Why most trading rules fail
"Be patient" and "manage risk" are wishes, not rules. A rule you can only judge afterwards, by feel, is a rule you will bend when it matters. A rule that works is exact: it is an action you either did or did not do, and anyone could check it.
Write them for three moments
- Before the trade: what must be true, and what you do, before you click. Example: "No high-impact news in the next 3 hours." "A screenshot of my chart with level, stop and target drawn."
- While it runs: what you will not do. Example: "I never move my stop further away." "I do not add to a loser."
- After it closes: what you do to learn. Example: "A two-sentence journal note, written while it is fresh." "Ten minutes away from the screen."
Prefer rules that can be checked
The strongest rules do not rely on your honesty at all: a calendar check, a count of trades today, a minimum reward-to-risk, a risk limit you set when you were calm. Next best is proof: a screenshot taken before the trade, or a written answer about this trade. Weakest is a plain yes. If most of your rules are plain yeses, a bad day will talk you into ticking them.
Make breaking them visible
A rule you break in private costs you nothing. Count them: how many trades in the last month met every rule? That one number, and the pattern behind it (which rule, which hour, after which loss), is the point of a journal.
Start with three
One for before, one for after, one more. Add a rule only when you have followed the first ones for a month. Twelve rules you ignore are worse than three you keep.
StoiKodex lets you write your own rules, suggests ones that fit your mistakes, checks what it can itself and asks for proof for the rest.