Part III
A daily template built on the five principles. It grades the process, not the P&L: premeditation before the open, control checks while the trade is live, and an Amor Fati review at the close. Copy it into a notebook, a spreadsheet, or your platform's notes field — the medium is indifferent, the repetition is not.
Premeditatio Malorum — rehearse the loss before the open.
Account risk cap for today (fixed % per trade, hard daily loss limit).
Worst realistic outcome I accept before the open (full stop-out, gap through stop, limit hit).
Setups I will take — and the setups I will refuse today.
Physical and emotional state (1–5). Anything that argues for smaller size?
One line: what is up to me today, and what is not.
Dichotomy of control & temperance, one row per trade.
Instrument, direction, time of entry.
Setup / thesis in one sentence.
Entry, stop, target, position size, % of capital risked.
Checklist complete before entry? (Y/N)
Stop moved farther away at any point? (Y/N — a Y is a rule violation regardless of outcome.)
Size increased after a loss? (Y/N)
Exit and reason for exit: plan, stop, target, or impulse.
Process grade A–F, independent of the money outcome.
Judge the process. Accept the outcome.
Rules followed / rules broken (count both, name each break).
Trades taken outside plan — and what triggered them.
Emotional peaks: fear, euphoria, boredom, revenge. What preceded them?
What was inside my control that I executed well?
What was outside my control that I wasted energy on?
One sentence of acceptance: today happened; here is the data it gave me.
One adjustment for tomorrow — to the process, never to the risk cap after a loss.
The journal is the feedback loop for the full ruleset. For the longer treatment, the Stoic Trading Rules ebook covers each principle in depth.