Market Mechanics Ep 26: Review Your Trades Like a Pro — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Record your trades daily, review them
2. 0:02weekly, reflect on them monthly, refine
3. 0:06your plan quarterly, reassess your goals
4. 0:09annually, repeat.
5. 0:12I call that the five R process, and
6. 0:15honestly, that's the whole game.
7. 0:18Because your edge doesn't come from
8. 0:20finding a new strategy. It comes from
9. 0:23extracting better feedback from the
10. 0:25trades that you already took.
11. 0:28Then turning that feedback into smarter
12. 0:31decisions every week. Turning that
13. 0:33feedback into iterations, into tweaks in
14. 0:37which you can make to improve your
15. 0:39trading plan, improve your trading
16. 0:41strategy.
17. 0:42Because traders severely overestimate
18. 0:45their competence and they underestimate
19. 0:47how much feedback they can extract just
20. 0:50by reviewing their own trades properly.
21. 0:53Like I always say to my students, the
22. 0:55data is already there.
23. 0:56The best information about your trading
24. 0:59is your trading. Okay? It's not found in
25. 1:02books, it's not found in mentors, it's
26. 1:03not found in YouTube videos.
27. 1:05It's found in your trading.
28. 1:08Because most people either they don't
29. 1:10journal at all, or they journal, but
30. 1:12then they don't bother to review deeply
31. 1:14enough to actually improve their edge.
32. 1:17Okay? All right, they review their edge,
33. 1:20I mean they review their trading
34. 1:21results, but they don't take the
35. 1:23feedback to improve their edge. And as a
36. 1:26result, they do the same thing, they get
37. 1:28the same results. Okay? So, here's a
38. 1:30framework in terms of reviewing your
39. 1:32trading performance. You use the
40. 1:34dashboard to like just see the numbers
41. 1:36at a high level, right? And it's good
42. 1:38and all that, right? But the journal,
43. 1:39this is where you will be able to find
44. 1:42the context of the trade. And then the
45. 1:44notebook, this is where you turn both
46. 1:47into decisions.
47. 1:49Turn both the qualitative feedback and
48. 1:51the quantitative feedback
49. 1:53into decisions to improve your trading
50. 1:57plan. Okay? So, in this lesson, I'm
51. 1:59going to quickly show you the exact
52. 2:01notebook template stuff built for you to
53. 2:03do your weekly review, monthly review,
54. 2:06quarterly, and your annual review. So,
55. 2:08you're basically boring a system that
56. 2:09remove guesswork and make improvement
57. 2:12automatic. Okay? Like if you do this
58. 2:14process, at the end of this period right
59. 2:16here,
60. 2:17it's
61. 2:18unreasonable that you do not get better.
62. 2:21Okay? Like it's undeniable basically.
63. 2:24So, once again, open your notebook right
64. 2:26here.
65. 2:27And then this is where you want to go to
66. 2:28your templates and go and find the
67. 2:31performance review category. And this is
68. 2:33where you will see these four good old
69. 2:36pretty templates right here.
70. 2:38Once again, your weekly review, your
71. 2:39monthly review, your quarterly review,
72. 2:41your annual review. All of these
73. 2:43templates has a different structure to
74. 2:45it, right? Because you are going to be
75. 2:47doing different things within each one
76. 2:49of these period right here. For example,
77. 2:51you don't adjust your trading plan on a
78. 2:53weekly review because you don't have
79. 2:55enough data. You don't have enough um
80. 2:57you don't have a large sample size that
81. 2:59tell you that this rule is not working,
82. 3:01right? So, you might want to adjust your
83. 3:03trading plan only after you've done your
84. 3:05quarterly review. Okay? Another example
85. 3:07is that you don't reassess your annual
86. 3:09goals on the monthly review. No, you do
87. 3:12it at the end of the year itself, right?
88. 3:13So, different review templates right
89. 3:15here, it will give you different things
90. 3:17to do and that encompasses a different
91. 3:20structure to it, a different sort of
92. 3:22system to review the trades that is
93. 3:24taken during that time period. All
94. 3:26right? So, very simple, I want you to
95. 3:29make this a routine. I want you to make
96. 3:30this a habit.
