Tagging is the practice of attaching a small set of consistent labels to every trade so you can later filter and compare them. It is the difference between a journal you read and a journal you query. The single habit of tagging well is what makes finding your best setup possible at all.
The four tag types worth keeping
- Setup tag - the pattern you traded, e.g. "breakout retest", "London reversal". The most important tag.
- Session tag - Asia, London, or New York. Many setups only work in one window.
- Condition tag - trending or ranging. The same setup can flip from profitable to losing when the regime changes.
- Behavior tag - a flag like "followed plan" or "chased", separating strategy problems from discipline problems.
These four cover the questions you will actually ask later. Resist adding more until you have a reason.
Consistency beats detail
The one rule that makes or breaks tagging: the same thing must always get the exact same tag. "London reversal", "london rev", and "LDN reversal" are three separate groups to a computer, and each is too small to trust. Decide on a short, fixed vocabulary and reuse it every single trade. A boring, consistent tag set is worth ten times a rich, chaotic one.
The same 90 trades under one consistent tag give a trustworthy read. Split across three spellings, no group is big enough to mean anything.
Reading tag analysis
Once trades are tagged, you filter and compare expectancy across groups. You might learn that your breakout setup is only profitable in trending conditions, or that your discipline collapses in the New York session. Each of these is a specific, actionable finding - a filter to add or a behavior to fix - that would be invisible in an untagged pile of results. Cross two tags at once, like setup plus session, and the insights get sharper still.
Important: tag at the moment of the trade, not later. Tagging from memory a week afterward introduces bias - you unconsciously label trades to match how they turned out. Tag when you enter, while the reasoning is honest and fresh.
Tags feed your weekly review
Tagging and reviewing are two halves of one loop. Tags are the input; the weekly review is where you read them and choose a change. Without tags, the review is guesswork. With them, it is a quick filter-and-compare that ends in a clear action. The better your tags, the faster and more honest every review becomes.
Build the habit in a simulator
Tagging is a skill, and like any skill it is cheaper to learn without money on the line. When you backtest in a simulator, you can tag each replayed trade with its setup and conditions, then use the report's tag analysis to see your edge break down by group across hundreds of trades. By the time you trade live, tagging is automatic and your eye for which groups matter is already trained.
Trade tagging FAQ
What should I tag on a trade?
Setup type, session, market condition, and a behavior flag for rule adherence. Keep the wording identical every time; the setup tag matters most.
How many tags should I use?
A small fixed vocabulary - a handful of setups, three sessions, two or three conditions. Too many unique tags fragment your data below usable sample sizes.
How do tags help me improve?
They let you filter your history and compare expectancy across groups, turning vague impressions into evidence about what actually makes money.