Post-Market Review: A Daily End-of-Session Workflow

The market close is not the end of the trading day — it is the start of the review. A 15-minute post-market workflow converts the session's chaos into structured data. Without it, you repeat the same mistakes for months without noticing.

The 15-minute workflow

Step 1 — Log every trade (5 minutes). For each trade, record: instrument, direction, setup name, entry time, entry price, stop, target, exit time, exit price, R-multiple, and a screenshot. No trade is skipped, including scratched and missed trades. Use a fixed five-column template: setup, entry, stop, target, outcome.

Step 2 — Tag errors (4 minutes). Classify every losing or below-plan trade with an error tag: exec-chase, exec-hesitate, risk-oversize, plan-bgrade, psy-fomo, psy-revenge, risk-movestop. If no error, tag clean-loss. Over 50 trades the tag frequency reveals your real leak — usually one or two tags drive 80% of the damage.

Step 3 — Score execution, not P&L (3 minutes). Grade the day A to F on process, not profit. Questions: did I take only A-grade setups? Did I honor the daily loss limit? Did I follow the pre-market plan? A losing day with an A grade is a good day; a winning day with a D grade is a warning. This separation prevents rewarding luck.

Step 4 — Journal the emotional state (2 minutes). Note your peak emotional state during the day (1–10) and what triggered it. Patterns emerge: "state hit 8 after the second loss, then I revenge-traded EUR/USD." This is how you discover your personal triggers.

Step 5 — Set one rule for tomorrow (1 minute). One sentence, one rule. Example: "No entries within 15 minutes of any tier-1 release." Do not set five rules — you will follow none. One rule, repeated until it sticks, then a new one.

Weekly aggregation

Every Friday, count the error tags for the week. If a single tag appears three or more times, escalate: add a structural fix for the next week (block the broker app during vulnerable hours, reduce size by 50%, force a walk after two losses).

The bottom line

A 15-minute post-market workflow — log trades, tag errors, score execution, journal emotion, set one rule — turns each session into measurable feedback. Score process over P&L, escalate recurring tags weekly, and never set more than one rule for tomorrow. The review is where improvement actually happens; the trading itself is just data collection.