How to Review Your Trades Every Week: A 30-Minute Routine

A journal you never review is just a diary. The weekly review is where the journal turns into better trading. It takes about 30 minutes, and it works best as the same steps every week.

Before you start

Make sure every trade from the week is in the journal, including the ones you'd rather forget. Auto-sync helps here: nothing can be skipped.

The 30-minute weekly review

1. The numbers (5 minutes)

Net result, number of trades, win rate and average R. Compare with last week. Don't judge yet; just notice.

2. Rules kept (5 minutes)

How many trades followed your plan, and how many didn't? Then compare the results of the two groups. For most traders the rule-breaking trades are where the money went.

3. The three biggest losses (10 minutes)

Replay each one. Was the idea wrong, or the execution? Was the loss the size you planned? A loss taken at the planned size on a valid setup is a cost of business. A loss twice the planned size is a problem to fix.

4. The best trade (5 minutes)

Replay it too. What made it good, and could you have held it longer? Winners cut early are the quiet leak in many journals.

5. One change for next week (5 minutes)

Pick one thing, and only one. "No trades in the first 15 minutes." "Maximum three trades a day." "Stop after two losses." Write it where you will see it before every session.

Mistakes that make reviews useless

• Judging trades by their result instead of by the decision.
• Changing five things at once, so you never learn which one helped.
• Skipping the review after a good week. Good weeks hide bad habits too.

Doing it in The Pips Project

Edge shows the week's numbers, splits results by setup and session, and compares the days you kept your daily rule with the days you didn't. Replay covers steps 3 and 4. The daily check-in holds your one rule for the day, and Pip can summarise your week and point to the biggest leak if you ask. It all starts from a complete journal, which is what auto-sync is for.