In short. A mentor reviews the process, not the result: did the student follow their plan, is the risk the same from trade to trade, where is the stop, what happens after losses. It works best weekly, with the same checklist every time and one main point that the student fixes before the next review.
What to look at in a student's journal
- Plan and deviations. How many trades were on plan and how many off it; how the off-plan trades ended. One profitable impulsive trade does not justify ten losing ones.
- Risk. Is the risk in percent or in R the same from trade to trade; are there «big» entries after a loss?
- Stop and exit. Is there a stop in every trade, does the student move it further away; do losing trades stay open longer than winning ones?
- Behavior after losses. Do trades become more frequent after a losing streak — a sign of revenge trading; how to spot it is covered in «Tilt, overtrading and revenge trading».
- Time. Which hours and days are worse — a frequent finding: night or Friday trades.
- Sample size. Conclusions about a setup only after 30–50 trades with it; with 5 trades a good setup is easily mistaken for a bad one.
A step-by-step review: where to start
Order matters: first what can wipe out the account, then what eats the profit, and only at the end the choice of setups.
- Preparation. Before the call the student marks every trade of the week: «Followed the plan?», «Execution (1–5)», «Mistake». Unmarked trades are the first point of the conversation.
- Risk and stop. Trades without a stop, excessive risk, a loss larger than the planned 1R. One such trade erases a week of careful work.
- Discipline. The share of on-plan trades and the average result of off-plan trades against on-plan ones.
- Exits. Planned R against actual R — how to compare them is covered in «Risk/reward ratio (RR)»; do losing trades stay open longer than winners?
- Time and streaks. Hours, days and behavior after two or three losses in a row.
- Setups and results — last, and adjusted for sample size.
- One task for the week with a clear way to check it.
An example weekly review
The student brings a week: 24 trades, +$120 in total. On plan — 18 trades, +$540, or +$30 per trade on average. Off plan — 6 trades, −$420, or −$70 on average: every off-plan trade costs $100 more. The most frequent mistake is «Moved the stop»: 4 trades and −$380. Losing trades stay open 3 h 10 min on average, winners 1 h 05 min — almost three times longer.
There is one main point: do not move the stop. The task for the week is 10 trades without moving the stop. At the next review two numbers are checked: how many trades carry the «Moved the stop» mistake and what the average off-plan result has become.
How to give feedback
- one main point per review — it is easier to fix than five;
- about the process, not money: «the stop was moved in 4 trades out of 12», not «you lost $300»;
- with a specific trade as an example — the student sees what you mean;
- with a check at the next review: fixed or not.
To have something to review, the student marks every trade in the journal: on plan or not, which mistake, setup, emotions. A template with such fields is in «Trading journal template: free Excel file».
How it works in Davinchu
For a school, Davinchu has a space of the «School» type. Important from the start: the mentor works with what the student chose to share — journal notes, emotions and review stay private.
- Trades of a shared account. If the student shared an account with the school with «Trades» on, the mentor sees its closed trades — instrument, side, volume, time and result, up to the last 200 — and leaves a trade review: a text and a 1–5 rating. The student gets a notification. Trades shared with a space are visible to all its members.
- Cohorts and tasks. A cohort with stages, tasks with deadlines for everyone or one cohort; the student marks a task as done, the mentor sees progress and an «On track» or «Behind» status. The «Students and progress» table shows completed tasks, the number of reviews and a «Trades & review» button.
- Leaderboard. If the student shared an account with «Return, winrate, PF and drawdown» on, the «Leaderboard of shared accounts» shows all members their return, win rate, PF, drawdown and number of trades for 7, 30 or 90 days.
- Journal link. The student can share a public journal link: it shows statistics and trades — prices, stop and take, result, R — and breakdowns by time, day, session and trade duration, but not notes or review.
- Student self-review. The «Review» tab in the journal counts on-plan trades, repeated mistakes and the cost of violations — the student can bring these numbers to the call. The «What to improve» block itself states the gap between on-plan and off-plan trades, the main mistake and how many times longer losing trades are held — the numbers from the example above appear there without manual counting.
Creating spaces starts with the Plus plan; students join on any plan, including Free. More on the «Davinchu for schools and teams» page; about the journal itself — on the «Trading journal» page. How limits and the leaderboard work in a team is covered in «Trading team: shared risk rules, leaderboard and review».