Guides
Trading guides
Behavioral finance, risk management, and methodology for traders. The decisions that shape outcomes, the math that measures them, and the evidence Kyra waits for before calling a pattern.
How emotions affect trading performance
The umbrella view. Four well-mapped behavioral mechanisms (loss aversion, disposition effect, overconfidence, arousal narrowing), the fingerprint each leaves in a trade log, and the gap between aggregate research and your own data.
5 academic citations · ~10 min read How to track your trading emotions
Not a feelings diary — one honest tag per trade, logged in the moment, in a vocabulary you can compare. The practice, and the self-diagnosis mistake that makes the data useless.
2 citations · ~8 min read What is a trading edge?
An edge is positive expectancy across a large enough sample, not a high win rate. The two kinds of edge — strategy and behavioral — and how to find yours in your own trade history.
Expectancy · Behavioral edge Which trading setup actually wins?
Best-setup lists describe other traders. The one that makes you money is in your own log — ranked by expectancy over a real sample, not by your last memorable win.
2 citations · ~9 min read When to enter a trade
Most answers are about the chart. The honest one is about you: a clean setup still needs a fit trader. The three-part readiness check — emotion named, plan set, risk known — that comes before the entry.
Pre-trade readiness · ~8 min read The pre-market routine that's about you
Most pre-market routines scan the market. The one that changes your results is shorter and points inward: know the session, know your edge, know if you're fit to trade — decided before the open.
2 citations · ~7 min read The reality of day trading
Not the highlight reel, not the horror story. The honest middle: outcomes swing on variance, and the biggest variable you control is your own behavior — both of which you can measure.
Variance · Behavior · ~7 min read How to stop revenge trading
A sequence, not a personality trait. The behavioral mechanism behind the make-it-back trap, the fingerprint of the post-loss re-entry in your trade log, and three structural checks that interrupt the cycle without relying on willpower.
3 citations · ~9 min read What is FOMO trading?
FOMO trading is entering because a move already ran and you cannot stand to miss it. The plain definition, the fingerprint a chase entry leaves in a trade log, and why it tends to cost more than it returns.
Definition · ~5 min read FOMO trading psychology
Chase entries are a structural sequence driven by regret aversion and informational cascades. The fingerprint in your trade log, three behavioral mechanisms behind the click, and structural defenses that don't rely on willpower.
3 citations · ~9 min read The drawdown recovery math
A 10% loss needs 11% to recover. A 50% loss needs 100%. A 90% loss needs 900%. The math is multiplicative, not additive — and the four levers that bound how deep a drawdown actually goes are all set before the trade.
1 citation · ~8 min read Profit factor vs expectancy
Profit factor is a ratio — how efficient your edge is. Expectancy is an amount — what one more trade is worth. They always agree on whether you're profitable, but answer different questions, and win rate answers neither. Which number to reach for, and when.
Metric picker · ~9 min read How many trades before patterns emerge?
Pattern detection is bounded by sample size. See why early signals are noisy, when inference sharpens, and what a trader can credibly act on at each stage.
Sample sizes · Confidence tiers What "AI" should mean in a trading journal
Most "AI trading journals" narrate patterns from your notes — fluently, sometimes from pure noise. The case for the other kind: statistical, tested, on-device, and detected rather than self-diagnosed.
2 citations · ~10 min read Best trading journal apps (2026)
There is no single best trading journal — there are categories. A neutral, axis-by-axis guide to which app fits which trader in 2026, with an honest comparison table and where Kyra fits (and doesn't).
Category guide · honest comparison Best AI trading journal (2026)
"AI trading journal" means two different products: one that talks (a cloud LLM that narrates and chats) and one that measures (on-device statistical inference on your own trades). Which fits which trader, and where Kyra fits and doesn't.
AI: talks vs measures · honest comparison Best trading journal app for iPhone (2026)
Most "iOS trading journals" are web apps in a browser. The journals that are actually native iPhone apps — Kyra, TraderSync, TradesViz, TradeReview, UltraTrader, SuperTrader, Plancana — and which fits which trader. Kyra is the private, on-device, no-account option.
Native iOS vs web · honest comparison Best private trading journal app
A private trading journal keeps your trades on your own device — no account, nothing uploaded. What actually clears that bar: Kyra (native iPhone, on-device), a spreadsheet you own, or a self-hosted tool. How the storage models really compare.
On-device · no account TradeZella alternatives for iPhone
TradeZella is a web-based all-in-one suite with no native iPhone app and no free tier. The best alternatives by need: Kyra for a private native-iPhone journal, TraderSync/TradesViz/UltraTrader for native iOS plus broker sync. An honest, neutral comparison.
Kyra vs TradeZella · alternatives Best free trading journal apps for iPhone
The native iPhone journals with a real free tier — Kyra, UltraTrader, TradeReview, SuperTrader, Plancana — and exactly what each free plan caps. Kyra's free tier is unlimited manual logging with no account.
Free tiers · what's the catch How to stop overtrading
Overtrading is a frequency problem with a measurable cost, not a willpower failure. The behavioral mechanisms behind the marginal trade, the fingerprint trade count leaves in your log, and three structural fixes.
