The trade made money. You entered before your trigger, doubled the size after a loss and closed when the screen finally turned green. Your journal calls it a win.
That is an expensive lesson to keep. A journal should tell you whether a decision deserves repeating. Profit alone cannot answer that question.
Give the decision and the result separate columns
Consider two hypothetical EUR/USD trades. Both start with a written plan: wait for a candle to close above a marked level, enter on a retest and place the stop below the swing that would invalidate the idea. The planned cash risk is $10.
| Review | Trade A | Trade B |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Before the candle closed | After the planned retest |
| Initial risk | $20 instead of $10 | $10 as planned |
| Result | +$12 | −$10 |
| Plan followed? | No | Yes |
Trade A improved the account balance while breaking two rules. Trade B cost the planned amount and respected the process. Neither result proves that the strategy works. But only one trade gives you a clean observation of the strategy you meant to test.
Write what happened before you explain it
“I got impatient” is too broad to review. “I entered three minutes before the candle closed because price was approaching my limit” gives you an action, a time and a trigger. You can look for that behaviour again.
Save the chart at entry, with the level, stop and invalidation visible. Save another at exit. Use the same timeframe in both. A screenshot taken after the move has finished makes your reasoning look tidier than it felt at the time.
Record the planned risk, actual initial risk, costs and final result. Add one short sentence answering: what information did I have when I clicked? Leave the clever explanation of the finished chart for the review.
Review one pattern, not your entire personality
At the end of the week, separate trades that followed the plan from trades that did not. Then group the rule breaks. Perhaps four of six came after the first loss of the session. Perhaps every late entry happened on the five-minute chart while you were checking your phone.
That is a useful finding. “Be more disciplined” is not. A testable response would be: after a loss, close the order ticket and wait for the next completed candle before deciding whether another setup exists.
Keep the change small enough to observe. If you alter your entry, target, trading hours and risk at once, next week's results will not tell you which change mattered.
The Friday review, in four questions
- Which trades followed the written setup?
- Which repeated action increased risk or weakened execution?
- When did that action happen?
- What single rule will I test next week?
A small sample can reveal a repeated mistake; it cannot establish a durable trading edge. Keep collecting comparable trades. The purpose of this week's review is a clearer next decision, not a verdict on your ability.
Download the free journal sheet and add the two columns if your current log only tracks wins and losses.
References & further reading
Forex and CFD trading carries a risk of substantial loss. Examples are hypothetical; analysis is not a personal trading recommendation. Editorial standards · Report a correction.