---
title: 'Market Mechanics Ep 27: How to Improve Your Strategy With Data'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=IieXTRD15GU'
video_id: 'IieXTRD15GU'
date: 2026-08-14
duration_sec: 1507
channel: 'The Trading Geek'
---

# Market Mechanics Ep 27: How to Improve Your Strategy With Data

> Source: [Market Mechanics Ep 27: How to Improve Your Strategy With Data](https://youtube.com/watch?v=IieXTRD15GU)

## Summary

This video provides a systematic, data-driven approach to improving a trading strategy through quarterly reviews. The speaker emphasizes the importance of using a sufficient sample size of trades to make informed decisions, identifying recurring patterns, and implementing one to three rule changes per quarter to avoid chaos and ensure measurable improvement.

### Key Points

- **Common Trading Mistakes** [00:02] — Traders often change their strategy based on emotions or shiny new ideas, resetting their competence and sabotaging their progress. They also mistake normal variance for strategy failure.
- **Data-Driven Adjustments** [00:45] — The speaker adjusts their trading plan based on data and evidence, not emotions. They only change rules after reviewing 100 trades or 3 months of data, requiring a minimum of 30-50 trades for meaningful analysis.
- **Testing New Variables** [02:10] — Introducing a new variable (e.g., a new entry criterion) requires retesting the entire trading plan to prove its effectiveness. Treat trading like science: form a hypothesis, test it, and validate before implementation.
- **Quarterly Review Process** [03:45] — At the end of each quarter, review all trades from the past 90 days. Use a quarterly review template to document wins, losses, and break-even trades, extracting feedback to identify what works and what doesn't.
- **Source of Truth** [05:10] — The quarterly review document becomes the source of truth for the next 90 days, guiding decisions on what to continue, stop, or adjust.
- **Identifying Repeating Patterns** [06:08] — Look for recurring mistakes and emotional patterns, such as revenge trading or sizing up after wins. Making the unconscious conscious allows you to trade based on reality, not perception.
- **If-Then Rules** [06:52] — Convert each pattern into an if-then rule (e.g., 'If I lose 3 trades in a row, I stop for the day') to prevent repeating mistakes. This turns problems into actionable solutions.
- **Updating the Trade Plan** [07:21] — After developing solutions, update the trade plan and adjust guardrails to enforce new rules. Run the updated plan for the next quarter, then repeat the review process.
- **Pattern Categories** [09:17] — Patterns fall into categories: technical (entry/exit criteria), timing (session profitability), emotional (triggers), risk (sizing consistency), execution (trade management), and environment (external conditions).
- **Limit Changes to 1-3 per Quarter** [14:49] — Changing too many variables at once creates chaos and makes it impossible to know what caused improvement. Focus on the three biggest leaks in your trading.
- **If-Then Framework Examples** [16:35] — Examples: If profitable but inconsistent, tighten discipline and reduce trades. If win rate high but average R low, let winners run. If win rate low but R strong, improve selectivity.
- **Using AI for Solutions** [18:11] — If you can't identify a solution, ask AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude to suggest fixes based on your review data. AI can provide actionable recommendations.
- **Implementing Changes in Edge Flow** [19:26] — Use Edge Flow to lock in rule changes (e.g., reduce trades per day, set max loss) so you don't rely on willpower. Bake changes into the system for consistency.
- **One Theme for 90 Days** [21:53] — Set a single focus for the next quarter and write an identity statement (e.g., 'I am the type of trader who shuts down after max loss') to reprogram your subconscious.
- **Trade Like a Scientist** [23:33] — Review real sample sizes, find patterns, convert them into 1-3 rule changes, implement them, and run the experiment for 90 days. This iterative process compounds into exponential growth.

### Conclusion

The key takeaway is to treat trading as a scientific experiment: use data, not emotions, to make decisions. By conducting quarterly reviews, identifying patterns, and making small, testable changes, traders can continuously improve and achieve long-term success.

