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Trading Academy
Learn the journal, the metrics, prop rules, and the mindset — short, plain-English lessons that link straight into the Glossary. Educational only — no advice, no signals, no certificates.
Open the Glossary →Backtest → Replay Lab → Forward test → Paper trade → Journal → Playbook → Risk review — one clear path before real risk.
Getting Started
BeginnerNew here? Start with what a journal is, why importing your history matters, and how to review your first trade.
- What is a trading journal?
A trading journal is the full record of your trades plus your own notes, kept in one place. Instead of relying on memory, you review what you actually did and learn from it.
- Why import your history?
Importing your past trades means your numbers and reviews are based on what really happened, not guesswork. You can load a CSV or a broker statement instead of typing everything by hand.
- What happens after import?
Once your trades are in, the app organises them by symbol, side, entry, and exit, and starts calculating your metrics. From there you can filter, tag, and review.
- How to review a trade
Reviewing means looking back honestly: what was the plan, what did you do, and what can you learn? Add tags and a short note so patterns become visible over time.
Performance Metrics
IntermediateLearn to read the numbers — what each metric means, what it does not mean, and why no single one tells the whole story.
- Net P&L
Net P&L is your bottom-line profit or loss after costs like commissions and fees. It is the real result, not the rosy figure before costs.
- Win rate
Win rate is the share of trades that made money. It is intuitive but easy to misread — a high win rate can still lose money if the losers are large.
- Profit factor
Profit factor divides everything you won by everything you lost. Above 1.0 means net positive overall; it is a quick health check that win rate alone cannot give.
- Drawdown
Drawdown measures how far your account has fallen from a peak before recovering. Managing it — sitting through losing stretches — often matters more than chasing returns.
- R-multiple
R-multiple measures a trade in units of the risk you took. Risk 100 and make 200, that is +2R — a way to compare trades regardless of position size.
- Expectancy
Expectancy is the average result you can expect per trade over many trades, combining win rate with the size of wins and losses. Positive expectancy tends to make money over volume.
Review Workflow
BeginnerTurn raw trades into insight. Tags, mistakes, emotions, playbooks, and journals are the tools that make review actually useful.
- Tags
Tags are simple labels you attach to trades so you can group and filter them later. They are the backbone of review — "show me all my breakout trades" starts with a tag.
- Mistakes
A mistake tag marks a specific error — entering too early, skipping a stop, oversizing. The goal is to make errors countable so you can work on the ones that cost the most.
- Emotions
An emotion tag records how you felt when you traded. Linking feelings to outcomes often shows that certain states reliably lead to worse decisions.
- Playbooks
A playbook is your library of named setups and how you trade each one. It turns vague ideas into repeatable rules you can measure and refine.
- Screenshots
A screenshot saves the chart at the moment of a trade. Later, you can judge your decision against the real context instead of a fuzzy memory.
- Daily Journal
The daily journal is a short written recap of each day — what the market did, what you did, and how you felt. It connects your numbers to your behaviour.
- Notebook
The notebook holds longer-form thinking — plans, watchlists, and ideas that do not belong to a single trade. It is your ongoing reference library.
Prop Trading Basics
IntermediateA plain-English intro to prop-firm concepts. Educational only — these limits are not enforced in the app unless you configure real rules in Compliance.
- Challenge account
A prop challenge is an evaluation some firms run to decide whether to fund you. You usually trade an evaluation account and must hit a target while staying inside loss limits. Rules vary widely between firms.
- Daily drawdown
Daily drawdown is the loss measured within a single day. Firms often cap it so one bad day cannot blow up an account. This is informational unless you set up real rules.
- Max drawdown
Max drawdown is the largest peak-to-trough fall over the whole account history. Firms use it as an overall floor you must not breach.
- Consistency
Many firms reward steady, repeatable results over a single lucky day. Consistency means your profits are spread out rather than coming from one outsized trade.
- Risk limits
Risk rules are guardrails on how much you can lose or risk. The app can track them, but they only become enforced limits once you configure real prop-firm rules — otherwise this is purely educational.
Mind Layer
BeginnerThe mental side of trading. Recognise the patterns that hurt your results — and build the discipline that protects them.
- Discipline
Discipline is sticking to your plan and rules even when emotions push otherwise. It is widely seen as the difference between consistent and erratic results — and a journal helps you build it.
- Revenge trading
Revenge trading is taking impulsive trades right after a loss to "get even" with the market. It is driven by frustration, not analysis, and usually deepens the hole.
- Overtrading
Overtrading is taking more trades than your plan calls for, often out of boredom or impatience. It racks up costs and exposes you to avoidable losses.
- FOMO
FOMO is the fear of missing out — chasing a move just because the price is running. FOMO trades usually ignore your plan and your risk rules.
- Patience
Patience is waiting for your setup instead of forcing trades. Often the best trade is the one you skip — and a journal lets you confirm that the trades you waited for were worth it.
- Post-trade reflection
Reflection is the short, honest review after a trade or a day: what did you feel, what did you do, what will you change? Done consistently, it compounds into real improvement. The AI coach can surface behavioural patterns from your reviews.
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Educational content only. Map.Trade does not provide financial advice or trading signals.