97. 3:32Every single week, at the end of the
98. 3:33week, go and fill this up. Every single
99. 3:36month, at the end of the month, go and
100. 3:37fill this up. And every single quarter,
101. 3:39fill this up. Every single annual, every
102. 3:41single year, at the end of each year,
103. 3:43fill this up. Like I said, you want to
104. 3:45install these processes into your
105. 3:47trading system because that's the only
106. 3:49way you can get better. That's the only
107. 3:51way you can improve and just continue
108. 3:54improve continue getting better continue
109. 3:56just leveling up in this game of
110. 3:58trading. Okay? And when you're filling
111. 4:00up these templates, you want to keep it
112. 4:01honest, keep it simple, right? I'm not
113. 4:03asking you to write essays, not asking
114. 4:05you to write a story in there. No, just
115. 4:07keep it simple, point form will do.
116. 4:10And most importantly, one period
117. 4:13one periodic review means one focus, not
118. 4:1610. So, if I'm reviewing this month
119. 4:19right here and I found it, okay,
120. 4:21next month I want to be doing this to
121. 4:24get better at trading. I'm not going to
122. 4:26be saying, okay, I'm going to be doing
123. 4:27these 10 things to get better next
124. 4:29month. No, I'm just going to be focusing
125. 4:31on one. Okay, what's the one
126. 4:33needle mover that allows me to write
127. 4:35really just 10x my trading results next
128. 4:37month. Okay, once I define that one, I'm
129. 4:40just going to focus on doing that one
130. 4:41thing for the next 1 month to do the
131. 4:43improve.
132. 4:45So, now I'm just going to quickly walk
133. 4:46you through these templates right here,
134. 4:47right? So, this is the weekly review
135. 4:49template right here. This is the
136. 4:50structural.
137. 4:51And I'm going to give you some examples
138. 4:54as well, right? Like these are examples
139. 4:56on how you can actually fill up the
140. 4:57template.
141. 4:58But for now, I'm just going to quickly
142. 4:59like share with you the different
143. 5:00templates, all right? So, monthly review
144. 5:02template, this is what it looks like.
145. 5:03You can see the questions that you
146. 5:06should be pondering on are different,
147. 5:08right? The process score is a little bit
148. 5:09different as well. And then also your
149. 5:12quarterly review, you can see it's much
150. 5:14more in-depth than the weekly and the
151. 5:15monthly review. And then for your annual
152. 5:18review, you can see this is where you
153. 5:19get a lot more questions to reflect on.
154. 5:22Right? Because at the end of the year,
155. 5:23this is where you will be able to like
156. 5:25have the most amount of data to like
157. 5:27just
158. 5:28think upon, you know, ponder upon and
159. 5:30just think about how you can make next
160. 5:32year even better. Yeah, so those are the
161. 5:34four templates. I'm just going to
162. 5:35quickly show you the example, right?
163. 5:38Some example that I'll fill out right
164. 5:39here with fake data, right? So, for
165. 5:41example, if you look at this weekly
166. 5:42review template right here, this is from
167. 5:44the week of February 10 to February 16.
168. 5:47I document my wins, my loss,
169. 5:49my break even trades, and I document all
170. 5:51the necessary metrics that I want to be
171. 5:53tracking like the win rate, the net the
172. 5:55average win R, average loss R, max
173. 5:59drawdown, rule breaks, so on and so
174. 6:00forth. Okay? Now, what's the point of
175. 6:02doing this? The point of doing this is
176. 6:04to get the quantitative feedback. To get
177. 6:08to know your trading strategy's
178. 6:10effectiveness
179. 6:12based on numbers itself, right? You
180. 6:14should just measure the performance of
181. 6:15your edge based on numbers. So, at a
182. 6:18high level, you can see, okay, whether
183. 6:20the strategy is actually profitable or
184. 6:21not. Okay? Once again, weekly review is
185. 6:24not enough for you to know whether a
186. 6:25strategy is profitable or not, right?
