Decision journal
No log, no honest review. Keep fields short and fixed—fill before and after each material action.
1. Per-trade / allocation entry
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Date | YYYY-MM-DD |
| Instrument | Ticker / name / type |
| Action | Buy / sell / DCA / rebalance |
| Price & size | Avg fill, shares or notional |
| Weight after | % of total equity |
| Tier | L0 / L1 / L2 / L3 |
| Core thesis | ≤3 bullets; can paste from thesis doc |
| Falsifiers | What proves you wrong |
| Intended hold | e.g. 12–36 months |
| Emotion tag | none / #emotion / #fomo |
| Checklist | Framework lists ✓/✗ |
Sell extras
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| Sell reason | Falsified / valuation / opportunity cost / rebalance / liquidity |
| Result R | (Sell − buy) / buy; record only, don’t grade ego |
| Lesson | One actionable fix |
2. Quarterly review template
## YYYY Q_
### Environment
- Macro quadrant:
- Total equity: __% (ceiling __%)
### Portfolio
- Largest contributor:
- Largest drag:
- Discipline breach: Y/N → fix plan
### Behavior
- Biases triggered (see biases doc):
- Impulse trade count:
### Principles
- Constitution change: N / Y (one sentence if Y)
### Next quarter focus
1.
2.
3. Annual review prompts
| Block | Question |
|---|---|
| Attribution | Allocation vs sector vs stock vs timing (rough %) |
| Best decision | Why right? Repeatable? |
| Worst decision | Bias or broken thesis? |
| Circle | Expand or shrink? |
| Next year | 1–2 learning themes—not return slogans |
4. Case library (short)
5–10 lines each, searchable:
| Date | Title | Type | One-line lesson |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example | 2020Q1 panic | Macro | L0 enabled buying per checklist |
5. Tool habits
- Any tool works (Markdown, Notion, sheet)—same fields matter.
- Reconcile with broker statements monthly.
- Amounts can be redacted; structure beats absolute dollars.
6. Minimum viable habit
If time-constrained, three columns enough:
Date | Action+symbol | Thesis+falsifier
Run 6 months before expanding fields—empty templates help no one.
tip
Journal value shows up after sells and in bear markets. Everyone is a genius in bull runs; review on hard samples.