ExpectancyIQ

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Trade better, on purpose

Trading psychology, journaling practice, and honest comparisons to help you build a process that actually works.

Risk ManagementSeptember 16, 20266 min read

End-of-Day vs. Intraday Drawdown: What's the Actual Difference?

Same account, same trades, two possible outcomes. Here's exactly how end-of-day and intraday trailing drawdown are calculated differently, a worked example showing where they diverge, and how to check which rule your account actually uses.

Risk ManagementJuly 31, 20267 min read

How Much Should You Risk Per Trade?

How much of your account to put on the line per trade: the fixed-fractional rule, how to turn a percentage into contracts, and where prop drawdown caps it.

ComparisonsJuly 17, 20265 min read

ExpectancyIQ vs. TradeZella: Which Trading Journal Is Right for You?

TradeZella is a mature, AI-heavy, multi-asset journal with 500+ broker integrations and no free tier. Here's an honest look at what it does well, and where a futures/prop-firm-focused tool closes a different gap.

ComparisonsJuly 17, 20265 min read

ExpectancyIQ vs. TraderSync: Which Trading Journal Is Right for You?

TraderSync has one of the longest track records in the space and genuinely strong mobile apps. Here's where it holds up, and where futures/prop-firm mechanics need something more specific.

ComparisonsJuly 17, 20265 min read

ExpectancyIQ vs. Edgewonk: Which Trading Journal Is Right for You?

Edgewonk is a respected, psychology-first journal with one flat price and no feature gating. Here's the honest trade-off between its all-in-one philosophy and an import-first, futures-specific tool.

ComparisonsJuly 17, 20265 min read

ExpectancyIQ vs. TradesViz: Which Trading Journal Is Right for You?

TradesViz packs a huge amount of analytics into a genuinely free tier. Here's an honest comparison for futures and prop-firm traders specifically, where the free-tier fit gets narrower.

ComparisonsSeptember 23, 20266 min read

ExpectancyIQ vs. Tradervue: Which Trading Journal Is Right for You?

Tradervue is one of the oldest journals in the space, with 80+ broker integrations and a real free tier. Here's an honest look at what it does well, and where its plan structure and futures handling leave a gap for prop-firm and futures traders.

Metrics & StatisticsJuly 21, 20265 min read

Why Your Broker Balance and Your Journal Balance Don't Match (And How to Fix It)

Your total P&L matches your broker, but the balance figure doesn't. Here's the deposit/withdrawal gap most journals miss, why a double-counted starting balance is the usual culprit, and how to reconcile the two.

Metrics & StatisticsJuly 16, 20265 min read

Why Your Broker's Win Rate Doesn't Match Your Journal's

Your broker says you won 58% of trades. Your journal says 51%. Neither is lying — here's why round-trip reports and fills-based reconstruction almost never agree, and which number you should actually trust.

Futures & MechanicsJuly 16, 20264 min read

What Counts as a Trading Day? Futures Session Rollover, Explained

Futures trade nearly around the clock. If your journal groups trades by calendar date, an overnight hold gets split across two "days" that never happened. Here's how the 5pm CT rollover actually works, and why it changes your stats.

Metrics & StatisticsJuly 15, 20265 min read

Your Trading Tags Are Lying to You (a Little)

Tag enough setups and mistakes, and some of your "this doesn't work" conclusions are statistical noise, not signal. Here's the multiple-comparisons problem hiding in every trader's tag list, and how to guard against it.

Trading PsychologyJuly 15, 20264 min read

The Winning-Streak Trap

The trade that wrecks your month rarely comes right after a loss. It comes after four wins in a row. Here's the measurable pattern behind winning-streak overconfidence, and how to catch size creep before it becomes a giveback.

ComparisonsJuly 14, 20264 min read

Trading Journal vs. Your Broker's Dashboard: What P&L Reports Don't Show You

Your broker or prop firm already shows you P&L, win rate, and a drawdown chart. Here's exactly what that dashboard can't tell you — and why traders who already have "the numbers" still need a journal.

Metrics & StatisticsJuly 14, 20265 min read

How Many Trades Before You Can Trust Your Win Rate?

A 65% win rate over 20 trades sounds great. Statistically, it could really be 45%. Here's the confidence-interval math that tells you how much to trust a small sample, and roughly how many trades you actually need.

Journaling practiceJuly 12, 20264 min read

Why Keep a Trading Journal?

Most traders can tell you what they made this month. Few can tell you why. Here's what separates a real edge from a lucky streak — and why a journal is the only way to see the difference.

ComparisonsJuly 12, 20264 min read

Trading Journal vs. Excel: What a Spreadsheet Can't See

Excel is a legitimate way to start journaling — free, flexible, no signup. Here's honestly where it holds up, and where it breaks down as your trade volume grows.

ComparisonsJuly 12, 20263 min read

Trading Journal vs. Notion: Great for Notes, Not Built for P&L

Notion is excellent for freeform reflection and building your own system. It was never built to calculate expectancy, parse a broker CSV, or plot an equity curve. Here's the honest split.