How to Build a Trading Playbook from Your Own Reviews

Most traders have one of two problems: no playbook at all, or a playbook full of setups they copied from someone else.

The first trader is guessing. The second trader is guessing with borrowed confidence.

A real playbook comes from your own data. Your reviews. Your patterns. Your market. Setups that you discovered, tested, and tracked over weeks of live trading. That is the only playbook worth trusting under pressure.

What a Playbook Actually Is

A playbook is not a collection of chart patterns from a course. It is not a list of "top 10 setups" from Twitter.

A playbook is a curated set of conditional rules that you have personally tested and tracked over 20 or more occurrences, with a measured win rate and defined conditions for when each rule is active, testing, or inactive.

That definition has three parts worth emphasizing:

Personally tested. Someone else's VWAP fade setup is calibrated to their instrument, their timeframe, their risk tolerance, and their read of context. It might work for them. It probably will not work for you without modification. Your playbook rules come from your own reviews.

Tracked over 20+ occurrences. Five trades is not a pattern. It is a coincidence. Twenty occurrences gives you enough data to distinguish signal from noise. Below that, the rule is still in testing.

Defined status. Every rule in the playbook has a status: Active (trading it now), Testing (tracking but not relying on), or Inactive (used to work, currently dormant). Status changes based on data, not on feelings.

How Rules Enter the Playbook

The funnel looks like this:

1. Observation. You notice something in your post-session review. "Gap fades have been working this week." This is not a rule yet. It is a hypothesis.

2. Draft Rule. You convert the observation into an IF/THEN statement with specific conditions: "IF gap between 0.6% and 1.0% AND price fades to VWAP within 20 minutes AND VWAP rejects on 2+ touches, THEN short on 3rd touch. Stop 5 ticks above VWAP."

3. Testing. Over the next 10-20 sessions, you mark every time the condition appears. Did it fire? Did it work? You track wins, losses, and skipped signals.

4. Promotion. If the rule hits 60%+ win rate over 20 occurrences, promote it to Active. It is now part of your morning prep. You trade it with confidence.

5. Demotion. If the rule drops below 40% over the recent 5-7 occurrences, move it to Inactive. The pattern has decayed. Do not force it.

6. Reactivation. When market conditions shift back to the regime where the rule worked, monitor it passively. If it starts winning again, bring it back at half size first.

This lifecycle takes weeks. That is fine. You are building a systematic edge, not looking for tonight's hot tip.

The Three Categories

Your playbook should have exactly three sections.

Active Rules (use every day)

• -60%+ win rate over 20+ occurrences
• -Still working in the current market regime
• -Part of your morning prep checklist
• -Traded at full position size

This is your core edge. Three to five active rules is enough. Ten is too many. You do not need variety. You need consistency.

Testing Rules (track but do not rely on)

• -Fewer than 20 occurrences
• -Looks promising but not statistically proven
• -Log every time the condition appears, whether you trade it or not
• -If you trade, use reduced size

Most rules never graduate from testing. That is normal. The filter is strict for a reason.

Inactive Rules (dormant, not dead)

• -Win rate dropped below 40% recently
• -Market regime changed
• -Watch for conditions that brought the rule back to life before
• -Do not trade. Do not delete. Just store with a note about which regime it worked in.

The inactive section is your archive. Patterns cycle. A rule that died in high volatility might come back when volatility drops. If you deleted it, you have to rediscover it from scratch.

The Weekly Audit

Every weekend, spend 10 minutes on your playbook:

1. 1.Check each Active rule's win rate over the last 5-7 occurrences.
2. 2.If any Active rule dropped below 40% recently or has 3+ consecutive losses, move it to Inactive.
3. 3.Check each Testing rule's sample size. Any that reached 20 occurrences with 60%+ win rate? Promote them.
4. 4.Check market conditions. Did the regime shift this week? If so, audit which Active rules depend on the old regime.

That is the entire audit. Four questions. Ten minutes. This prevents you from trading dead patterns and surfaces new rules that are ready for promotion.

Example: A Playbook in Practice

Here is what a 3-rule playbook looks like during morning prep:

Active Rule 1: Gap Fade (Sweet Spot)

IF gap between 0.6% and 1.0% AND VWAP rejects 2x in first 20 min, THEN short on 3rd touch. Stop 5 ticks above VWAP.

Status: 14 wins, 5 losses (74%). Active since Week 2.

Today: Futures show 0.7% gap up. Rule is live. Watch for VWAP rejection pattern.

Active Rule 2: Low-Volume Breakout Trap

IF opening range breaks before 9:45 ET AND breakout volume below 15k, THEN skip breakout. Wait for retest.

Status: 11 wins, 4 losses (73%). Active since Week 3.

Today: Will monitor if OR breaks early. Check volume before entering.

Testing Rule: Afternoon VWAP Reversion

IF price is more than 10 points from VWAP at 13:00 ET AND volume declining, THEN enter mean reversion toward VWAP. Half size.

Status: 6 occurrences tracked. 4 wins, 2 losses. Need 14 more before promotion.

Today: Log if condition appears. Trade at half size only.

Three rules. That is enough. Each one has a measured win rate, a defined trigger, a specific action, and a clear status. During the session, you are not scanning for random setups. You are waiting for one of your three rules to fire.

Why Small Playbooks Beat Large Ones

Traders who collect 20 setups from courses and mentors have a recognition problem: under pressure, with a chart moving fast, they cannot decide which setup applies.

Traders with 3-5 personally tested rules have a different experience. They know their setups intimately. They know the conditions. They know the failure modes. They know which regime each rule works in.

Small, personal, tested. That is the playbook that works. Not 50 patterns from Twitter. Five rules that you discovered, tracked, and proved work in your trading.

Start Today

If you do not have a playbook, start one tonight:

1. 1.Open your last 10 reviews. Find the observation that appeared most often.
2. 2.Convert it into an IF/THEN rule with specific price, time, and context conditions.
3. 3.Track it for the next 20 sessions. Mark every occurrence.
4. 4.If it hits 60%+ win rate, you have your first Active rule.

One rule is a playbook. Two rules is an edge. Five rules is a system. Build it one review at a time.