187. 6:27You need to do it over a larger sample
188. 6:29size of trades, over a month, over a
189. 6:31quarter, over 100 trades, over 500
190. 6:34trades. Okay? But, for now, just know
191. 6:37that this is where you compile the
192. 6:39metrics in which you want to measure the
193. 6:41qualitative performance of a trading
194. 6:43strategy. And then below here, this is
195. 6:45where you check on your discipline,
196. 6:47check on your process, right? What is
197. 6:49your
198. 6:50compliance rate? How often do you follow
199. 6:53your trade plan, right? If you are
200. 6:54supposed to follow your trade plan 10
201. 6:56times, but you only follow it eight
202. 6:57times, then your compliance rate is
203. 6:59probably around 80%. Okay, how many A
204. 7:02setups you have taken, how many impulse
205. 7:03or emotional trades you have taken, how
206. 7:05many missed value setups that you should
207. 7:07have taken but you didn't because you
208. 7:08were hesitating, you were scared, so on
209. 7:09and so forth. And what is the best trade
210. 7:12that you have taken and why it was so
211. 7:14good. What can you learn from the best
212. 7:15trade so you can repeat the win next
213. 7:17time round. And what's the worst trade,
214. 7:19right? What caused it, right? Once
215. 7:21again, the good trade and the worst
216. 7:23trade doesn't need to be the trade with
217. 7:26the biggest P&L or the biggest loss.
218. 7:29Okay?
219. 7:30Best trade doesn't mean it's the trade
220. 7:32with the biggest profit. Worst trade
221. 7:34doesn't mean the trade with the biggest
222. 7:36loss. No.
223. 7:37It's the trade in which you feel like
224. 7:41you performed the worst in and you feel
225. 7:43like you performed the best in.
226. 7:45It needs to be tied to the process. It
227. 7:48needs to tie
228. 7:49into your ability to execute your
229. 7:52trading system. Not tied into the trade
230. 7:54outcome. Okay, so yeah, I can write down
231. 7:57like what you have learned, right? Just
232. 7:58reflect on it. Just ponder upon it. And
233. 8:00then once done with all the like the
234. 8:02qualitative and numbers, the boring uh
235. 8:04stuff right here, you want to take some
236. 8:06time out to reflect.
237. 8:08It's very important that you give
238. 8:09yourself time and space to introspect on
239. 8:13your trades that you have taken for the
240. 8:15this period itself.
241. 8:16Because if you don't do that, you're
242. 8:18going to repeat the same mistakes next
243. 8:20week. And if you repeat the same
244. 8:21mistakes next week,
245. 8:23guess what? You're unconscious. And when
246. 8:24you're unconscious, and you do the same
247. 8:27thing over and over again, you're just
248. 8:28going to get the same results over and
249. 8:29over again. Right? So that it's
250. 8:30important for you to like just give
251. 8:32yourself this time and space to just
252. 8:33reflect, right? Think about, okay, what
253. 8:36went well this week and what
254. 8:37specifically make it work, right? Like
255. 8:40literally just sit down with a glass of
256. 8:41green tea, right? Green tea, uh like
257. 8:45have some noise canceling headphones on
258. 8:47and just just write. Just write.
259. 8:51What mistakes or weak points showed up
260. 8:53and what's the prevention plan? What
261. 8:55pattern do you notice in your best and
262. 8:57worst trade? What's the single focus
263. 8:58going into next week?
264. 9:00Remember, nothing changes if nothing
265. 9:02changes. The point of this review
266. 9:05reflection is so that you can become
267. 9:08more aware of your shortcomings. So that
268. 9:10next week you can develop a strategy to
269. 9:14combat these weaknesses, to get rid of
270. 9:17these mistakes, so that you make more
271. 9:19money. Because remember, making less
272. 9:21mistakes means losing less money. And
273. 9:23when you lose less money, you
274. 9:24automatically make more money. That's
275. 9:26how important these reviewing things
276. 9:28are, right? It's really just about
277. 9:31becoming more conscious of your
278. 9:33mistakes, of your emotional patterns, of
279. 9:36your technical mistakes so that you can
280. 9:40develop solutions to solve them so that
281. 9:42you can continuously improve and refine
282. 9:45your edge edge flow. So, that's for the
283. 9:47weekly review, right? Let's move on to
284. 9:49the monthly review itself, right? So,
285. 9:50you can see the matrix is the same, but
286. 9:52now it's
287. 9:54in a different time horizon, right? Now
288. 9:56you are measuring your trades on a
289. 9:58monthly basis. So, like I said, at the
290. 10:00end of that period, right? So, in this
291. 10:02case it's a monthly review, so on the
292. 10:05last day of February, I'm going to be
293. 10:06sitting down and I'm going to be just
294. 10:08going through this yourself. I'm going
295. 10:09to be filling all of this up right here,
296. 10:11going to be looking at the trades on my
297. 10:12journal, and then based on that, fill up
298. 10:15all of this data right here.
