Playbooks are reusable trading setups. They define the rules for a strategy, give trades a consistent setup label, and help Journal, Trades, Dashboard, and the Risk Analyzer compare planned execution with what actually happened.
Where To Find Playbooks
Open Journal > Playbooks. The legacy /playbooks route redirects to /journal/playbooks, so Playbooks now live inside the Journal workflow. From the Playbooks page you can:
- Create a playbook from scratch.
- Start from a default template when your account has no playbooks yet.
- Edit an existing playbook.
- Delete a playbook after confirmation.
- Review how many trades are linked to each playbook. Deleting a playbook does not delete trades. Trades linked to the deleted playbook are unlinked.
Creating A Playbook
Click New Playbook and fill in the form:
- Name is required. Use a clear setup name such as Opening Range Breakout, VWAP Bounce, Capitulation, or Exhaustion Gap.
- Description is optional. Use it for the setup thesis, market context, or when the strategy should be avoided.
- Default Setup Quality is optional. When selected, it can automatically set the setup quality when this playbook is assigned to a trade.
- Rules define the strict conditions for the setup. The Save button is disabled until the required name is present.
Rule Categories
Each rule belongs to one of five categories:
- Setup - what must exist before the trade is valid.
- Entry - the trigger or execution condition.
- Risk - stop placement, position sizing, daily loss constraints, or maximum risk.
- Exit - target, scale-out, trailing, or invalidation behavior.
- Other - any additional context that does not fit the core categories. Rules are stored with their category, so reopening a playbook should restore the same category and text.
Managing Rules
The editor is designed for fast rule entry:
- Click Add Rule to append another row.
- A new rule inherits the previous rule’s category.
- Press Enter inside a rule to move to the next rule; pressing Enter on the last rule adds a new row and focuses it.
- Drag rules to reorder them.
- Blank rule text is ignored when the playbook is saved.
- The editor keeps at least one rule row available. Use rule order to describe the strategy in the order you review it: setup first, then entry, risk, exits, and exceptions.
Default Templates
If you do not have any playbooks yet, Trandence shows starter templates. Current templates include:
- Capitulation - high-volume panic selling and reversal criteria.
- Daily Over Extensions & Exhaustion Gaps - extended moves, gap exhaustion, and reversal criteria. Click Use This Template to save a template as your own playbook. You can edit it afterwards.
How Playbooks Are Used
Playbooks are shared across review workflows:
- Trades can assign a playbook to a trade so the raw trading record has strategy context.
- Daily Plans can use playbooks in watchlist planning before the session.
- Symbol Reports use playbooks to compare planned strategy, setup quality, risk, and actual execution.
- Dashboard and analytics can group performance by playbook.
- Risk Analyzer can give more specific feedback when the trade has a playbook and execution mistakes. A useful playbook is specific enough that another trader could understand when the setup is valid and when it is invalid.
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Need Help?
If a playbook does not appear in Trades or Journal, refresh the page and confirm it was saved successfully. For help designing your first rules, contact [email protected].