# How to review your trades: the weekly review that improves results > The weekly review turns a week of trades into a week of lessons — the habit that separates traders who improve from traders who repeat themselves. Here is the framework, the metrics and the decisions it produces. - Canonical URL: https://forextradingcommunity.com/news/how-to-review-your-trades/ - Type: Guide - Published: 2026-09-18 - Updated: 2026-09-18 - Publisher: Forex Trading Community (https://forextradingcommunity.com), FTC Editorial Team - Currencies: USD The difference between traders who improve and traders who repeat themselves is not talent, information or effort. It is the review. Traders who improve sit down weekly, examine their trades against their plan, and turn the evidence into decisions. Traders who repeat themselves move straight to the next trade and let the same mistakes happen again, slightly differently dressed. This guide explains the weekly review: what to gather, which metrics to examine, and how to convert the findings into changes. The recording side is in [how to keep a trading journal](/news/how-to-keep-a-trading-journal/); this guide is the analysis layer that follows. ## What the review is for The review has one job: to find the difference between the plan and the reality, and to decide what the difference means. Every trade is a data point; the review is where the data becomes information. The review answers three questions, in order: **Did I follow the plan?** The execution question. Which trades followed the rules, which broke them, and what was happening — emotionally, situationally — when the breaks occurred? **Is the plan working?** The strategy question. Are the numbers — win rate, average win, average loss, expectancy — what the plan predicted, or has something changed? **What changes does the evidence support?** The decision question. The review's output is not feelings about the week; it is a short list of specific changes, each supported by the journal's data, each testable over the coming weeks. The [expectancy guide](/news/risk-reward-ratio-win-rate-and-expectancy/) supplies the metrics the strategy question needs. ## What to gather The review starts with the week's records: every trade, with its setup, entry, stop, target, result in R, and the notes taken at the time. The journal's fields are the review's raw material, which is why a thin journal produces a thin review. The [journal guide](/news/how-to-keep-a-trading-journal/) defines the fields that make the review possible. Alongside the trades, gather the week's context: the calendar events that mattered, the market's regime, and the emotional notes — the states the trader was in when the trades were taken. Context is what turns a losing trade from a mystery into a pattern. ## The metrics that matter The review examines a small set of metrics, always in R rather than money, so that account size stays out of the analysis: **Expectancy.** The average result per trade in R — the week's single most important number, and the one that answers whether the system is working. The [expectancy guide](/news/risk-reward-ratio-win-rate-and-expectancy/) has the calculation. **Win rate against the plan's baseline.** The week's win rate compared with what the system historically produces. A week below baseline is a streak; a month below baseline is a pattern. **Rule adherence.** The percentage of trades that followed the plan, and the R cost of the ones that didn't. This metric is the trader's mirror, and it is usually where the week's real losses live. **The skipped trades.** The setups that appeared and were not taken, and what they would have returned. The skipped trades are invisible on the statement and often the most instructive part of the review — they show whether the discipline is working or whether fear has crept into the execution. ## The pattern hunt Beyond the metrics, the review hunts for patterns — the recurring situations behind the week's results: **The setup pattern.** Which setups won and lost this week? The answer often differs from the trader's assumption, and the review's job is to confront the assumption with the data. **The time pattern.** Were the losses concentrated in a session, a day of the week, or around a type of event? Time patterns are among the easiest to fix: stop trading the losing window. **The emotional pattern.** What was the state before the worst trades — tired, chasing, bored, overconfident? The emotional pattern connects the journal's mood notes to the results, and the fixes are usually rules rather than willpower. The [psychology threads](/community/) cover the standard fixes. ## From findings to decisions The review's final step is the decision list — small, specific and testable: - **One change per review, maximum.** The traders who exit a review with five changes implement none of them. One change, testable over the coming week, is the format that works. - **The change must be written as a rule.** "Be more patient" is not a change; "no entries in the first 15 minutes of a session" is. - **The change gets a trial period.** The rule runs for a defined stretch — typically two to four weeks — and the next reviews measure it. The [trading plan guide](/news/how-to-build-a-trading-plan/) covers how rules earn their place or lose it. ## The rhythm The weekly review is the core, but it works inside a rhythm: the post-session note captures the day while it is fresh, the weekly review finds the patterns, and the monthly review examines the bigger shape — the drift in size, the slow habit changes, the strategy's long-term health. The layers catch different problems, and the traders who run all three are the ones whose results compound. The review is the cheapest edge in trading: it costs an hour a week and compounds for years. Gather the records, read the metrics, hunt the patterns, and make one testable change — and the week's trades stop being a blur and become the curriculum. ## Sources - [US Commodity Futures Trading Commission](https://www.cftc.gov/) - [Bank for International Settlements](https://www.bis.org/) ## Common questions ### How often should I review my trades? Weekly is the core rhythm, supported by a brief post-session note each day and a monthly review for the bigger picture. The layers catch different problems. ### What metrics should a trade review examine? Expectancy in R, win rate against the plan's baseline, rule adherence with the cost of the breaks, and the skipped trades. These four tell you whether the system and the trader are working. ### How many changes should come out of a review? One, written as a specific rule, with a trial period. Multiple changes never get implemented; one testable change does. ### What are the most common patterns a review finds? Setup patterns (which setups actually win), time patterns (losses concentrated in a session or day), and emotional patterns (the states before the worst trades). The fixes are rules, not willpower. ### Why track results in R instead of money? R removes account size from the analysis and keeps the review about process. A 2R week is a 2R week whether the account is $500 or $50,000. --- This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Trading forex and CFDs carries a high risk of losing money.