persists across several trades in a row. Commas or quote characters typed into the note are escaped properly so a real sentence never corrupts the column layout of rows written after it, the specific failure mode that makes a naive CSV logger unreliable the first time someone types free text into it. Notes and limitations - This panel never opens, closes or modifies a trade; it only writes journal rows to a CSV file. - The log file lives in the sandboxed MQL4\Files\ (or MQL5\Files\ on the native MQL5 build) folder, not the terminal's history folder; open it directly from there or point a spreadsheet at that path. - A header row is written once, the first time the file is created during a run; deleting the file and restarting the EA writes a fresh header. - Tags and mood are a fixed list built into this version; there is no in-panel way to rename or add entries to either list. - No trade linkage: an entry records mood, tags, a note and a timestamp, not which specific ticket was open at the time.
Expert advisor · MT4 · v1.0 · Free
About Journal Quick Capture Panel
Journal Quick Capture Panel is a script for MetaTrader 4. It has 4 settings, such as Log file name, Corner and X offset. MQL source code included.
Files in the download: JournalQuickCapture.ex4, JournalQuickCapture.mq4, JournalQuickCapture.txt.
Settings
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Log file name | JournalQuickCapture.csv | File name inside MQL4\Files\ |
| Corner | 1 | Panel corner: 0=top-left 1=top-right 2=bottom-left 3=bottom-right |
| X offset | 12 | Panel offset from the chosen corner, X pixels |
| Y offset | 18 | Panel offset from the chosen corner, Y pixels |
How to install
- Download the ZIP from your PolyMaria library and unzip it.
- In MetaTrader 4 open File → Open Data Folder, then go to MQL4 → Scripts.
- Copy the .mq4 file(s) there. Put any .mqh files in MQL4 → Include.
- Open the .mq4 file in MetaEditor and press Compile (F7) if MetaTrader does not show it.
- Drag the script onto a chart to run it once.
Tags: Trading Sessions · MT4 Expert Advisor · MQL4 Source Code