3 citations · ~9 min read Trading on tilt
Tilt is a compromised emotional state, not a single bad trade. The physiology behind it, how a tilt streak looks in your trade log, and how to reset before it compounds into the next run.
3 citations · ~9 min read How to review your trades
Most traders review profit and loss, the least useful number in the journal. A weekly review that changes behavior reads process over the scoreboard: the two lenses, the cadence, and the four questions that matter.
2 citations · ~8 min read Why do I keep losing money trading?
The honest answer is usually not your strategy. It is a small set of repeated behavioral leaks that compound. The four leaks, why they are invisible without measurement, and how to find the one costing you.
3 citations · ~8 min read Loss aversion in trading
Losses feel roughly twice as bad as equivalent gains feel good. In trading, this asymmetry drives three distinct behaviors — cutting winners short, holding losers past the stop, and passing on valid entries — all measurable in your own log.
3 citations · ~9 min read The disposition effect
The documented tendency to sell winners too early and ride losers too long. The prospect-theory mechanism, the asymmetry it leaves in your exit data, and how to measure your own.
3 citations · ~10 min read Long vs short: which are you better at?
Most traders have a preferred side and a blind spot about the other. Your log knows which is real — and the gap is often an emotional state wearing a direction costume.
2 citations · ~9 min read The best time of day to trade
Your worst trading hour is usually yours, not the market's. Decision fatigue, the within-session performance curve, and how to find your own time-of-day pattern in your data.
2 citations · ~8 min read Trading outside market hours
Pre-market and after-hours are a different game — thin liquidity, wider spreads, bigger gaps. The structural costs, the behavioral pull, and how to read your own extended-hours record.
1 citation · ~8 min read How to stop over-leveraging
Over-leveraging is sizing a trade bigger than your plan allows, usually after a win. The overconfidence mechanism, the fingerprint in your size data, and how to cap it before one oversized loss undoes a month of discipline.
3 citations · ~9 min read What to include in a trading journal
Most journals log price and P&L and stop there. The decision fields — emotion, plan-adherence, setup, execution — are the ones that actually let patterns surface, and the few that are worth the effort.
2 citations · ~8 min read Why a trading journal shouldn't have streaks
Streaks, XP, and badges make an app stickier and a journal worse. When logging becomes a game, the record starts to flatter you — and an honest record is the whole point.
3 citations · ~8 min read Trading discipline is a measurable behavior
Discipline is not willpower you either have or don't. It is plan-adherence, a measurable rate, and systems beat willpower because rules set when you are calm hold when you are not.
3 citations · ~9 min read Why you move your stop loss
Moving a stop to avoid getting stopped out is loss aversion in real time. The mechanism, the asymmetry you forget, the fingerprint in your exit data, and the rule that takes the decision away.
3 citations · ~9 min read Confirmation bias in trading
Confirmation bias is searching for evidence that supports your trade thesis while discounting evidence that doesn't. The mechanism, the fingerprint it leaves in your holding decisions, and how to catch it before the stop that should have been cut.
3 citations · ~9 min read Anchoring bias in trading
Anchoring bias is letting the first number you see — your entry price, a round number, a prior high — distort every decision that follows. The mechanism, the fingerprint it leaves in your exit data, and how to catch it.
3 citations · ~9 min read Recency bias in trading
Recency bias is weighting your most recent trades more than the full sample warrants. After a losing streak you abandon sound setups. After a winning streak you oversize. Your data knows the difference; your gut does not.
3 citations · ~9 min read Mental accounting in trading
Traders treat profits and original capital differently — sizing up on house money after wins and shrinking after losses. Thaler's mental accounting framework, the fingerprint in your trade log, and the fix that treats all dollars as equal.
3 citations · ~9 min read Hindsight bias in trading
Hindsight bias is the certainty, after the outcome, that you knew it all along. It quietly rewrites your trade reviews — crediting judgment you never used and erasing the lesson. The mechanism, the fingerprint it leaves when memory meets the record, and how to catch it.
3 citations · ~9 min read Averaging down in trading
Averaging down is adding to a losing position to lower your average cost. It lowers the price you need to break even and raises the money you stand to lose. The prospect-theory mechanism, the fingerprint it leaves in your size data, and how to tell a planned scale-in from a rescue.
3 citations · ~9 min read From spreadsheet to trading journal
You already have the hard part — the data. The three-step migration into Kyra: export your sheet to CSV, match four required columns, import on your device. Nothing retyped, nothing uploaded, and the pattern engine starts with your full history on day one.
3-step migration · ~6 min read The fastest way to log a trade
The trades you skip logging are the ones quietly skewing your data. Kyra's Log Trade action opens the entry form from Siri, the Action Button, Spotlight, or a Shortcut — so the friction that makes you skip never gets a chance.
Siri · Action Button · Spotlight Reading the evidence is the easy part.
Seeing it in your own trades is the harder part. Kyra Trading is a private trading journal that detects behavioral patterns in your own trade history and surfaces the ones that are costing you money. Every pattern shows its sample size and a confidence range, so you can see how strong the signal is. On-device, no account, no servers.
