The review loop: plan, execute, review, improve

The difficult part of trading is often not the chart. It is what happens after a win or a loss. Confidence can turn into extra trades. A loss can turn into an attempt to get the money back immediately. Fear can then freeze the next valid plan.

A review loop is smaller and less dramatic. Plan the trade before it is open. Execute the plan that was written. Review what happened against that plan. Improve one part of the process, not your entire identity as a trader.

A journal is the tool for that loop. It does not need to be long. It needs the idea, the risk, and whether the execution matched the idea. A winning trade that broke the plan is still information. A losing trade that followed the plan is also information.

MARKEX uses this loop in the second week of the intensive program and again in the performance review. The point is repetition. Psychology improves when the next action is defined.

No exercise removes emotion, and no journal guarantees profit. The standard is whether the next decision is more deliberate than the last one.