## Transcript

they change their underwear. They just change it because they feel like they should change rules. You know, they strategy hop every single week because they see this new shiny holy grail strategy. And every single time
they do that, they're self-sabotaging because they reset their competence And the other mistake is that when they hit a losing streak, they instantly assume their strategy is no longer working. When it could just be normal
variance. It could just be because of the fact that the market is random. There is a random distribution between wins and losses. That is why I don't adjust my trade plan based on emotions. I adjust it based on
data. I adjust it based on evidence. So, in this video, I'm going to walk you trading plan to make it better, right? To improve it over time. And my rule is very simple. I don't change my trading plan as and when when
I feel like it. I don't change it when I've lost 10 trades in a row. It just doesn't work that way. I only change rules when I've either 100 trades to review or I have at least 3 months of data.
If you don't have 100 trades yet, you need at least 30 to 50 minimum trades Because like that's the sample size that is required for you to get a sufficient data, sufficient evidence to prove that your trading plan is not working or it
can be better. And if you're below that that threshold, right? Below that 30 to all, right? Because when you do, you're just tweaking it based on your gut feeling. You're just tweaking it based on what you think
it's not working within your trade plan, right? Like I said, just continue focus on executing more consistently and collecting more data because like I said, really anything less than 30 to 100 trades it it's like just not
meaningful enough. It's just not big of a sample size for you to make decisions And one more thing, when you introduce a new variable into your trade plan, like for example, you come here, you add it, maybe you add a new charting process, or
maybe you add a new entry criteria saying that I only want to enter after I see a fair value gap, right? Something simple just like this. Bear in mind that you have to test the entire trade plan again just to prove
Okay, because you want to treat it like a science, not as like an art, right? And in a science, what happens is that you have a hypothesis, right? Like this work, and then you test the hypothesis.
whether the hypothesis is actually proven to be right or proven to be wrong. And then you test another hypothesis. It's the exact same thing right here. When you introduce a new entry criteria, a new exit criteria, or
a new way to manage a trade, bear in mind that because that haven't been tested yet, now you need to undergo another round of testing to prove that variable actually works, to prove that your fair value gap actually works, to
actually works. Okay? So, this is something that a lot of traders tend to overlook, right? They don't realize that when they introduce something new, they have to test out the entire trade plan again. Because if you
don't, you will never ever truly know what worked and what didn't work. So, quite simply put, remember data isn't just for vibes, isn't just for validation, it's for you to make data-driven decisions, right? And
data-driven decisions, right? And quarterly review is the perfect time filters out all the short-term noise and it reveals to you the real patterns. it reveals to you the real patterns. So, basically, let's say today is March
31st, right? It's the end of quarter one. This is where I come over to my journal and I'll review every single trade I've taken in the past 90 days, in the past 3 months. All right, so you once again, you want to make it a habit.
So, at the end of each quarter, right, January, February, March 31st, right, March 31st is the last day of quarter one, you want to go and look at all the trades that you have taken in the past 3 months. Okay, go and review each one
is where I literally block out one entire day just to do this properly. this is where after I'm done reviewing every single trade I've taken in the past 3 months, I go on to my notebook and I I go on to my quarterly review
template. Okay, so it will probably look something like this. Okay, like this is the quarterly review template and then I will fill it out based on, once again, past 3 months, right? I can figure out what are the wins, the loss, the break
out all of these necessary details right here. And once I'm done filling it up, it will look probably something just Okay? So, this is important, right, because what
you're doing is that you are extracting the feedback from every single trade that, you're able to find out, once again, what works, what doesn't works, right? What are the variables that influence the results.
So, once you do that, this entire quarterly review document right here, it becomes your source of truth for the next 90 days, which means that you want to like just go and reflect on, okay, what are the things that perform
well and what are the things that didn't perform so well, and then you want to do next quarter and you want to do less of the things that didn't perform well in should even think about how you can eliminate all
past quarter. So, my process is very simple. I review this entire quarterly review template, you know, after I'm done filling it up, I use this as a source of truth, and then as I'm doing that, as I'm reviewing
this quarterly report, I want to identify the repeating patterns. What are the mistakes that I tend to commit over and over again? What are the emotional patterns that I tend to experience over and over again, right?
Whenever I feel fear, I do this. Whenever I feel angry, I feel this. I feel like after uh after I win three trades in a row, I always get to size up, even though my trade plan tells me not to.
