SPX Plays
What was my best trade this week — and why?
Copy the setup into your playbook.
The #1 edge that separates profitable traders from the rest. Learn what to track, how to review, and the AI-powered shortcut SPX Plays members use.
If you're not reviewing your trades, you're flying blind. Here's exactly what to track and how to review it.
Ask any consistently profitable trader what moved them from breakeven to green and almost every answer includes one word: journaling.
And yet, when we survey new SPX Plays members, less than 15% journal their trades consistently. The reason is almost never "I don't believe in it" — it's "I don't have time" or "it's a pain to maintain."
If you take 20 trades a week and 3 are driven by the same unnamed leak (say, revenge trading after a loss), that leak is quietly costing you ~15% of your volume — every single week. A journal is how you name it, so you can kill it.
Without a journal, every trading mistake you make is effectively anonymous. You lose $1,200, you feel bad for 10 minutes, and you move on. The lesson evaporates. The same mistake shows up in different clothes next week.
A great journal is not complicated. It's a simple table that captures the trade and the decision around it. At minimum, every entry should have:
Apr 16 · 10:42 AM
SPX 6870P · 0DTE
2.15 → 4.80
5 contracts
+$1,325
GEX flip + double-bottom
Entry 2.10, stop 1.50, target 4.00+
Calm · planned trade
Cut winner early — should've trailed
Nine fields. If you do this religiously for 30 days, you'll spot your real edge faster than any paid course can teach you.
The Emotion / State column is the one that separates amateur journals from pro ones. Use a simple tag system — we recommend these six:
At the end of the month, look at your P&L grouped by tag. You'll almost certainly discover that your PLANNED trades are 3-5x more profitable than your REVENGE trades. This single insight is worth more than most traders' entire subscription stacks.
Collecting data is half the battle. The other half is sitting down with it. Block 45 minutes every Sunday (same time each week) and answer these four questions:
Copy the setup into your playbook.
What rule did I break?
Almost always PLANNED. Scale that.
Write it down. Review it Monday morning.
Never try to fix more than one leak per week. Your brain can only rewire one habit at a time. Pick the leak that's costing you the most dollars, make the change, and wait until the next review to tackle the next one. This is how professional traders compound improvement.
If you want the no-frills version, copy this into a Google Sheet or Notion table:
| Date | Time | Ticker | Entry | Exit | Size | P&L | Setup | Plan? | Emotion | Lesson |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fill in every trade the moment you close it... | ||||||||||
Log while the emotion is fresh — before you check Twitter, before you open the next chart. The 90-second habit of logging immediately is what makes the difference between a journal you use and one you abandon.
Real talk: most traders try manual journaling, do it for 2 weeks, and quit. The friction of remembering every field + importing trades + categorizing them is just too much ongoing effort.
That's exactly why we built TradeDog — an AI-powered trading journal that solves the friction problem:
Manual entry or CSV import from Schwab, Robinhood, Fidelity, E*TRADE, and IBKR. Multi-leg support for scaled entries and exits.
Daily briefings, insight cards, and a chat that answers from your real data. "Stop trading after 2 PM" — specific, not generic.
Log emotional state, confidence, and whether you followed your plan. See how your mindset correlates with your P&L.
As an SPX Plays member, you get 50% off any TradeDog plan for life. No code needed — just sign up with your membership email.
Visit TradeDog →Journaling lets you identify patterns in your trading behavior—both good and bad. Without a journal, mistakes repeat anonymously. With one, you can quantify what's costing you money and fix it systematically.
At minimum: date, time, ticker, entry/exit price, size, P&L, setup/thesis, whether you followed your plan, emotional state, and one-sentence lesson. These 9 fields give you everything you need to improve.
Weekly is ideal. Block 45 minutes every Sunday to review your best trade, worst trade, emotional patterns, and pick ONE thing to fix next week. Monthly reviews are good for spotting longer-term trends.
Spreadsheets work—they're better than nothing. But most traders quit after 2 weeks because manual entry is tedious. TradeDog automates the busywork (imports, categorization, analysis) so you actually stick with it. SPX Plays members get 50% off for life.
That's exactly why most traders stay stuck. Your losses contain your most valuable lessons. The faster you can review them objectively (as data, not personal failure), the faster you improve. Journaling helps you detach emotionally and see the patterns.
Join hundreds of traders who stopped guessing and started winning.
Use code INTRO50 for 50% off first month
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