Template
Trade review template
A good trade review separates the decision from the result. This template gives you a fixed format for reviewing why you took a trade, how you executed it, and what you felt — so a winning trade taken badly still gets caught.
When to use it
When to use a trade review template
Reviewing from memory rewards outcomes: a green trade feels good, so it goes unexamined, and a red trade feels bad, so it gets rationalized. A fixed template breaks that bias by asking the same questions of every trade regardless of P&L.
Use it on the trades that actually teach you something — the ones where you deviated from plan, felt an urge, or got a result that surprised you. You do not need to review all of them; you need to review the ones with a lesson.
- End-of-session review, going trade by trade through what you did
- After a trade that won despite breaking your rules — the dangerous kind
- After a loss, to separate a bad outcome from a bad decision
- Weekly, to spot the behavior that keeps showing up across reviews
Template preview
A single trade review fits on one screen. Here is the blank shape — the fields stay the same every time, which is what makes patterns countable.
- Setup
- Plan vs. actual
- Decision grade
- Execution grade
- Emotion
- Behavior tag
- One-line lesson
What each field means
Each field is deliberately small. The aim is a review you will actually finish in two minutes, not a form that punishes you for trading.
Setup
The named setup or pattern this trade was supposed to be. If it was not a setup you trade, say so — that is itself the finding.
Plan vs. actual
What the plan said (entry, stop, target) next to what you actually did. The gap between the two is where most reviews earn their keep.
Decision grade
A to F for the quality of the decision at the moment you made it, judged on what you knew then — not on how it turned out.
Execution grade
A to F for how cleanly you executed: entry timing, stop discipline, whether you sized as planned. A great decision can still be executed badly.
Emotion
One or two honest words for your state: calm, rushed, fearful, revenge, bored. Self-reported — only you know — but consistent words make a pattern.
Behavior tag
A short, reusable tag for what you did: chased, hesitated, moved stop, cut winner early, sized up after a loss, followed plan.
One-line lesson
The single thing you would do differently. If the answer is "nothing," the trade was clean — note that too.
Worked example
A filled-in trade review
A losing trade that was actually a good decision executed impatiently — exactly the kind a result-based review would mislabel.
- Setup
- Opening-range breakout, my A setup
- Plan vs. actual
- Plan: enter on retest of the range high. Actual: entered on the first push, before the retest.
- Decision grade
- A — right setup, right market conditions
- Execution grade
- C — jumped the entry, paid a worse price, stop hit on the retest
- Emotion
- Rushed — afraid of missing the move
- Behavior tag
- chased
- One-line lesson
- Wait for the retest. The setup was right; my patience was not.
The P&L was red, but the decision was an A. Without separate decision and execution grades, this trade reads as "bad idea" instead of "good idea, fix the entry."
Use this template
Copy the structure below into a notebook, spreadsheet, or notes app — it works anywhere. Or skip the setup and use it live in Mettle.
TRADE REVIEW Setup: ____________________ Plan vs. actual: ____________________ Decision grade: A B C D F Execution grade: A B C D F Emotion: ____________________ Behavior tag: ____________________ One-line lesson: ____________________
Mettle runs this review as a structured step on every session. You grade the decision and execution, tag the behavior, and the self-reported tags accumulate so the recurring one surfaces over time instead of staying buried in scattered notes.
See how it works in MettleFAQ
Do I need software to use this template?
No. Every field here works in a paper notebook, a spreadsheet, or a notes app. The structure is the point. Software helps once you want the mechanical facts imported and the entries read back to you automatically.
Why grade the decision and the execution separately?
Because a trade can be a good decision executed badly, or a bad decision that happened to win. Collapsing them into one score lets the result hide the lesson. Two grades keep the decision honest regardless of P&L.
How is this different from a trading journal?
A journal logs what happened across many trades. A review is the deeper pass on a single trade — why you took it and how you executed. The journal feeds the review; they are not the same document.
Is Mettle free to start?
Yes. You get full access free for 14 days with no card. We only ask for a card once you have reviewed three sessions — after the product has proven it earns a place in your routine.
Run this review on every session
Mettle turns this template into a guided review step and remembers your tags, so the pattern that costs you the most stops hiding. Free to start, no card.
Start free — no cardMore templates
Want the workflow, not just the template? Read the matching step-by-step guide.