Calibrating my post-trade honesty prompts when returning from holiday
Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2026 7:10 pm
Holiday return weeks fill journals with soft lies: "a bit rusty", "just shaking off the trip", "spread was wild". I use a tighter honesty prompt set for the first five live sessions back.
Prompts:
- Did I trade a level that was not on Friday's map?
- Did I shorten a blackout because I was bored?
- Did I size up to feel "back"?
- Would I defend this ticket to a colleague without mentioning the holiday?
- Did I invent a news-adjacent scalp that was not on the night sheet?
If any answer is yes, the session gets a red process tag even if P&L is green. Calibration means I keep those prompts until I stack three clean sessions, then I return to the normal shorter list. The holiday is allowed to affect sleep. It is not allowed to edit the sheet without a written note. Green P&L with red process still counts as a failed return week in my book. I also compare the return week to the week before the holiday on process tags only, ignoring P&L. If the holiday week is cleaner on process, the problem was not rust - it was the way I came back.
Prompts:
- Did I trade a level that was not on Friday's map?
- Did I shorten a blackout because I was bored?
- Did I size up to feel "back"?
- Would I defend this ticket to a colleague without mentioning the holiday?
- Did I invent a news-adjacent scalp that was not on the night sheet?
If any answer is yes, the session gets a red process tag even if P&L is green. Calibration means I keep those prompts until I stack three clean sessions, then I return to the normal shorter list. The holiday is allowed to affect sleep. It is not allowed to edit the sheet without a written note. Green P&L with red process still counts as a failed return week in my book. I also compare the return week to the week before the holiday on process tags only, ignoring P&L. If the holiday week is cleaner on process, the problem was not rust - it was the way I came back.