299. 10:17And I also a process called, right?
300. 10:19Assign a process called to everything
301. 10:20over here. And I also, once again,
302. 10:22reflection questions. You can see the
303. 10:24reflection question is different this
304. 10:25time now. It's not the same as the
305. 10:26weekly review, it's a little bit
306. 10:28different. What's the one trading lesson
307. 10:30that hit the hardest this month? What
308. 10:31mental barrier showed up most? And
309. 10:33what's your plan to fix it? What are you
310. 10:35most proud of this month? Process or
311. 10:37results? What's the single focus going
312. 10:40to next month?
313. 10:41You probably seen a pattern by now.
314. 10:43Every single review requires you to
315. 10:45actually put in an actionable step that
316. 10:48you can take in the next period so that
317. 10:50you can get better, right? Because
318. 10:52knowledge itself isn't power.
319. 10:53Application of the knowledge is power.
320. 10:55Knowledge is intrinsic power.
321. 10:57Application of the knowledge allows you
322. 11:00to turn that theory into action. Turns
323. 11:04that act Turns that theoretical
324. 11:06knowledge into steps that you can
325. 11:08actually take to get better. And that's
326. 11:11what we do in every single review,
327. 11:13right? We want to clearly define what's
328. 11:15working so you can do more of what
329. 11:17works, and what's not working so you can
330. 11:20do less of what works. And then, most
331. 11:22importantly, come up with like a focus
332. 11:25that we can do the next period so that
333. 11:28we can get better. And that's
334. 11:32the fun part of our trading, right? It's
335. 11:33a never-ending journey of
336. 11:35self-discovery. It's this infinite game.
337. 11:39It's this marathon where you always run
338. 11:41and you just keep on running. There's no
339. 11:43finish line. There's no stopping because
340. 11:46as long as you're playing this game, you
341. 11:47need to continuously
342. 11:49study your trades, review your trades,
343. 11:52learn how you can improve, grow, get
344. 11:55better, and then just do this entire
345. 11:57cycle over and over again for the rest
346. 11:58of your life. Have fun.
347. 12:00Next is the quarterly review.
348. 12:02Right? So, quarterly review, we spend a
349. 12:04little bit more time in the performance
350. 12:05breakdown because this is where you can
351. 12:07get the most information about your
352. 12:09edge, right? Because now you actually
353. 12:11got 3 months worth of trading data. And
354. 12:133 months worth of trading data is
355. 12:15a lot more data to work with compared to
356. 12:181 week worth of data, compared to 1 day
357. 12:20worth of data. Now you actually got data
358. 12:23that you can trust, right? Now you
359. 12:25actually got data where
360. 12:27it can tell you the most information
361. 12:29about your trading strategy. Whether
362. 12:31what are the variables that you should
363. 12:32be changing, what are the variables that
364. 12:33should remain in your trade plan,
365. 12:35whatever it is. Okay, so that's that.
366. 12:38In terms of quarterly review-wise, very,
367. 12:40very simple. Just go ahead, break down
368. 12:43the performance, spend more time getting
369. 12:44to know like what is the best market
370. 12:46that you
371. 12:47that you do most of your trading
372. 12:49results. Like for example, there's this
373. 12:5280/20 rule, right? What is the 20% of
374. 12:54the actions that resulted in 80% of the
375. 12:57profits? And then perhaps you want to do
376. 12:59more of those actions yourself, right?
377. 13:01Best setup name, why, top mistakes that
378. 13:03caused you the most are and audit your
379. 13:06process, right? What's the biggest
380. 13:08execution upgrade this quarter? What's
381. 13:09the biggest discipline upgrade this
382. 13:11quarter? Maybe you've been using the
383. 13:13guardrails. You decided that, "Okay, you
384. 13:15know, the max loss rule has been really
385. 13:17useful, right?" And that really
386. 13:19prevented me from overtrading, right?
