New Trade Logic
Document the plan before you place the trade.
Most traders review trades after the fact. The traders who improve faster use a pre-trade checklist — logging their setup, bias, and entry criteria before execution, while the thesis is still uncontaminated by the outcome.
Six fields. Each one forces a decision before capital is at risk.
Setup Name
Assign a strategy tag before entry. Links this trade to your backtested setup — so you can compare theoretical edge vs. live execution over time.
Directional Bias
Long or short — and the reasoning behind it. Committing this in writing before entry exposes bias-driven trades: if you can't articulate the thesis, the trade shouldn't happen.
Entry Signal
The specific trigger that caused you to act. Selecting from your configured signal list (breakout, pullback, reversal, etc.) builds a searchable dataset of which signals produce positive expectancy.
Screenshot
Chart capture at the moment of entry — not the chart you pulled up an hour later to review. The pre-entry screenshot shows the actual setup, not a rationalized version of it.
Entry Checklist
Your configured list of conditions that must be checked before entering. Each item is binary — checked or skipped. The completion rate across all trades shows how consistently you follow your own rules.
Pre-Trade Notes
Freeform notes written before entry. Context about news, level confluences, or hesitations. Contrast these against your Post Mortem notes to see how accurate your pre-trade read was.
Post-trade journaling is outcome-contaminated. You review the trade after you know whether it won or lost, and your analysis is colored by that result. Pre-trade logging captures your actual decision-making process.
Post-trade only (most traders)
Pre-trade + post-trade (SignalDeck)
Every pre-trade plan is attached to its actual outcome. After 50+ trades, filter your journal by setup name to see which of your setups have positive expectancy — and which are pattern-matching noise that looks like a system.
Most traders know their win rate. Very few know which specific setup type drives that win rate. A trader with 60% win rate and three setup types might find that one produces 78% wins and the other two produce 48%. Eliminating the underperforming setups is one of the highest-leverage improvements available — but only once you can see the data broken out.
New Trade Logic creates that dataset automatically. Log the setup before entry, attach to the outcome, and the analytics tab shows performance by setup type, signal type, and checklist completion rate.
Free during beta — every feature included. Connect your broker or start with manual trade entry. No credit card required.
Open SignalDeck — FreeWhat is a pre-trade checklist?
A structured list of conditions that must be met before entering a trade — trend direction confirmed, setup valid, key level identified, risk defined, position size calculated. The purpose is consistency: every entry uses the same decision criteria, not a different gut-feel each session.
Why should I plan trades before entering?
Pre-trade planning forces you to commit to entry criteria, target, and stop before emotions are involved. When the trade moves against you, you have a written record of the original thesis — either it's still valid and you hold, or it's invalid and you exit. Without a written plan, most traders move stops mid-trade, exit winners early, and hold losers hoping for recovery.
How is this different from adding notes after the trade closes?
Notes added after entry are outcome-contaminated — your analysis is colored by knowing whether you won or lost. Pre-trade logging captures the actual decision-making state before execution. You can later compare what you planned vs. what happened, which produces the clearest signal about execution quality.
Can I use this for prop firm challenge accounts?
Yes — and it's especially useful. Adding a checklist item for "daily loss limit headroom confirmed" before every entry creates a mechanical gate that forces you to check the live drawdown monitor before placing the trade. Prop firm account failures are mostly process failures, not edge failures — pre-trade checklists address process directly.
What is a trade setup library and how do I build one?
A setup library is a searchable archive of pre-trade plans linked to outcomes. In SignalDeck, every trade tagged with a setup name or strategy becomes part of that setup's performance record. After 50+ trades, filter by setup type in Analytics to see which setups have positive expectancy. Most traders find that 1–2 setups carry their win rate while 2–3 others destroy it — removing the underperformers is the highest-leverage improvement available.
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