Weekly Journal Review: The Questions That Matter
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2026 10:54 am
Journaling individual trades is only half the process. The other half — arguably the more valuable half — is sitting down on a consistent weekly basis and actually reviewing what the accumulated data is telling you.
Set aside a specific time each week, ideally when the market is closed and you're not under any active trading pressure, and work through these four core questions using your journal data:
What was my win rate this week? Calculate it precisely, not from memory or general impression.
What was my average reward-to-risk ratio across all trades? This tells you whether your actual execution matches the R:R your strategy was designed around.
Which specific setup type performed best, and which performed worst? This is where the setup-type field from your journal entries pays off directly, letting you see performance broken down by strategy rather than lumped together.
Did I follow my written plan on every single trade, or did I deviate — and if I deviated, what was the actual outcome of that specific deviation? This last question is often the most revealing, since it directly connects discipline (or lack of it) to real results, rather than treating "following the plan" as an abstract virtue disconnected from actual P&L.
These four questions, worked through consistently every single week, are what turn a trade journal from a passive diary into an active, ongoing source of genuine trading edge.
Set aside a specific time each week, ideally when the market is closed and you're not under any active trading pressure, and work through these four core questions using your journal data:
What was my win rate this week? Calculate it precisely, not from memory or general impression.
What was my average reward-to-risk ratio across all trades? This tells you whether your actual execution matches the R:R your strategy was designed around.
Which specific setup type performed best, and which performed worst? This is where the setup-type field from your journal entries pays off directly, letting you see performance broken down by strategy rather than lumped together.
Did I follow my written plan on every single trade, or did I deviate — and if I deviated, what was the actual outcome of that specific deviation? This last question is often the most revealing, since it directly connects discipline (or lack of it) to real results, rather than treating "following the plan" as an abstract virtue disconnected from actual P&L.
These four questions, worked through consistently every single week, are what turn a trade journal from a passive diary into an active, ongoing source of genuine trading edge.