Traditional journals
The journal looks backward.
Trade
Close
Import
Analyze
Insight arrives after the trade closes.
AAPL
RISK
SYNC
SCHWAB
IBKR
LIVE DATA
How RulesFirst Works
Most trading journals tell you what happened. RulesFirst intervenes while the trade is still live.
RulesFirst connects your plan, personal rules, and read-only broker activity to detect behavioral drift while you're trading, not only after the session ends.
Prepare
Before
Set session boundaries
Plan
Before
Define the trade
Trade
During
Execute your plan
Protect
Beacon · During
Detect risk and behavior drift
Review
After
Compare plan vs. actual
Improve
After
Build better habits
RulesFirst
RulesFirst watches the live trade unfold.
Plan
Trade
Monitor + Intervene
Auto-sync
Journal + Review
Monitor and intervene while the trade is live, then auto-sync supported historical activity into journaling and review.
RulesFirst is read-only. Interventions are behavioral prompts and risk feedback; RulesFirst never places, modifies, or closes trades. Execution remains with the trader and broker.
Before the trade
What am I supposed to do?
Define the process before emotion and market movement enter the picture.
During the trade
Am I still doing it?
Monitor the live trade against the rules, risk and context you established.
After the trade
What happened, and what can I learn?
Review the decisions, outcome and patterns that shaped the trade.
01Before the trade
Decide the process before the market starts testing it.
Before the trade begins, RulesFirst helps create a record of what the trader intended: the daily boundary, the trade plan, and the rules that matter.
Daily Readiness
Confirm daily risk boundaries, review recent repeated mistakes, acknowledge today's rules, record pre-market mood and complete the daily plan before the Live Trade Terminal becomes available.
Trade Planning
Define setup, direction, entry, stop, target, size, risk and other supported planning fields before the trade begins.
Custom Rules
Choose the behavioral, risk and technical conditions RulesFirst should monitor around your process.
Today's limits
Max loss$500
Max trades5
Highest repeated mistakeAdding to losers
Today's focus
Do not increase size after the trade moves against the original risk boundary.
Trade plan
SymbolNVDA
DirectionLong
Entry$118.00
Stop$116.00
Target$124.00
Size100 shares
Risk1R
Rules active
Behavioral
Risk
Technical
Then the market starts moving.
The trade that began with a plan can change while it is live. That is where the 'during' layer begins.
Plan
Qty100 shares
Risk1R
Stop$188
Live broker position
Qty100 shares
Risk1R
StatusAligned
Actual position
Qty150 shares
Risk1.4R
StatusChanged
02During the trade
Stay aware of when the live trade begins to drift.
Beacon becomes central during the live trade, but it is part of a larger RulesFirst process around the plan, broker position, rules, risk and market context.
Beacon
RulesFirst's trading intelligence system.
Beacon connects the trader's applicable plan, broker position, rules, risk and market context and surfaces relevant changes while the trade is active.
Beacon · Monitoring
Everything remains within the selected context.
Beacon · Attention
A relevant condition changed, such as position size moving beyond the applicable plan.
Beacon · Intervention
A configured risk or behavior boundary has been reached and RulesFirst creates a deliberate pause point.
The plan is only useful if you can see when reality changes.
Planned
Qty100
Risk1R
Stop$188
Actual
Qty175
Risk1.6R
StopMoved
Beacon · Attention
Position no longer matches the original or applicable plan.
03After the trade
The trade ends. The evidence shouldn't.
RulesFirst turns the completed trade into material for review: trade details, decisions, Ghost comparisons, performance, habits and discipline over time.
Trading Journal
Organize completed trading activity and trade details.
Decision Replay
Replay decisions alongside historical price action and available RulesFirst evidence.
Ghost vs. You
Compare the actual trade with the applicable plan-following path.
Performance Analytics
Review setups, symbols, time periods and supported dimensions.
Trading Habits
Identify recurring behavioral patterns across trading history.
Discipline Streaks
Measure Clean Days, mistake containment and focused behavioral consistency.
Performance Analytics
See what the trade became in the data.
RulesFirst exposes the metrics traders need to understand performance, risk, consistency and process quality across completed trading activity.
