Process

Weekly Trade Review: A 30-Minute Routine for Traders

Thirty focused minutes beats hours of chart replay. Here is a repeatable weekly review checklist.

9 min read

Weekly review is where journals pay off. Without it, logging is archive — not improvement. Most traders replay charts for hours but never answer: Did I follow my rules? Which setup paid? What one change would help next week?

Block 30 minutes the same day each week — Sunday evening or Friday after the close — and run the same checklist every time. Consistency beats intensity. This guide is a minute-by-minute script you can reuse.

Before you start: gather the numbers

Open your journal overview filtered to the past 7 days (or your defined trading week). You need total R, trade count, win rate, expectancy, and tag breakdown. If any trades are unlogged, log them now — review on incomplete data creates false narratives.

Minutes 0–5: Scoreboard

  • Total R for the week
  • Number of trades (watch overtrading vs your plan)
  • Win rate and expectancy
  • Largest winner and largest loser in R
  • Rule-break count (trades tagged or noted as off-plan)

Write one sentence: “This week was ___ because ___.” Stick to facts — e.g. “+3.2R because breakouts followed through; −1.5R from two revenge trades after Tuesday.” No story beyond that.

Minutes 5–15: Setup audit

Filter by tag. Rank setups by average R and trade count. Ask which tag contributed most to total R and which dragged. If a tag shows −0.3R over 25 trades, that is real signal. If it shows −1R over 3 trades, label it insufficient data.

Compare planned RR vs realized R for your top tag. A pattern of early exits (planned +2R, realized +0.4R) is an execution issue, not a setup issue — fix exits before abandoning the pattern.

Minutes 15–22: Rule breaks

List trades where you moved stops, doubled size, chased price, or took unplanned entries. Sum the R cost of rule breaks vs planned trades. Many traders discover most weekly damage comes from a handful of discipline failures, not the core setup.

Note the trigger: boredom, prior loss, FOMO on a move you missed, or size confidence after a win. Triggers repeat — naming them is the first step to a pre-commit rule for next week.

Minutes 22–28: Diary patterns

Open calendar or diary view. Note sessions with clustered losses, late-day tilt, or exceptional focus. Link mood to process, not outcome — a winning week with rule breaks is still a process failure. A losing week with perfect rule adherence may be variance, not a broken system.

Look for time-of-day patterns: do you lose R after 2pm? On Mondays? After news? Diary view makes session clustering visible faster than scrolling a flat trade list.

Minutes 28–30: One commitment

Monthly layer (once a month)

Roll four weekly reviews into a monthly note: expectancy trend, setup roster changes, and whether size should stay flat, reduce, or scale. Compare best week R vs worst week R — if the gap is mostly rule breaks, fix process before adding capital.

Monthly review is also when you deep-dive 2–3 individual trades: best, worst, and most representative. Weekly review stays at the aggregate level; monthly adds selective replay.

When to skip weekly review

Only skip if you took zero trades and zero rule-break impulses worth noting. Otherwise run the scoreboard even on a −4R week — especially on a −4R week. The sessions that hurt most contain the triggers you need to name for next week’s one fix.

Print or pin the minute-by-minute checklist above your desk until the routine is automatic. Structure beats motivation when you are tired after a red session.

How Traderizz helps

Traderizz gives you the scoreboard and diary in one place: overview shows weekly R, expectancy, and win rate; tag filters rank setups by average R; the trader diary calendar highlights session clusters without exporting to Excel.

Use Jarvis during review to ask “What was my expectancy this week?” or “Which tag had the most trades?” — faster than manual pivot tables. Keep the 30-minute timer; let the app fetch numbers so you spend time on the one fix that matters.

Save your one weekly commitment in a note or journal description so you see it Monday pre-market. Review without a next action is entertainment; review with one fix is compounding process.

FAQ

Common questions

How is weekly review different from backtesting?

Backtesting validates a setup on history. Weekly review validates your execution of that setup in live conditions. Both matter; this guide is execution-focused.

Should I review every trade individually?

Not weekly. Spot-check 2–3 representative trades (best, worst, typical). Deep replay belongs in monthly review or after large outliers.

What if I had no trades this week?

Review patience as a metric. Note market conditions that did not fit your criteria. No-trade weeks can be process wins.

Friday or Sunday for weekly review?

Either works — pick the day you will actually do it every week. After the close Friday captures fresh memory; Sunday gives distance from P&L emotion.

Turn guides into data

Journal in R-multiples and review expectancy on every overview.

Open Traderizz