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Bias
Bullish, Bearish, Neutral, or Range. AI reads your directional language and sets it — you can edit before saving.
Text Journal
Plan the session before emotion enters.
Check your readiness, write your market read in plain English, and get a structured plan with instrument cards, bias, key levels, setup conditions, and invalidation — all before the first candle opens. Review what you planned versus what you did, every day.
Readiness check
Plain-text input
AI session cards
Full plan history
AI trading plantext to trading journalsession plannertrading readiness checklistday rules journaltrading plan history
Workflow
Three steps before the first candle opens.
Most traders skip pre-session planning because it takes too long. Text Journal turns it into a three-minute habit with a permanent record you can review after the market closes.
1
Check your readiness
Before anything else: how did you sleep? Rate it 1–10. Are you sharp, tired, or distracted? Calm, greedy, fearful, or anxious? Is there high-impact news today? If your readiness profile raises flags, TradeDoctor nudges you before you open a position — not after.
2
Set your day rules
Define the guardrails for today: max number of trades, risk per trade, daily loss limit, and any no-trade conditions. These rules stay visible in the plan so the review day can compare what you committed to versus what actually happened.
3
Write your market read
Type your analysis in plain English — bias, key levels, sessions you're watching, instruments, setups, triggers, and invalidation. AI organizes it into structured session and instrument cards. Nothing gets invented: if a field is unclear, it stays blank for you to fill.
4
Review the day
At the end of the session, compare your plan to reality. What did you watch but not take? What triggered and got logged? What did you skip intentionally? Where did you break a rule? The history is always there.
Step 1 — Readiness check
Know before the market opens whether you should be trading today.
Bad trading days are not always caused by bad setups. They are caused by tired, greedy, or anxious traders forcing trades they would normally skip. The readiness check captures your state before a single order is placed.
Sleep quality (1–10). The number tells the AI how much to weight your alertness. Sleep at 4 with a greedy emotional state means the plan should do all the decision-making.
Focus state. Sharp, Tired, or Distracted. Distracted focus with high-impact news triggers a stronger readiness warning.
Emotional state. Choose from Calm, Greedy, Frustrated, Anxious, Fearful, Euphoric, or Confident. Greedy, frustrated, and anxious states produce direct warnings about revenge trading and forced entries.
News check. Mark whether you checked economic news and set impact level — None, Low, Medium, or High. Add context notes. The AI factors this into the readiness message and session card warnings.
Readiness nudge examples
Sleep 4 + Emotion: Greedy
"Both flags are red today. Protect your capital — if a setup doesn't hit every criterion on your plan, let it go."
"Both flags are red today. Protect your capital — if a setup doesn't hit every criterion on your plan, let it go."
Emotion: Frustrated
"Frustration is loud today. Wait for your exact trigger — don't enter on confirmation of a confirmation."
"Frustration is loud today. Wait for your exact trigger — don't enter on confirmation of a confirmation."
All clear
"You look ready to trade the plan. Let setups come to you."
"You look ready to trade the plan. Let setups come to you."
Step 3 — Write naturally
Type your analysis like you'd explain it to another trader.
No templates. No fields to fill before you think. Write in plain English — your market read, the instruments you're watching, your bias and the reasons behind it, the levels that matter, what would trigger you in, and what would cancel the idea.
The only requirement is that you mention at least one instrument, a direction, and a trading context (setup, level, trigger, invalidation, or zone). Everything else is your style.
AI extracts sessions automatically. If you write about a London open setup and a New York continuation, it creates a Morning session card and an Afternoon session card — each with its own instruments.
Multiple entries per day. Add a second analysis later in the day without losing the first. Each write is saved with a timestamp so the history shows your thinking as it evolved through the session.
Manual mode available. If you prefer to structure each card yourself without AI parsing, manual instrument card creation is always available alongside the text input.
Example input → AI output
"XAU is bearish today. I expect a sweep of the PDH around 2345 then a drop to 2318. I'll enter short on a confirmed break below the Asian range low. Invalid if we close above 2348."
AI produces →
XAUUSD · Bearish
Key levels: 2345, 2318 · Setup: Break & retest of Asian low · Invalidation: Close above 2348
Key levels: 2345, 2318 · Setup: Break & retest of Asian low · Invalidation: Close above 2348
Watching — waiting for PDH sweep confirmation
What AI produces
Structured instrument cards — not a wall of notes.
Each instrument in your analysis becomes a card with every field needed for a clean pre-trade record and a useful post-session review.
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Key levels
Price zones, support, resistance, pivot points, and liquidity areas extracted from your text and listed as individual level entries.
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Setup type
Matched to your custom setup library — Break & Retest, Trend Follow, Range Reversal, or any setup label you've defined. Kept blank when unclear.
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Setup plan
The trigger conditions for entry. What price action, candle close, or zone break is needed before you enter the position.
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Invalidation plan
The conditions that cancel the idea. A close above a level, a news spike, or a structure break that removes your thesis from the table.
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Notes & screenshots
Additional context and chart screenshots can be attached to any instrument card. Everything stays in the plan record even after the session ends.
Trade status system
Four statuses that tell the complete story of every idea.
Most journals only track trades you took. Text Journal tracks every decision — including the setups you watched, skipped, or missed — so your review captures the full picture of a trading day.
