Reviewing previous trades is one of the most ignored customs of forex and other trading styles. Most traders have spent hours staring at charts, indicators and strategies and have neglected the most important step, which is to look back at what they already did. Professionals are aware that growth cannot only occur through placing trades, but also through analysing them afterwards. Trades like a pro will make you realise how you make decisions, when you go wrong, and how to get it right to succeed in the long term.

 

This is how you can do a proper trade review so as to increase performance and mindset.

 

1. Maintain an Accounting Book of Trading

 

Trading journals are not a choice; they are mandatory for every professional trader. By using a journal, you can record all details about your trades so that you can analyse later on what was working and what was not.

 

Your journal should include:

 

  • Date and time of the trade
  • Traded pair/asset in currencies.
  • Trade direction (buy/sell)
  • Entry and exit prices
  • Take-profits and stop-losses.
  • Position size
  • Sensibility of entry (technical or fundamental establishment)
  • Market conditions (volatility, direction of the trend, major news)
  • Pre-trade and in-trade emotional state.

 

Documenting this information provides you with the raw necessity of a valuable review. This will be aimed at creating your decision-making on paper so that you can identify patterns that are good and bad with time.

 

2. Make Photos of Your Trades

 

Part of the story is narrated by numbers, the rest is narrated by visuals. When entering and leaving, they have their trades captured on screen by professional traders. This allows you to go back to the precise market environment and technical arrangements that have informed your choices.

 

You may see things on a later date that you could not see at the time, like a level of resistance that you had disregarded or a new line appearing on a larger time scale.

 

Setting up a folder system on your computer (i.e. Winning Trades, Losing Trades, Break-even Trades) and naming screenshots by date and trade number. In the long run, this will accumulate to a visual library which can train your eye in the future/setup.

 

3. Analyse Your Metrics

 

Traders who are professionals think about probabilities and not emotions. To build this attitude, analyse your performance quantitatively. The key metrics that you can use your journal to compute include:

 

  • Win rate: the ratio of trades which allow successful completion.
  • Risk-to-reward ratio (R: R): The extent to which you risk, plus the extent to which you can earn.
  • Average win/average loss: Informs you whether your wins and losses per trade are higher than your gain per win.
  • Expectancy: How much, on average, you can expect to make (or lose) on trade after a period of time.

 

As an illustration, to be profitable, you may have a 45-per-cent win rate, but an average winning trade may be earning you twice as much as an average loss.

 

These figures will give you an objective perspective of your performance and allow you to identify chances and skills.

 

4. Determine Patterns and Barefoot

 

Having gathered sufficient information, find patterns. Ask yourself:

 

  • Do I lose better when I trade in specific sessions (e.g. Asian session)?
  • Is it more than I lose when I defy my own rules?
  • Am I too early or a tardy person?
  • Are some of these arrangements always profitable?

 

Professionals use this analysis to do away with behaviours that make them spend money. What you might find is that unconfirmed impulse trades do not work and that your most profitable trades occur when you adhere to your risk-management plan to the letter.

 

You make forex trading online a continuous improvement process rather than a guesswork by identifying such trends.

 

5. Review the Emotional Side

 

Trading is not only about charts, but also about psychology. One of the professional reviews involves an assessment of your emotional performance. Record the pre-trade, concomitant, and post-trade feelings.

 

Ask:

 

  • Was I patient waiting for my setup?
  • Did I feel anxious or euphoric?
  • Did I stick to my plan, or did fear and greed influence me?

 

It may turn out that your strategy is not the issue, but the problem is your emotions. Identifying this provides strength to fix it, and maybe by scaling down position, not overtrading, or having a rest day following a losing streak.

 

Keep it in mind: consistency in the mindset towards trade is of the same importance as consistency in the strategy.

 

6. Look At Your Trades in Relation to the Large

 

The traders consider individual trades on a case-by-case basis. The review of your trades does not imply concentrating on the results only, but rather on the reflection of how they can be considered as part of your trading plan.

 

Ask:

 

  • Did this trade conform to my general plan?
  • Have I acted according to my rules and trading system?
  • Was it a good market trend in the trade, or did I contravene it?

 

This will make you aware whether you are staying on track or have lost track. A trader who succeeds now and then and violates his or her rules may feel intelligent in the short run, but the professionals understand that discipline is better than luck in the long run.

 

7. Establish Targets and Results at the End of Every Review

 

A trade review is not completed before it results in improvements. Having analysed your data, you should also set specific, measurable goals in a week or a month.

 

Examples:

 

  • Waiting till the close of candles before investing
  • Risk is only 1% per trade
  • Do not trade in times of big news
  • One off every three consecutive losses

 

Keep your ambitions down to earth and concentrate on a single or two categories. Excessive changes simultaneously can be a watering down of improvements.

 

8. Plan Review Sessions Periodically

 

Finally, consistency is key. Professionals don’t look back at their trades only after they make large gains or losses, but regularly. Take time each week or month and review your trades.

 

This is the period to evaluate the quantitative as well as the qualitative performance. In the long run, you will witness objective growth in decision-making, emotional control, and profitability.

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Last Update: October 10, 2025

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