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I think he mentioned something regarding focusig on one or a core of specific areas to improve. I think something like this can have value when a lot of effort is needed to resolve a problem. A generalized review or journal process has value too. But I think the report card was specifically to address areas where a really concentrated effort could make the difference and I think it was evaluated over a month.
I am not 100% positive on the details either. Regardless, I think this concept of intense applied focus is more likely to yield results. A lot of traders' (and others) problems are circular in nature. A good way to think about a solution comes from a programming acronym DRY "Do not repeat yourself".
It is common as traders to get stuck the stage of being aware of a problem but then repeating the same problem because getting to the resolution is very difficult. These can be seen as hurdles or blocks which require significant effort to overcome and may require "taking a step back" to go forward.
So, a lot of the types of problems traders encounter require specialized technology, specific information/data, and various forms of work to resolve or improve.
Here is my first attempt at a trading report card. I took the elements (rules) of my trading which are important then gave them weight by importance. Then I graded each trade over the past week.
I only had one trade where I hit all my goals. Overall a D for the week. Before doing this I thought I had a pretty good week!!
Definitions:
Trigger: entered on valid trade trigger
Stop Used: Was a stop used on a trade
Partial Profits taken: Did I take partial profits at 1R?
Stopped Out / Target Hit: Did I let the trade get stopped out or let it reach the Profit Target? A zero will be given if I manually close out the trade.
Adjusted Stop: did I adjust the Stop as the trade moved into positive territory to protect profits?
I am not sure that this is the right approach. But, I think if you choose to focus on one or two aspects to work toward improving and can apply a tremendous effort too it then it is more likely to create breakthroughs. Your report card, to me, looks too complex and more like "busy work". I mean just statistically speaking you have many variables and it is going to be difficult to derive general insights from. However, if you find it helpful then it might still be a part of your journal process. For something like the report card, I would focus instead on developing big take aways and creating significant value:
As an example of a few big goals that could pay off big might look like:
Finding the best opportunities (best markets, best trades, etc)
Minimizing unnecessary losses (taking your best trades only or A+ setups, avoiding big loss days, etc)
Maximizing your profits on your best trades (sizing, profit taking, stop loss size, etc,forms of specializing)
Generating new plays/profits (forms of generalizing, i.e. generalizing your insights)
I think your report card should be something that can be understood and where new insights can be derived. As an example, if some markets are trading well and you are in the wrong markets or markets that aren't trading well then that is something where you could possibly identify as improvement. Even if you only trade a couple markets, you can still work on improving how well you are finding opportunity within your space.
My take is that traders often make the same errors because it requires a significant effort and expert insight to overcome those problems. Something like a trading report card can be useful if it allows you to focus your energies in a very concentrated way that leads to new insights, processes, technologies, etc.
Hypothetical example follows
Finding the best opportunities (best markets, best trades, etc)
Let's imagine you trade 2 markets. Your goal is to work on finding the best opportunities. And we'll assume you identified that on some days you are missing good trades in one of your markets. So, as part of your "significant effort", you identify some factors that allow you to better focus on which market to trade for the given day. You develop some indicators for Ninjatrader's Market Analyzer.
You make that part of your process. In addition, maybe one of your markets you only take a specific form of trade. So, as part of your effort you partially automate that trade so you get an alert for that setup. Finally, let us imagine as part of this process you generalize that setup and learn you can apply it to a different market. As part of that application process, you will need to adjust or specialize it for the new market.
One can imagine such changes could make a big difference in your bottom line. But also look at the hurdles you had to overcome, you had to program your setup. You had to develop new processes for how you approach the day. You had to identify relevant factors of your markets that you ignored. You had to learn to trade a new market that you avoided and you had to learn new specializations for that.
One can imagine that these efforts might produce a "compounding" effect in terms of your efficacy. What is relevant is that you built on your existing trading skills or game plan. You might break it down into two sections where you analyze how well you applied your process or the factors you think are most relevant and the second part is specify how you can do better. The second part or the focus is something where you apply effort over time.
As an example, I find my confidence my trades as generally useful. So I might rate myself on taking my most confident or best trades. But, the second aspect is how can I improve that? So you see there are 2 aspects, one is a scoring but the other is a plan.
As a numbers guy, I sometimes forget not everybody can see the same insight into set a numbers as I do. Most of what you have stated above is what report card reflects just in number form. The higher the weight of the number the more decisions had to be made to create the number. For example, six months ago one of the columns might have been "Did I choose the right market?" with a weight of 2. As I progressed, that gets folded into the Trigger number which had a weight of 3. Combined together, the Trigger now has a weight of 5. Also, the numbers incorporate certain aspects of my trading plan. So it does cover both.
In the bigger picture, consideration should be taken as to where the trader is at in their career. This will dictate what the report card shows. For instance, my goal is to maximize profits so the report card is geared toward showing where I need to improve in this area. Where yours, based on your comments, may be more geared to finding good opportunities in multiple markets.
I would be interested to see how you would construct your report card.
A good question to ask is why? Start with why. The next useful aspect to consider is that most improvements are going to be either specializations or optimizations or generalizations. I think that you need detailed statistics to make meaningful specialization improvements.
The goals for the journal might seek to address, emphasize, or stress the following concerns:
Focus, i.e. Pre-Market Prep
Rules
Core Working Goal
Daily affirmations, intentions, and goals
Narrative Review / Developing Playbook
Scoring
Improving/New inferences/Take-Aways
I think it goes back to the purpose. I think that it needs to be more then just a score. How is that score going to help you improve the next day? There needs to be some sort of inference or take-away derived.
Every score card will probably be different but the following is what I have used in the past. I would answer each question with possibly a score like A,B,C, etc. The real value though would be in the notes. Certainly it is useful to become aware that my read of the market wasn't good on a particular day. But, why wasn't it good? What did I miss? Just my saying I didn't read the market well is of limited value. Likewise, it the same if my market read was good. Why was I able to read the market well?
On your report card, you have for example "adjusted stop". This should be a question because if you know it is always bad or always good then you shouldn't list it. So, in that sense if you are trying to answer the question that's a form of specialization. It is certainly useful but once you figure that out then you should know it. It is an attribute to be analyzed. However, you shouldn't "rank" or "score" based on a question you are trying to determine. You should rank or score based on predictive factors or adhering to principles or review in such a way that it helps to orient you toward opportunity, in my opinion.
Revised,
Focus and orientation / Market Selection, i.e. among my opportunity set was I aware of what I could be aware of?
Market read and market cognition?, i.e how well did I understand the market?
Trade quality/selection, i.e did I take the best trades, i.e. waiting for when my read was clear?
Individual Trade Risk Management and Utilization, i.e. did I manage risk and utilize it on a per trade basis well?
Overall profit and risk management on the day, i.e. did I avoid giving back significant profits and limit losses?
Building PlayBook, documenting processes, and deriving worthwhile insights, i.e. what am I learning, developing, growing?
I agree, TJS is great software and support with plenty options for building your "report card" for multiple brokers, systems, instruments. I have used it for years and it gives me exactly what I need to see my performance or lack there of.