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Watching
The instrument is on your watchlist. You have a bias and a plan, but the trigger conditions haven't been met yet. These are your "waiting for confirmation" ideas.
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Triggered
Your entry conditions were met and you placed an order or entered a position. The trade is live or pending. Updating to Triggered keeps the plan and the live trade linked.
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Logged
The trade closed and was saved to your journal. The instrument card links directly to the trade record so plan versus result is always one click away.
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Skipping
You intentionally chose not to take this setup. Skipping is not a missed trade — it is a decision. Tracking it separately means AI never mistakes a deliberate pass for a loss or a breakeven.
Why this matters for your analytics: A journal that only logs closed trades tells you what happened. A journal that tracks Watching, Triggered, Logged, and Skipping tells you how you make decisions. TradeDoctor Pulse can answer questions like "how often do my Watching setups that don't trigger end up being the right call?" — but only if you tracked them.
Day guardrails
Rules you commit to before the market opens.
Day rules are set at the top of the Text Journal before you write any analysis. They stay visible throughout the planning session and are stored with the day record so the post-session review can compare them to actual behavior.
Max trades. Set the maximum number of entries you will take today. The system flags a rule break if your logged trade count exceeds this.
Risk per trade. Define your maximum risk percentage per position. Any trade that exceeds this percentage triggers a risk flag in the alerts panel.
Daily loss limit. Set a maximum drawdown for the day. Once the threshold is approached, the alerts panel shows a daily loss warning.
Custom guardrails. Add any rule in plain text — "No trades in the first 15 minutes of London open," "No GBPUSD on high-news days," or "No revenge trades after two consecutive losses." Rules are stored in the day record.
Review integration. Day rules from each planning session are referenced in the weekly and monthly AI reports so patterns in rule-breaking are surfaced automatically.
Example day rules
Max trades2
Risk per trade0.5%
Daily loss limit1.5%
Custom ruleNo trades in first 15 min of London open
Custom ruleNo revenge trades after two consecutive losses
Plan history
Every planning day saved — readable months later.
Text Journal stores a complete record for every trading day you plan: the original text input, readiness scores, session cards, instrument cards, and rule commitments. Open any past date and see exactly what you were thinking and what you committed to.
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Day-by-day record
Each trading day has a single record showing readiness, news context, day rules, sessions, and all instrument cards — organized and timestamped.
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Original text preserved
The raw text you wrote is stored alongside the structured cards. Go back and read your exact morning analysis from two months ago, word for word.
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Multi-entry days
Add a second or third analysis block during the session without overwriting the first. Each entry is timestamped and appended to the day's record.
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Plan-to-trade linking
When a Watching or Triggered card becomes a trade, it links to the actual trade record. Review day shows planned versus executed side-by-side.
AI
AI report source
Weekly and monthly AI reports are built from your plan history — not just trade data. Discipline patterns, rule consistency, and readiness trends are all sourced from what you wrote.
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Missed and skipped analysis
TradeDoctor Pulse can surface your Watching setups that you never took, so you can study whether sitting out on certain ideas improved or hurt your performance over time.
Common questions
Text Journal questions, answered.
Is Text Journal the same as Snap Journal?
No. Text Journal is for pre-session planning — writing your market read before you trade and getting a structured plan back. Snap Journal is for post-trade logging — uploading a broker screenshot after a trade closes and saving it as a journal entry. Both are in TradeDoctor AI and work alongside each other.
What does "Watching" vs "Logged" actually mean?
Watching means the setup is on your radar but the trigger conditions haven't been met. Logged means the trade closed and was saved to your journal. There's also Triggered (entry placed, trade is live) and Skipping (you chose not to take it). These four statuses let you track every decision from idea to outcome — not just the trades that closed.
What if AI doesn't extract the right fields from my text?
Every card is editable before saving. If AI leaves a field blank because it couldn't determine it from your text, you fill it in. If it extracts the wrong bias or level, correct it in the review step. Nothing saves without your confirmation.
Does the AI tell me what to trade?
No. TradeDoctor AI organizes your own analysis into a structured plan. It does not give buy or sell signals, entry prices, position sizes, or market recommendations. The readiness check and nudge are based on your own stated sleep, focus, and emotional state — not market conditions.
Can I still journal manually without using AI?
Yes. Manual mode is always available. You can create session cards and instrument cards by hand, filling each field yourself, without any AI parsing. The day rules, readiness check, and plan history work the same in both modes.
How does Text Journal connect to my trade records?
When a Triggered card becomes a completed trade, you mark it as Logged and link it to the trade record in your journal. The plan card and the trade record stay connected, so the AI Trade Review and monthly reports can reference what you planned versus what you executed.
How many AI credits does Text Journal use?
Each AI plan parse uses 1 credit. The credit count is shown before you confirm so there are no surprises. Pro users get a higher monthly allocation plus access to top-up credit packs that never expire. See the pricing page for the current plan breakdown.
Does it work for prop firm traders?
Yes. Text Journal is particularly useful for prop firm traders because the day rules (max trades, risk per trade, daily loss limit) mirror the rules of most challenge programs. Setting these before each session and reviewing them after builds the habit of rule-following that prop firm evaluations test for.
Write the plan once. Review the truth later.
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