What you will learn
- Pre-session preparation
- During-session checklist
- Post-session reconciliation
- Weekly review
Pre-session preparation
Preparation checks the account, instrument, scheduled events and data quality before decisions begin. Record material observations rather than copying yesterday's assumptions. The purpose is to establish whether the planned process can operate today.
During-session checklist
A during-session checklist should be short enough to use and specific enough to audit. Separate eligibility, sizing and execution-state checks. A checkbox saying be disciplined is less useful than a field showing the intended quantity and its calculation.
Post-session reconciliation
Post-session reconciliation compares orders, fills, positions and charges with the journal. Resolve unexplained differences before interpreting performance. A clean-looking equity chart does not excuse an unreconciled execution or missing fee.
Weekly review
Weekly review looks for repeated process issues and evaluates them across a defined sample. Distinguish ordinary losses under the rules from violations or data errors. Change one bounded part of the process when evidence supports it.
Worked example
A profitable session contains an accidental duplicate order. Marking the session successful solely because P&L is positive would hide an operational problem that could be costly on another day.
Try it yourself
Write separate outcome and process notes for that session and specify a corrective action that can be checked next week.
Show the worked solution
The outcome note records net P&L; the process note records the duplicate submission and resulting exposure. A corrective action could require a pending-order check before retries, with compliance reviewed across the next sessions.
Apply this to your course project
Submit a one-page demo plan with eligibility, invalidation and review rules.
Keep the calculation inputs, assumptions and decisions with your work. Practical exercises are self-reviewed; the scored knowledge checks assess the questions shown, not an independent certification of practical competence.