Trade Review: How to Look Back on Your Past Trades
A trade review is the process of reopening a closed trade to check why you bought, what the result was, and whether your judgment matched the facts. Like reviewing a chess game, you retrace what went well and what fell short using data, so you can reduce repeating the same mistakes on your next trade.
What a Trade Review Looks At
The point of a review is the quality of the decision, not the outcome. A profit can be luck, and a loss can follow a sound process. You check whether your buy reason matched the actual facts, whether you stuck to your planned exit, and whether you stayed clear of emotion. Looking at profit and loss alone cannot separate luck from skill. The review gains meaning only when you compare your notes against the filings and news as facts.
Building a Review Routine
A review is not heavy analysis but a short, steady habit. Right after selling, write one line on whether it went to plan; each weekend, gather that week's trades and look again. Check whether numbers like win rate or payoff ratio improved, and whether you keep repeating a mistake. The goal is fact-checking, not self-blame. Review your winners the same way, to ask whether that success rested on a repeatable basis.
Reviewing with I See Stocks
I See Stocks automatically gathers the DART and SEC filings and news from each trade's date beside the entry, so you never search separately for what was happening then. You can set your written buy reason next to the factual context and compare them, while win rate, payoff ratio, and expectancy are calculated to give your review an evidence base. Every interpretation and conclusion stays yours; the app does not recommend trades.
FAQ
- When is the best time to review my trades?
- A short review right after selling, plus a batched review each weekend or month-end, works well. The immediate review captures your emotions and reasoning while they are fresh, while the batched review lets you group several trades together to spot patterns across them.
- Should I only review losing trades?
- No, you should review winning trades the same way. A loss can come from a sound process, and a profit can come from luck. Only by separating skill from luck on your wins can you find the basis for repeating that success rather than assuming you will.
Related terms
Author's own past trade · Informational only, not investment advice or a recommendation · Self-reported, unverified