Net P&L
-$6,474.95
Win Rate
16.67%
Profit Factor
0.05
Avg Win
+$103.69
Avg Loss
-$452.40
Expectancy
-$359.72
Performance
Cumulative P&L-$6,474.95
Equity curveCurrent drawdown
Daily and monthly P&LAug: -$6,197
Day-of-week performanceMon weakest
Entry-window performance9:30-10:15 AM
Long vs shortLong: -$4,120
Trade economics
Profit factor0.05
Payoff ratio0.23
Average win+$103.69
Average loss-$452.40
Median win/loss-$184.20
Expectancy-$359.72
Risk
Largest loss-$2,115
Worst day-$6,387
Current drawdown-$6,475
Maximum drawdown-$6,475
Maximum runup+$412
Recovery status0%
Process & R
Average R-1.42R
Realized risk/reward0.31
Average hold38 min
R multiples-5R worst
Winning and losing streaks7 losses
Reconciled trade coverage96%
Consistency
Green/red days1 / 2
Best/worst day+$190 / -$6,387
Monthly consistency33% green
Calendar P&L heatmap1 red cluster
Daily trendsLosses expanding
Rolling trends3-day decline
Context
Performance by assetNVDA drag
P&L by holding time< 30m weakest
Calls vs putsPuts: +$86
Setup tagsBreakout, VWAP
Mistake tagsAdded to loser
Trade notes and images4 attachments
Calendar
See your trading month at a glance.
Spot clusters of green and red days, heavy-trading periods and unusually damaging sessions without digging through individual trades.
August 2026
Monthly reviewMonthly P&L
-$6,197
Trading Days
3
Green Days
1
Red Days
2
Fees
$0
Avg Day
-$2,066
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
-$6,387
11
+$190
12
-$0
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
Decision Replay
See where the trade changed.
Replay shows recorded trade events alongside historical price action and available RulesFirst evidence. It keeps the sequence visible without requiring you to reconstruct it from memory.
Explore Decision ReplayGhost vs. You
Ghost isn't another trader. It's you, with the plan left intact.
You is what you actually did. Ghost is the applicable plan-following version. Compare the two to see where your live decisions diverged from the process you defined.
Explore Ghost vs. YouYou
Added sizeYes
Moved stopYes
ExitedEarly
P/L-$750
Net R-5R
Ghost
BaselineMaintained
PathApplicable plan
CompletionGhost logic
P/L-$150
Net R-1R
One trade is an event. Repeated behavior becomes a pattern.
RulesFirst connects individual trading moments to behavioral history.
Trade 1
BehaviorAdded to loser
Trade 4
BehaviorAdded to loser
Trade 9
BehaviorAdded to loser
Trading habit
Adding to losers7 occurrences
ImpactReview in analytics
Discipline streaks
Clean Day8 days
No-Spiral11 days
Focused ChallengeDay 6 of 14
The RulesFirst Loop
Yesterday's trading behavior becomes context for tomorrow's preparation.
Prepare
Plan
Trade
Monitor
Review
Learn
Next trading day
One complete day
A trading day becomes evidence for the next one.
This fictional example shows the RulesFirst process as one connected day. Values are illustrative only.
8:45 AM
Daily Readiness
Max loss confirmed: $500. Focus: no adding to losers. Mood: focused.
9:32 AM
Trade Plan
NVDA long. 100 shares. Entry $118. Stop $116. Risk 1R.
9:46 AM
Live Trade
Position 100. Beacon: Monitoring.
9:52 AM
Position Changed
Position increased to 150 shares.
9:52 AM
Beacon Attention
Position size moved beyond plan.
10:15 AM
Trade Closed
Trade recorded at -1.3R.
Review
Decision Replay
Position increase appears in the trade evidence.
Next Morning
Daily Readiness
Highest repeated mistake: adding to losers. New commitment written.
Not just alerts
The alert isn't the product. The process is.
Beacon alerts are one part of RulesFirst. The larger product is the connection between preparation, live context, review and the next trading day.
preparation
planning
live monitoring
broker activity
risk context
behavioral events
journal
replay
analytics
habits
discipline tracking
RulesFirst is not a signal service.
Does not tell you what stock to buy
Does not predict market direction
Does not provide trading signals
Does not place trades for you
Does not replace your strategy
Your strategy remains yours. Your broker remains yours. Your decisions remain yours. RulesFirst helps make the process visible.
Connect the broker you already trade with.
Broker connectivity allows RulesFirst to synchronize supported trading activity and monitor applicable live positions. Broker integrations are rolling out in stages, and manual mode remains available from day one.
See Supported Integrations