The Trade Card
What it is
The trade card is where a trade gets logged. It opens over the session screen: symbol, direction, executions as they happen, stop and target, and the setup the trade belongs to. Trades show as chips on the session screen; tap one to reopen its card.
Beyond the fills, the card captures what only you can supply:
- The setup. Which of your defined setups this was. One tap.
- On plan or off. Your own call on whether the trade followed your rules. Nobody grades this for you.
- Your words. Why you took it, what you saw. One notes field.
The card also tracks changes. Move your stop or target and the original is kept alongside the new level, with the history of every adjustment. The coach sees these changes as they happen and can step in when one matters, like a stop widened on a losing position.
Why it is there
What this card captures is how Mechanical Trader understands your behavior. The coach and the reviews compare what you said you would do against what you actually did, and the more of that record the card holds, the faster and more precisely they can step in when it matters.
- The setup tag connects the trade to that setup's track record. An untagged trade counts toward nothing and teaches nothing.
- The on-plan call separates variance from the pattern. A loss that followed your rules and a loss that broke them are different problems; your call at logging time keeps them separate in review.
- The change history captures decisions that vanish otherwise. The exit price remembers itself; the stop you moved at 10:40 does not. Tracked changes let the coach and your reviews work from the real sequence of decisions, and they protect your stats: your R math uses the stop you planned, so moving it later cannot quietly rewrite the risk you took.
- Your words are what the coach and reviews quote back to you, at the moment they are useful.
The card never judges a trade by its outcome. A rule-break that paid is still a rule-break, and the card keeps that visible.
How to use it
1. Log live, not at the close
A trade logged in the moment captures what you saw. One reconstructed at 4:30 captures what the outcome taught you to remember. The card is built for speed: smart defaults, rapid execution entry.
2. Always attach the setup
The highest-value tap on the card. If the trade matches none of your setups, say so in the notes; a trade outside every setup you defined is itself a signal.
3. Make the on-plan call at logging time, honestly
Before the result has a vote. An off-plan winner marked on-plan poisons the setup's track record.
4. Update levels through the card when they change
Moved the stop, took the target off, trailed it: change it on the card when it happens. Fat-fingered the original entry? Correct it; a typo fix is treated as a correction, not a decision.
5. Write one real sentence
One sentence of why beats a paragraph of boilerplate. If something felt off going in, say so.
The compounding effect
The setup tags build a per-setup track record that outlives your memory of individual trades. The on-plan calls build the honest count of how often you follow your own rules. The change history builds the record of how you manage risk under pressure. Thirty seconds per trade; everything downstream depends on it.