What's your probation period for new rules?

New rules need a trial: adopted provisionally, run for a set number of trades, then kept or dropped on the evidence. Without the trial period, rules multiply and contradict.

What's your probation period for new rules? — drawdown and recovery diagram
An equity curve during a drawdown and its recovery

How do you trial rules?

  • how long a rule stays provisional
  • the evidence that keeps or kills it
  • the rule that failed its trial
What's your probation period for new rules? — risk-reward diagram
A risk-reward ratio of 1 to 2

The journal guide provides the trial's data.

Background: How to keep a trading journal that actually improves your trading

A journal turns a pile of trades into evidence. What to record, the numbers worth calculating and a weekly review routine that takes less than an hour.

What should a trading journal include?

For each trade: the pair, direction, size, entry, stop, target, risk, the reason for the trade, how you felt, the result in money and in R, whether you followed your plan, and chart screenshots.

How do I calculate expectancy?

Multiply your win rate by your average win, then subtract your loss rate multiplied by your average loss. Measured in R, a positive result means the approach has made money per trade on average.

Read the full guide

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