387. 13:20So, perhaps put it down. Biggest mistake
388. 13:22pattern to eliminate in the next
389. 13:23quarter, so and so forth.
390. 13:26And also, once again, do your deep
391. 13:27reflection right here.
392. 13:29All right. So, what is the biggest
393. 13:30breakthrough this quarter? Where do you
394. 13:32slip most? What's the fix? What was your
395. 13:34toughest moment and what did it teach
396. 13:36you? If you master just one thing next
397. 13:38quarter, what will it be?
398. 13:42Yeah, that's what the quarterly review.
399. 13:43Like I said, you want to be doing this
400. 13:45at the end of every 3 months, at the end
401. 13:46of each quarter, right? Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4.
402. 13:50Okay? And what you're doing over here is
403. 13:51that you're essentially evaluating your
404. 13:53trading results in that season.
405. 13:56So that you can
406. 13:58get better the next season.
407. 14:00All right.
408. 14:02Like I said, if
409. 14:04you played badly in this season, doesn't
410. 14:06mean that you have to play badly in next
411. 14:08season.
412. 14:09If you don't review your trades, you
413. 14:10don't review your trading performance,
414. 14:12then you sure as hell deserve to play
415. 14:14badly in the next season. All right.
416. 14:16It's the same thing with athletes.
417. 14:18After a professional NBA player lose a
418. 14:21ring, lose their NBA game, right?
419. 14:24They're not going to be sitting there
420. 14:25sulking. No, they're going to be
421. 14:26reviewing the tape. They're going to be
422. 14:28reviewing like their game play and see,
423. 14:30okay, what went wrong?
424. 14:31Okay, next season I'm not going to be
425. 14:32doing that. I'm going to be spending the
426. 14:35next few months in practice, getting rid
427. 14:37of those mistakes. Maybe I should, you
428. 14:39know, shoot the basketball this way.
429. 14:41Maybe I should like position myself at
430. 14:43this part of the court itself.
431. 14:46Right? That's what they're going to be
432. 14:47doing. They're going to be reviewing the
433. 14:48tape. And that's what you're doing in
434. 14:49these quarterly reviews yourself.
435. 14:51Last but not least, we've got the annual
436. 14:52review. Right, this is, to be honest, my
437. 14:55favorite form of review.
438. 14:57Because this is where I really like just
439. 14:59feel like I feel like this huge sense of
440. 15:02accomplishment, you know? I'll just
441. 15:03conquer an entire trading year. I showed
442. 15:05up every single day. I follow my trade
443. 15:07plan. Sometimes sometimes I didn't. And
444. 15:09now I got so much data to work with.
445. 15:13And funnily enough, just last month, it
446. 15:15was around January, like in the mid
447. 15:17midway through January, I took the time
448. 15:19out to actually go and review every
449. 15:21single trade I've taken in 2025. Right,
450. 15:24literally every single trade I've taken
451. 15:26I literally review it and then I note
452. 15:28down my win rate, my net P&L, all of
453. 15:30these stuff that that you see on the
454. 15:31screen right now.
455. 15:33And then the next day
456. 15:34I caught my biggest trade.
457. 15:36I literally made 300k on the next trade
458. 15:38itself, which was insane. Right? It's
459. 15:41like if I haven't done that deep audit
460. 15:44of my trading strategy in the past 1
461. 15:45year,
462. 15:46would I have caught that trade? Probably
463. 15:48not. Right? But because I did the audit,
464. 15:50I know okay exactly what I need to spot
465. 15:52when I look at the charts because
466. 15:54there's a recurring pattern. Every
467. 15:55single time I win a trade it's because
468. 15:57this setup appear. Every single time I
469. 15:59win a trade it's because I'm trading
470. 16:00this particular market at this timing.
471. 16:04Now I just need to do more of that.
472. 16:05That's it. Right? Look for that market,
473. 16:08look to trade at that time, look for
474. 16:09that entry model.
475. 16:11Boom, everything comes like clockwork.
476. 16:13History doesn't repeat itself, but it
477. 16:15sure as hell rhymes. Okay? What I mean
478. 16:17by that is that
479. 16:19every single movement in the market is
480. 16:20unique.
