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Writing the session plan before the open, and what changed when I did

I used to open the charts and see what showed up. My notes were all written after the fact, which meant my reasons were influenced by the outcomes. A trade that won had a good reason, one that lost had a bad one.

So I started writing a short plan before each session. It has four lines: the bias and why, the levels I'm watching, the setups I'm allowed to take, and the conditions that mean I stay out. It takes about five minutes.

After a few weeks, I compared the plans with the trades. A noticeable share of my trades weren't in the plan at all. They were improvised, and those were disproportionately losers. The ones that matched the plan did better. That was a clearer message than any statistic.

It also helped me stop trading when the plan was done. If the session didn't offer what I'd listed, I had a reason to stop, not a feeling.

Writing the plan after the session wouldn't have shown me that. It has to be before, with a time stamp, or I'd fool myself.

Four lines is the right size. Mine is almost the same: bias, levels, allowed setups and reasons to stay out. The last one is the most useful. When I write before the session that I will not trade if price stays in the middle of yesterday's range, I am much less likely to do it later. Comparing plans with trades after a few weeks is the step that makes it work, otherwise it is just writing. It only takes a few minutes and it changes how the whole session feels, because I am checking against a plan instead of reacting.

The point about notes written after the fact being influenced by outcomes is important. My old journal made every winner look smart and every loser look stupid. Writing the plan first means I can judge trades against what I intended, not against what happened. Some losing trades were perfectly in the plan and some winning ones were not. That difference is the most useful thing I learned from journaling. Without the plan written first, I would never have been able to see that clearly, because memory always rewrites the reasons.