The trading team · Guide 08
Journal, debrief and reviews: find the rule you keep breaking
In one lineDebrief every card against what was executed and log it the same day in fixed columns. Once a week a fresh Reviewer chat names the one rule you break most, with trade IDs, and you make exactly one change. Once a month, every rule has to show what it did.
What you'll get
- The journal columns, and why every passed card is a row too.
- The debrief: plan versus execution, one sentence each, judged on the card and never on the result.
- The Weekly Reviewer prompt, the one-change rule, and how to read small samples without fooling yourself.
- The monthly team review: which rules earned their place, and which to question.
1The loop
Team → auto-execution → debrief → journal → weekly review → one change to your rules → team. Without the last steps, the team runs the same mistakes forever. The journal is what lets a routine improve.
2The columns
Fixed columns are the point. A reviewer can only find patterns in columns that are filled the same way every day. Full template and allowed values on Guide 16.
| Group | Columns |
|---|---|
| Identity | trade_id, date, session, instrument, setup_name, card_id |
| Team | team_score, risk_verdict |
| Decision | took_trade, direction |
| Order | entry, stop, target, size, risk_money, risk_r |
| Outcome | result_r, exit_reason, time_in, time_out |
| Behaviour | rules_followed, rule_broken, state_1to5 |
| Context | notes, screenshot_link |
Log decisions, not just trades. A card you passed on is a row with took_trade = N. Days the team closed are a row. Without them, the review sees only the trades you took, and that's the most biased sample you have.
rules_followed is binary. "Mostly" is N. Name the rule in its own words in rule_broken.
Same day, every day. A row written next week is a story.
3The debrief: plan versus execution
The hardest column to fill honestly is rules_followed, because by the time you fill it you know how the trade ended. A trade that made money feels like a Y. The debrief removes the feeling: it sets the card beside the fills and marks each line MATCH or DEVIATION. It is not allowed to mention whether the trade made or lost money.
Run it in chat A after the session, on every card, including the ones you didn't take. Copy fills and times from your platform, not from memory. Two minutes a card.
Debrief prompt (chat A, after the session)
Role: Debrief.
Compare the plan with what was executed. Judge the execution against the card and my rules. Do not judge the result.
Inputs:
- Trade card as checked: {paste, or "card A above in this chat"}
- Memo line 9 (the verdict before the session): {paste}
- Risk check: {CLEAR / BLOCK / not run} at {hh:mm}
- What was executed (from the platform, not from memory): entry {price, time, order type} · size {n} · stop placed at {price} · target placed at {price} · stop or target moved? {no / yes: from, to, time} · exit {price, time, reason} · or "card not taken: {reason}"
- Result in R: {number}
You may not:
- Call the trade good or bad because of its result. A rule break that made money is a rule break. A full loss taken exactly to plan is a clean execution.
- Guess at anything I did not give you. A missing fill is UNKNOWN, and the line it belongs to is UNCHECKED.
- Explain the market, suggest a better entry, or propose changes to my setup. Changes go through the weekly review.
- Console or congratulate me.
Reply in exactly this format:
DEBRIEF — {setup name} — card {A/B} — {date}
Plan: one sentence (trigger, entry, stop, target, size, window).
Execution: one sentence (what was actually executed).
Line by line: trigger seen · inside valid window · risk check CLEAR before entry · entry as carded · size as carded · stop as carded and never widened · target as carded · exit by the card's rules — each MATCH, DEVIATION or UNCHECKED, with the two values side by side where they differ.
Gap: one sentence naming the largest deviation, or "none".
Rule: the rule from my rules file or risk sheet that the gap breaks, quoted, or "no rule broken".
Journal fields: rules_followed = Y or N · rule_broken = {text or blank} · exit_reason = {target / stop / time / manual / card cancelled}
One line for the notes column: what happened, in my words as given, no adjectives.
rules_followed is Y only if every line is MATCH. One DEVIATION or UNCHECKED makes it N.
Before you send: confirm no sentence refers to whether the trade made or lost money, except the journal's own result field.A full loss taken exactly to plan is a clean row. A rule break that happened to pay is an N. Keep those two straight for a few months and the journal starts telling you the truth.
4The Weekly Reviewer
A fresh chat, once a week, after your last session. Paste the week's rows and last week's memo.
Weekly Reviewer prompt (fresh chat)
Role: Weekly Reviewer.
Below are this week's journal rows (columns as in my journal template) and last week's review memo.
Write the WEEKLY REVIEW MEMO. Describe what happened. Do not forecast.
You may not:
- Use anything except the rows I pasted. No recall of earlier weeks unless the memo is pasted.
- Suggest a new setup, indicator, filter or parameter. You review behaviour against my rules. You do not redesign the strategy.
- Draw a conclusion about edge from this week's results. Under 20 trades, say "sample too small to conclude anything" and give the numbers anyway.
- Soften a finding or open with praise.
- Propose more than one change.
Reply in exactly this format:
WEEKLY REVIEW — week of {date}
1. Counts: sessions · team memos · trades taken · cards passed · trades taken WITHOUT a memo or a CLEAR. List the trade IDs behind each count so I can check them.
2. Rule adherence: rules_followed Y versus N, with the IDs for every N.
3. The rule I break most: the rule in its own words, how many times, the IDs, and when it happens (time of day, after a loss, after a win, on event days, after a score of 1–2).