481. 16:22But there are going to be patterns that
482. 16:24tend to happen over and over. And if you
483. 16:26get good at spotting those patterns, if
484. 16:28you get good at recognizing those
485. 16:30patterns early, then you will be able to
486. 16:33capitalize on those opportunities when
487. 16:35they do appear in the market.
488. 16:38Once again, that's the power of
489. 16:39reviewing. It's the training of pattern
490. 16:41recognition skill. And I define the gut
491. 16:45feeling, your trader's intuition, as
492. 16:47simply a well-trained subconscious
493. 16:50pattern recognition skill.
494. 16:53That's it. All right? So, yeah, do your
495. 16:56annual review itself, spend more time
496. 16:57reflecting on the year itself. What are
497. 16:59the lessons you have learned? How you
498. 17:01have grown this year? What habits or
499. 17:02systems or mentorship contributed most
500. 17:05to your growth? What setbacks or
501. 17:06patterns kept repeating? What was your
502. 17:09proudest trading moment of the year and
503. 17:10why? What part of your strategy still
504. 17:12needs development or refinement? Uh and
505. 17:15what will make next year your best
506. 17:16trading year, yet, and how will you
507. 17:18engineer it?
508. 17:19Right? That's how we grow.
509. 17:22Remember, in life, it's either you grow
510. 17:24or you die. It's either you adapt or you
511. 17:26die. That's just how evolution works.
512. 17:29Okay, so if you're not going to die, you
513. 17:32might as well adapt. You might as well
514. 17:34grow. Right? That's the only way out.
515. 17:36That's the only way to make more money
516. 17:37in the next year, the next quarter, the
517. 17:38next month, next week. It's to keep on
518. 17:41growing. It's to keep on adapting to the
519. 17:42market. It's to keep on improving.
520. 17:45You will never ever go broke
521. 17:48as long as you
522. 17:50remain a lifelong student of the
523. 17:53financial markets.
524. 17:55As long as you have the humility to keep
525. 17:57on learning from the market, keep on
526. 17:59learning from your trading data, to keep
527. 18:01on getting better, to keep on refining
528. 18:03your trade plan, no matter how much
529. 18:05money you make, you will never ever go
530. 18:06broke.
531. 18:07Okay? So, don't get complacent. Use
532. 18:10these templates yourself. Like I said, I
533. 18:12don't I don't care how much money you
534. 18:13make. I don't care how much money you
535. 18:14lose. Just make this a habit. Just make
536. 18:16this a routine. Just make this a process
537. 18:18that you take every single month, every
538. 18:20single week, every single quarter, every
539. 18:21single year. That's it. Right? Once
540. 18:24again, just to remind you that these
541. 18:27templates aren't here to make you feel
542. 18:29productive. Okay? They're here to make
543. 18:30you profitable. All right. So,
544. 18:33when you use them, what you are doing is
545. 18:36that you are telling yourself that,
546. 18:37"Hey, man, I want to be the professional
547. 18:39trader. I want to be the guy that review
548. 18:40my tape. I want I want to be the guy
549. 18:41that keep on improving. I want to be a
550. 18:43lifelong student of the markets."
551. 18:45Because it's not the trader who makes
552. 18:47the most amount of money in a short term
553. 18:48that wins. No. It's the trader who
554. 18:51review their trades and seek to improve
555. 18:57that wins in the long term.
556. 19:00Like I said, the data is already in your
557. 19:02past trade. But most people just never
558. 19:04look closely enough to extract it. They
559. 19:07hop from strategy to strategy. They keep
560. 19:09asking for advice from their trading
561. 19:10mentors, their trading gurus, when in
562. 19:13reality everything is here.
563. 19:15Right? This is the secret sauce right
564. 19:16here. To me, this is the holy grail.
565. 19:19So, use the notebook, run the 5 hour
566. 19:21process, keep stacking small refinements
567. 19:23every single week, every single month,
568. 19:25every single quarter,
569. 19:26and a year later, 3 years later, 5 years
570. 19:29later, you'll look back and see how much
571. 19:32improvement you have made.
572. 19:34How many quantum leaps you have
573. 19:36accomplished in that period of time. And
574. 19:38that's how you stop guessing and you
575. 19:40start compounding.