Building a weekly MACD review without chasing P&L

Traders who open their journal with the P&L column first tend to rewrite history. We reverse the order in Trade Journal Review sessions.

Order of operations

1. List every MACD crossover decision—taken or skipped—with your A–D quality grade.
2. Note which filters you followed and which you overrode.
3. Only then record outcome in R-multiples or points.

Why grade first

A C-grade cross that happened to pay still teaches something different from an A-grade cross that stopped out. If outcome leads the narrative, you will inflate the grade after the fact.

Time box

Forty minutes is enough for most discretionary traders who take a handful of signals per week. Longer sessions usually mean the log fields are still too vague—an issue we fix before adding more ritual.