over and over again, that's a pattern, right? So, you want to identify the patterns you tend to repeat. Because when you start to make the unconscious conscious, now you are trading the reality of the market. Now you are no
market. Now you are actually seeing the actually seeing the world as it is, rather than what you think it is, right? then once that's done, I want you to convert. I want you to
convert each pattern into an if-then rule. All right, so here's a cheat sheet that I've compiled in for you, right? So, going to go through it with you later on, but basically, your goal is to turn
each problem into solution, to turn each pattern into a action that you can take same pattern, to prevent yourself from going unconscious again. action number step that prevents the same mistake from repeating.
And then once done with this, right? Once you have the problem and you have developed a solution to fix the problem, you want to update your trade plan, right? You have to update your trade plan with the solution. You want to
adjust your guardrails to ensure that you adhere to your rules, to adhere to your risk parameters in the next quarter or so. And then you run that for the next quarter. And when you do that, you are pretty
much making decisions. You are tweaking your trading plan based on data, not based on vibes. Right? And then at the end of next quarter, you do this exact let me just quickly review like just quickly recap the
review like just quickly recap the entire five-step process. Basically, you want to review and fill up a quarterly template just like this. And then you want to identify the repeating patterns. And
then you want to convert each pattern into an if-then rule just like this. If this happens, then I'm going to do this. If that happens, I'm going to do that. And then you want to implement it in Edge Flow by tweaking your trading plan
or adjusting your guardrails. And then you want to run it for the next That's it. And then you re-evaluate and you do that the do the exact same thing the next quarter at the end of the next quarter itself.
Now, to help you do this, right? To me, I really believe that the hardest part is being conscious. Because when we are stuck in that trends, you know, when we are stuck in that cycle of
unprofitability, we tend to commit the same emotion same actions, we tend to experience the same emotions without realizing it. Right? So, like I said, the hard part is really just getting conscious. The hard
awareness. The easy part is to solve that problem awareness, you know exactly what you need to do to prevent yourself from yourself from getting stuck in the exact same pattern.
patterns, I've come up with like this little cheat sheet right here. And I pretty much categorize the patterns into these different categories your technical patterns, which is in
terms of how you map out your process, your entry criteria, your exit criteria, the issues. Like I said, this is heavily focused on how you build your trading plan in the first place, right? How you map out your higher time frame, how you
map out your point of interest, what is your entry criteria, whether the liquid liquidity ship entry model actually work in this condition, in that condition. go and spot this out, right? This should be the first priority, right? Go and
find out which part of your trading plan is no longer working, which part of your to refine, right? So, that you can perform better in the next quarter. Next Timing-wise, right? Once again, look at all the trades that you have taken. If
you have taken all of them in the London session, then go and evaluate whether London session has been profitable for you or not. If you you're just like, you know, trading at any time and every time, then you can see and judge based
on each trade what time they are in, and then what is the session that is the most profitable for you. For example, you take 20 trades, and out of those 20 uh some of them were taken in London, some of them were taken in New York,
session, and you found out that 15 of those 20 trades tends to work in for it for the it to work in, right? Like, you tend to win those trades when perhaps that's a data point that tells you that you should be trading more
during London session. And then next is emotional, right? Like I said, until you ruin your life and you will call it fate. You need to make sure that you do your reviewing, right? You go and
what was the emotion that resulted in you taking the action that resulted in you getting this outcome. If you lost that trade, okay, what was the emotion that you were experiencing same at the start of the trade itself?
What were the emotion that you feel when you got out of the trade? avoided if you just stopped after the first loss. But because you kept getting angry, you kept trying to get back at the market, you kept revenge trading,
you kept feeling like, you know, you are right and the market is wrong. This spiral where you incur even more losses. when you do that, what happens is that you trace
cause. And the root cause is your emotion, right? It's the fact that you got angry. It's the fact that you choose to put your ego over making money. Boom. That's a repeated behavioral trigger that you can strive to to be a more
arrives. Right? I revenge trade after a losing streak, example. Another pattern you can spot for is risk, like in the way you actually get inconsistent because you start feeling emotions, right? You start
feeling like you're on top of the world and now you're sizing up. Or, same row, you feel like you want to get back at the market, right? You want to, you sizing up. Okay? So, once again, all of those are patterns that you want to be
