How to use the journal.
From your first evening prompt to your first Sunday review to your first tax export. Ten short stops. The journal is the mirror. This is how you look in it.
What the journal is for.
The journal is a mirror, not a notebook. It is not for writing down everything you did. It is for catching the patterns you keep repeating without knowing it. The goal is to see yourself clearly, one trade at a time.
Open the journal and read nothing. Just notice how it feels to look at your own week.
The first-evening prompt.
The first time you open the journal in the evening, EVE asks one question: one thing you noticed today. Not a wrap-up. Not a grade. One thing. The prompt stays small on purpose so you actually answer it.
Answer it in under ten words. Short is the whole point.
Saving trades.
Every trade you take gets saved automatically. Entry, exit, size, time, ticker, profit or loss. You do not have to type anything for the trade to land in the journal. Your only job is to come back and read it.
Take one study trade today and open the journal tonight. The trade is already there waiting.
The trade detail card.
Click any trade to open its detail card. You see the chart at entry, the chart at exit, the reason you typed in, the tags you added, and any note you wrote after. Everything you need to relive the trade is in one place.
Open your last trade. Look at the entry chart for thirty seconds. Would you take it again?
Tags.
Tags come in two colors. Fact tags are blue: gap up, news, earnings, breakout. Feeling tags are amber: rushed, hesitant, revenge, calm. Facts tell you the setup. Feelings tell you the state you were in. Both matter.
Tag your next trade with one fact and one feeling. Be honest about the feeling. That is where the edge hides.
The calendar.
The calendar shows your week at a glance. Each day is a square. Green means up, red means down, gray means no trades. The size of the color shows how big the day was. You can see your rhythm in one look.
Open the calendar and find your best day this month. Then find your worst. Ask what was different.
The Sunday review.
Sunday evening, the journal opens to a one-page review of your week. Wins, losses, your most common tag, and the one trade EVE wants you to look at again. Ten minutes. That is the whole review.
Block ten minutes every Sunday for this. Put it on your calendar. The review is where the work happens.
Patterns.
Once you have enough trades, the Patterns panel shows what is actually working for you. Not opinions. Numbers. Your edge is one setup, one time of day, one size. The journal points at it so you can lean in.
Read your top pattern out loud. Then write it on a sticky note next to your monitor.
Exporting for taxes.
At tax time, the journal exports a PDF for your records and a CSV for your accountant. Every trade, every fee, every realized gain and loss, sorted and ready. The PDF includes a Schedule-D summary line so the math is done.
Run one test export now. Open the file. Knowing where it lives in January saves you in April.
The hardest part.
The journal only works if you open it. Every evening. Even the bad days. Especially the bad days. The hardest part of trading is not the chart. It is sitting with yourself for ten minutes and telling the truth.
Open the journal tonight. Don't break the streak. That's the whole game.
You've read it. Now open it.
The journal only works if you sit in front of it. Open the app tonight, write the one thing you noticed, and start the streak.
Open the journal →