Trading journal and review
Score decision quality separately from outcomes. Daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reviews.
Why score them separately
Making money does not mean a decision was right; losing money does not mean it was wrong. Reviewing outcomes alone mistakes luck for skill and sound decisions for mistakes, directing improvements the wrong way.
Score every trade twice: Decision Quality and Outcome.
| Good outcome | Poor outcome | |
|---|---|---|
| Good decision | Earned return | Bad luck; do not change the rule |
| Poor decision | Good luck—the most dangerous case | A deserved lesson |
Three stages of a trade record
Thesis, invalidation, size, expected holding horizon
Execution, deviations from plan, thoughts at the time
Outcome, decision-quality score, outcome score, next changes
Before Trade is the crucial part: write it before you know the result. Writing afterwards lets memory reshape your original thinking to match the outcome.
Four review cadences
- Daily: did you break a rule today? What mistakes occurred?
- Weekly: have expectancy, win rate, or payoff ratio changed? Has the market regime changed? Has the strategy drifted?
- Monthly: how much return is Alpha and how much Beta? What happened to drawdown and correlation?
- Quarterly: should you adjust the strategy portfolio, capital allocation, or research direction? Has market structure changed?
Connections to the course
- Foundation Chapter 35 · Trading Journal develops this page in detail.
- The Foundation capstone requires at least one full daily, weekly, and monthly review cycle.
- The AI Tutor reads your journal to identify recurring decision biases; see AI Tutor and learning records.
Risk engine
Risk is not an isolated chapter. It is an underlying system throughout Trader OS.
AI Tutor and learning records
Prepare questions with chapter context and select local learning records. No model is configured. Only clicking Send submits the current preview to this site's endpoint; it neither calls an external model nor generates an answer.