how you manage the trade, how you manage winners, how you manage the losers, how you manage the existing open position. Okay? So, ask yourself this. And then, taking the right setup, whether you're following your trading plan. And then,
environment and context, right? External conditions that change performance. It could be physiological, it could be physical, it could be digital, it could There's like different types of environment. It could be your work space
not being optimized, it could be when you are trading, when you're stressed, and you are have some form of problems in your life, you don't you you tend to not perform as well as you like to perform. Or, you could be trading during
these certain market conditions, you know, when Trump is making the market go volatile, and there's a lot of uncertainty in the market, and the trades that you take in these sort of market conditions tend to perform badly.
all of these are context. Right, so you can just spot the pattern and just put Once you found the repeating patterns, your job is to turn each pattern into a solution. Like I said, pattern is the problem,
the fix. And this is where I will go through the if then sheet with you, right? If then cheat sheet. once you spot a pattern, that's the first step, right? The first step is
you don't become conscious, you will keep on staying in that trend state, right? You will keep on staying in the trend state where you just do the same thing, get the same results, right? It's so it's the same thing that you're just
going to be continue running the same program over and over again. And if you again, guess what? You are going to get the same outcomes over and over again. So, when you start becoming more conscious,
right? When you start identifying these patterns right here, what happens is longer sleeping, now you're no longer in a dream-like state, now you're waking up. And now you're like, "Okay, cool. This pattern needs to go. I need to fix
where you can develop solution, right? Which is the next step, so that you can get out of this state that you are in, right? So that you can this loop. So, here's the key, no more than one to
three changes per quarter. If you change too many variables at once, you're going to create chaos. And you will never ever know what actually caused improvement. Like I said, every single variable that you
change, you need to test it out. You need to undergo another cycle of testing works or not, whether it actually has a significant impact on your trading results or not. So, I would recommend you to change
maybe just max three variables inside your trade plan. But if you want to change more, I'll say three is like the maximum you could go. next quarter. And then at the end of the next quarter, you get out your results
review, and then this is where you can come to a conclusion on whether the three variables that you have changed perform make your trade plan better or not. You know, make your trading results better or not.
next quarter. And then just test the next uh the next three variables in the next quarter itself. So, it's very simple, right? Like I said, just want to identify the rules
that stop the biggest leak. Okay, if you just have to fix three things in this quarter, go and find out what are the biggest three patterns that cause you to lose the most amount of money, and just focus on fixing those three things. It
could be a combination of technicals, emotional, uh execution quality, uh environment, risk, uh timing, right? You just find the three variables and just And that's how you find like a scientist, not react like a gambler.
And when it comes to the solution part, right? The next question you might be identified the pattern. Now, how do I develop the solution to solve that pattern?" Very, very simple. You use what I call the if-then framework. This
what I call the if-then framework. This is a very mechanical system, okay? Once again, super duper mechanical system. First step, identify the pattern. Once develop the solution. And how the if-then framework works is
And how the if-then framework works is if the problem occurs, then I'm going to implement a solution. So, if my performance is profitable, but my results are inconsistent, then I will tighten discipline. I will
take fewer trades. I would maybe trade within a shorter window. I will stick to my hard stop after a max loss. You know, I will just continue to just losing streak. If win rate is high, but your average R
What that means is that I can win trades, but then over the long run, I might not be profitable because like my the amount of money that I make when I win is always much more lesser than the amount of money that I lose when I'm
maybe I need to stop cutting my winners. Maybe I need to reduce early exits. need to just let my winning positions run. If win rate is low, but average R is strong, then this is where I can think
right? Maybe I need to improve improve selectivity, right? Maybe I need to only just focus on the A+ setups. If risk deviation is high, consistency is low, then standardize sizing, so on and so forth.
For every single pattern that you spot in your trading that is going to be a solution to fix that pattern. And if you don't know what it is, thank god for AI. You could just send it
Flow, you could just send it to Flow AI. Yeah, you could just send Flow AI and software that you're using out there, whether that's ChatGPT or Google Gemini or Claude, right? Whatever it is, just ask the AI.
"Hey, AI, I have completed my quarterly review and it seems like I tend to is the pattern that happens over and over again. How do I fix it? What's the solution that uh will will prevent me from actually committing this mistake
