Journaling and trade review
A journal turns trades into data. Review process quality separately from outcome quality.
What to record
Before entry: setup name, thesis in one sentence, entry, stop, target, planned R, and why now. After exit: fill prices, R result, whether you followed the plan, and your emotional state.
Screenshot the chart at entry and exit. Memory rewrites history in your favour.
Grading process vs outcome
Four boxes: good process/good outcome, good process/bad outcome (normal variance), bad process/good outcome (dangerous luck), bad process/bad outcome. Improve by eliminating bad-process trades, not by chasing outcomes.
Review weekly: expectancy by setup, rule-break frequency, average slippage. Change one variable at a time.
Worked example
What a review reveals (synthetic)
- 40 trades logged. 32 followed the plan: expectancy +0.30R. 8 broke rules (moved stops, chased entries): expectancy −1.10R.
- Overall = (32 × 0.30 + 8 × −1.10) ÷ 40 = (9.6 − 8.8) ÷ 40 = +0.02R.
- The method may be fine; the rule breaks nearly erased it.
The journal shows whether the problem is the strategy or the execution.
Common misconceptions
“Only losing trades need review.”
Winning trades that broke rules teach bad habits. Review everything.
“A few weeks of data tells you if a method works.”
Outcomes are noisy; you need many trades, recorded consistently.
Checkpoint