The trade log is the journal's source of truth. A source of truth with gaps is just a story. These are the rules that keep the log complete, consistent, and trustworthy.
The logging rules
1. Every fill gets an entry. Every opening fill, every adjustment fill, every closing fill. No exceptions for small trades, scratch trades, or "I was just testing the platform."
2. Entries are made at fill time. The entry is written when the trade is opened, not reconstructed at the end of the day. The reasoning section must reflect what was known before the outcome — reconstructed reasoning is hindsight with better formatting.
3. Fills are actuals. The log records the actual fill price, not the mid-price at the time of the order. Slippage is computed as fill vs. mid and tracked as its own statistic.
4. One entry per position. Rolls and adjustments update the existing entry; they don't create new ones. The entry follows the position from open to close as a single record.
5. Closed means reviewed. A position isn't marked closed until the review section is written: expected vs. realized, rule compliance, one-sentence lesson.
Format consistency
Every entry uses the same template (see trade entries and records). Consistent format is what makes the log filterable — by structure, ticker, outcome, IV regime — and filtering is what makes the aggregate statistics possible.
New fields are added to the template through the monthly rule-revision process, not ad hoc. Ad-hoc fields produce inconsistent history.
Reconciliation
Once a month, the log is reconciled against the actual account records: every fill in the account appears in the log, and every fill in the log appears in the account. Discrepancies are investigated and resolved before the monthly statistics are computed.
The reconciliation is also where corporate actions, assignments, and expirations get their proper treatment: an assigned short option is logged as an assignment with its own entry section, not silently rolled into the next position.
Corrections
When the log gets a fact wrong — wrong strike, wrong fill, wrong P&L — the correction is made inline with a dated correction note, and the original error is preserved strikethrough rather than deleted. The log's history includes its own mistakes; that's what makes the later statistics trustworthy.
What the log is not
The log is not a marketing document. Losing trades are logged with the same completeness as winners — more, if anything, since losses carry more information. Selective logging (recording winners promptly, "getting to" losers later) is the fastest way to corrupt the sample, and it's treated as a discipline violation on par with breaking a risk rule.
About this article
Editor: Dependability Research Desk. The desk has tracked options, index-derivative structure, and daily U.S. equity markets since 2017, with a working book in SPX/XSP index options and a public trade log that records every entry, adjustment, and close.
Editorial process: Each forecast distils overnight data and primary sources (Cboe option chains, Federal Reserve releases, Treasury auctions, FRED historicals) into the worked-example frame: what the tape is saying, the mechanism behind the move, what to do this week. Forecasts are reviewed against the live close on the next publication; the track record is self-auditing on the forecasts page.
Corrections policy: When an article gets a fact wrong (wrong strike, wrong P&L, wrong expected-move calculation), we correct it inline and append a dated correction note at the top of the affected page.
Disclosure
The desk may hold the positions, options, or underlyings mentioned in a trade-log entry at the time of publication; positions are disclosed in the trade-log entry itself. Nothing on this site is investment advice.
Disclaimer. This content is published for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing here is investment advice. Trading options involves substantial risk of loss and is not appropriate for every investor. Past performance, including the journal entries on this site, does not guarantee future results. You are solely responsible for your trading decisions.