A trade review is a structured examination of a trade or a set of trades that checks the process against the plan: whether the entry rule fired, the stop matched the invalidation, the size came from the risk budget, and the exit followed the rule. Its purpose is to separate a fixable process deviation from ordinary variance.
How it works
A review scores process, not profit: each trade is checked against the written rules before any conclusion about the strategy is drawn.
It looks for patterns across trades. One deviation is an event; the same deviation repeated is a process problem worth fixing.
Why it matters
Outcomes are noisy, so a review that judges by P&L cannot tell skill from luck or a process problem from a rough stretch.
A good review produces a finding about the process, which is the only part the trader controls and can fix.
A simple market example
After a losing week, a trader reviews each trade: every entry, stop, and size matched the plan, and the setups were reasonably diverse. The finding is that execution held, so the stretch looks more like ordinary variance than a process flaw.
Common mistakes
Judging each trade by profit or loss instead of by whether the plan was followed.
Concluding the strategy is broken from a single trade that followed the plan.
Frequently asked questions
Is a trade review the same as journaling?
They overlap. The journal is the record; the review is the structured examination of that record against the plan.
How often should I review?
There is no fixed cadence, but reviews must cover enough trades to see a pattern, not one trade at a time in isolation.
What makes a review useful?
It produces a finding about the process: what matched, what deviated, and whether the deviation repeats.
Educational content only. Definitions describe common market usage and may vary by jurisdiction, instrument, or institution.