And when you ask that, AI is so advanced nowadays where it will give you like the will tell you that, "Okay, cool. You Now, you might want to implement like a hard stop after your first loss, right?
first loss." Whatever it is, whatever they suggest you, and that is your then So, very simple. Like I said, the hardest part is to just become aware of the problem in the first place. And then, once you got aware of the
problem, you can just send it to AI and then you can just ask it to like present the solution, like I said, just run it for the next quarter. Okay. When you have the solution, in order to help you run it to the next
quarter, you should use Edge Flow in some way, shape, or form, right? So, for if performance is profitable, but my results are inconsistent. This is where to have a shorter time window, or I want to stop after max loss. This is where,
right? Once you've decided your rule changes, the one to three variables that quarter, you want to lock them in your system so you're not relying on willpower or discipline. And Edge Flow helps you do that, right? So, this is
that, okay, this is the solution that I want to be taking. So, this is where I will update my guardrails. Maybe I actually go from five trades a day, I next quarter, right? I can just set it
to three. And then maybe I want to make sure that I stop after I only lose $300. Now, I'll change that as well. Okay, so, you can either update your guardrails here, or
your Edge Future itself, right? So, maybe you want to test out the fair can put it in right there. Or maybe you want to change your trade management method. Maybe you want to try um set and forget
instead of you know, like taking partial profits where I can change your rules. Okay, you can adjust your trade plan in here. the goal here is for you to do something, right? Whatever it is, just
do something, because nothing changes if nothing changes. the three variables, go and implement it into your trading system. You can either adjust your rules inside of Edge, or change your guardrails. Right? That's
it. Change your guardrails, or adjust your Edge. Because the last thing you want to do is to be relying on memory. doing stuff like, okay,
right now. And I know that this is the stuff that I should be doing in the next chill. Okay, cool. I already done my review, right? Cool. Next. do that, what you're doing is that you
are just trying to remember to do this in the future. What you really want to bake it into your system. Bake it into Edge Flow. Because when emotions hit, you're going to be forgetting about all of these
forgetting about all of these like variables that you want to test on in into your system because the system is what keeps you consistent. Oh, that rhymes. Okay, so, that's that. After you
want to lock in one theme for the next 90 days, right? Once again, not five or 10 different goals, just one focus. And you could write it at the just like this. And you might want to like turn it into
like a identity rule that you repeat. Like, I'm the type of trader who reads the same every single trade. Or I'm the type of trader who shuts down after a max loss, just like this. So, this is the identity statement. All right,
identity statement down right there, and if you can, try to review it every single day, what happens is that you are reprogramming the subconscious mind. Because right now, to this day, you might be the guy who tends revenge trade
after a losing streak. You might be the guy who focus on, you know, your ego rather than making money. But the minute you type this identity statement in, you are unconsciously telling your body, telling your mind, telling your
subconscious mind that I am the type of trader who shuts down after max loss. And when you do that, you have just undergone an identity shift. And we always act in accordance with our belief and identity.
So, if I'm the type of trader who shuts down after max loss, I'm not going to be streak. That's not me anymore, right? That's the past me. Now, I'm the type of That's the past me. Now, I'm the type of guy who just close my trading platform
guy who just close my trading platform after I hit the max loss. identity statement just like this. And that, my friend, is how you evolve Like I say, you don't the G hard, you don't panic after a losing streak,
you don't make random tweaks just because you feel like something is off. You review a real sample size, whether that's 100 trades or 3 months worth of trading data. You find the recurring patterns, you convert them into one to
three rule changes they can take for the next quarter, you bake them into edge flow, you build them into your system, and you run the experiment for the next 90 days. And then at the end of those 90 days,
You do that exact same process over and over again, and that's how you trade like a scientist, not like a gambler. And that's the difference between a professional trader and a retail trader.
A professional trader would do what's required to succeed, and this is part of what's required. It's reviewing the tape and just continue iterating on the trade plan and just continue getting better, just dedicating themselves to the craft
Like I say, when you do this every single quarter, your edge doesn't just compounds. All of these little improvement that you're making in your trade plan, it tends to start compounding over time. It tends to
result in exponential growth, right? The only reason why I'm making a lot of money right now is because of all of these reviews that I've done in the past And all of these tiny little improvement, tiny little feedback
And I'm still doing the exact same process right now. And I'm still trying to level up, still trying to improve and iterate my trade plan. separates the average traders from the great traders.