4. Followed versus broken: total R for each group, with the sum written out. Label it "descriptive only".
5. Score check: total R for cards scored 4–5 versus 1–3, sums written out. Same label.
6. Overrides: every trade taken after a BLOCK or with no memo, with IDs.
7. Last week's change: done / partly / not done, with the rows that show it.
8. One change for next week: a single, checkable action tied to the rule in section 3.
9. One thing to keep doing, with the rows that show it.
10. Data gaps: columns that are empty or inconsistent, and which sections they weaken.
Before you send: recount section 1 from the rows and confirm it matches. If a count is uncertain because a row is unclear, say which row.Then check two numbers by hand: trades taken, and the count for the rule you break most. AI tools can miscount a table. If the numbers are off, fix the rows and rerun.
5Small samples, honestly
One week is maybe 5–15 trades. That says almost nothing about whether your setup has an edge. Even a few months can be too short to judge a setup. But a small sample can show behaviour: "3 of 4 rule breaks happened within 15 minutes of a loss" is a pattern worth acting on, because the fix (a pause) costs nothing.
So the review separates two kinds of finding:
- Behaviour (when and how you break rules): act on it weekly.
- Edge (whether the setup works): don't touch it on one week of data. Keep collecting rows. When you have 30 or more on fixed rules, the Evidence Checker (Guide 11) reports what they show and what they don't.
6One change per week
One change you actually make beats five you don't. A good change is:
- Tied to the rule you break most.
- Checkable: next week's journal can show whether you did it.
- Small: a pause, a cut-off time, a size step, a checklist line.
- Mirrored in your platform if it's a number (lower daily stop → change the platform setting too).
Write it in your rules file under "This week's change", with the date. Next week's review checks it first.
7The monthly team review: which rules earned their place
Rules pile up. After a few months a rules file holds lines nobody remembers the reason for, next to lines that get broken every week. Once a month, after the fourth weekly review, each rule has to account for itself: how often it applied, how often it changed a decision, how often you broke it.
The verdicts are deliberately modest. KEEP. KEEP, ENFORCE (applied, but broken twice or more, so move it into the platform or the checklist). QUESTION (never applied this month, which may only mean it wasn't tested). A rule is retired or rewritten only after two months as QUESTION, one rule a month at most. The daily stop, the per-trade maximum, the bracket rule and Part C of the risk sheet are never candidates.
What it can't do is tell you a rule makes or loses money. A month is far too short for that. It counts behaviour.
Monthly team review prompt (fresh chat, once a month)
Role: Monthly team review.
Below are this month's journal rows and my four weekly review memos. My rules file and risk sheet are in the team setup.
Review the RULES, not the market and not the results.
You may not:
- Use anything except the pasted rows and memos. Every count must be traceable to trade IDs.
- Say that a rule "works", "adds edge" or "costs money" on this sample. One month cannot show that. You may say what a rule did: how often it applied, blocked, or was broken.
- Recommend retiring any rule in Part C of my risk sheet, my daily stop, my per-trade maximum or my bracket rule. Those are not up for review here.
- Propose more than one rule to retire and one to add or tighten.
- Invent a reason a rule exists. If my sheet doesn't say, write "purpose not stated".
Reply in exactly this format:
MONTHLY TEAM REVIEW — {month}
A. Sample: sessions, decisions logged, trades taken, cards passed. State plainly if this is under 30 trades.
B. Rule table, one row per rule in my rules file and risk sheet:
rule (short) · times it applied · times it stopped or changed a decision (IDs) · times I broke it (IDs) · verdict
Verdicts: KEEP (applied and followed) · KEEP, ENFORCE (applied, broken twice or more) · QUESTION (never applied this month) · NOT ENOUGH DATA
C. Weekly changes: each of the four "one change" lines, and whether the rows show it stuck.
D. Seat check: any seat whose output never changed a decision this month (for example, a Bear that found no point on any day), with the dates.
E. One rule to retire or rewrite, if any is marked QUESTION for a second month running, or "none". Say what would be lost.
F. One rule to add or tighten, tied to the most-broken rule in B, or "none".
G. What this review cannot tell me: one or two lines.
A rule that never applied has not been shown to be useless. It may simply not have been tested. Say so.
Before you send: recount column 4 of the table from the rows, and confirm sections E and F each contain at most one rule.8Worked example: a week's review
Illustrative. Eleven rows from one week of MNQ, values are examples.
WEEKLY REVIEW — week of (example)
Counts: sessions 5 · memos 5 · trades taken 6 · passed 4 · taken without memo/CLEAR 2
Rule adherence: followed 4 · broken 2 · broken IDs: W-07, W-10
Rule I break most: "No entries within 10 minutes of a high-impact event" (rule 7) · 1 time · W-07
"Two losses in a row closes the team" (rule 4) · 1 time · W-10
Pattern: both breaks came within 12 minutes of a losing trade.
Followed vs broken: descriptive only, sample too small to conclude anything (6 trades)
Score check: 4–5 scored: 2 trades · 1–3 scored: 2 trades · too few to compare
Overrides: W-10 taken after a BLOCK (rule 4)
Last week's change: "no trade without a memo" · partly · W-07 and W-10 had no memo
One change next week: after any losing trade, a 15-minute pause, then the tilt check, before any new card is checked
Keep doing: passed on both score-1 cards (W-03, W-08); both were event days
Data gaps: exit_reason empty on W-05The finding isn't "rule 7" or "rule 4". It's the 12 minutes after a loss. That's where both breaks live. One change: a 15-minute pause, then the tilt check. The trader adds it to the rules file and sets a timer. Next week's review checks it first.
9Common mistakes
- Only logging trades taken. You lose half the data, and the best half.
- Filling the journal at the weekend from memory. Memory flatters.
- Asking the reviewer for a better strategy. Wrong role, and wrong sample size.
- Three changes a week. Then nothing gets tested.
- Never checking its counts. Two numbers by hand, every week.
- Grading the trade by its result. The debrief grades execution. The market grades nothing.