A Weekly Trading Review Routine for Options Traders
Reviewed by Leon Moyer - Published October 9, 2026 - Last reviewed October 9, 2026
In this lesson
Run a four-step weekly review of open options positions and closed trades, and decide whether one rule in your plan should change.
A weekly trading review is a fixed routine, done at the same time each week, that checks every open position, totals your risk against your plan's limits, scores the week's closed trades against your rules, and decides whether one rule should change. It is how a written plan stays a plan rather than a document you wrote once.
How to Keep an Options Trading Journal You Will Actually Use, in Course 1, introduced the weekly journal review for bought options. Once your plan includes short options and spreads, the review gains a job: positions you are short can be assigned, can run into an ex-dividend date or an earnings report, and can add up to more risk than any one of them shows. This lesson builds the routine on the rules from Writing Rules per Strategy.
What does a weekly trading review cover?
Four passes, always in the same order, so nothing is skipped on a busy week.
- Open positions, one at a time. Days to expiration, where the stock is against your short strike, and any earnings or ex-dividend date before expiration.
- Risk totals. The total maximum loss of your defined-risk positions and the capital behind your stock-backed ones, against the plan's caps.
- Closed trades. Did each one follow its rules? Tally the results by strategy.
- One plan change, at most. Only if the journal shows a pattern, and with the reason written down.
The weekly review in four passes
Open positions
Days left, short strike, earnings or ex-dividend dates
Risk totals
Open risk and stock-backed capital vs caps
Closed trades
Followed the plan? Tally by strategy
One plan change
At most one, with the reason logged
Pick a fixed time when markets are closed, such as Friday evening or Sunday afternoon, so prices are not moving while you decide.
What should you check on each open position?
Go through each position with the same questions:
- How many days are left, and is a time exit due before next week's review? If a rule says "close with 21 days left" and the position has 24 at a Friday review, it is due Monday. Put the date in your calendar now.
- Where is the stock against the short strike? An American-style short option that is in the money can be assigned at any time, and the Options Industry Council notes the risk rises as it goes deeper in the money and nears expiration.
- Is there an earnings report or ex-dividend date before expiration? Assignment risk on a short call rises just before the ex-dividend date. If your rules avoid earnings, a newly announced date can force an exit.
- Has any loss exit been hit and not acted on? This is the most important line. A loss exit you skipped on Tuesday is still a broken rule on Friday.
How do you total your risk across positions?
Add up two numbers, because the two kinds of strategy are capped differently.
- Defined risk: the sum of every spread's and protective position's maximum loss. Compare it with the plan's cap on total open risk.
- Stock-backed capital: the strike times 100 for each cash-secured put and the share cost for each covered call, as the plan defines it. Compare it with the plan's capital cap.
The difference between the defined-risk total and its cap is how much room you have for new defined-risk trades next week. Then look across the list for the same stock appearing more than once: three positions that all lose if one stock falls are closer to one large bet than three small ones. The Position Sizing and Portfolio Basics module covers this kind of overlap.
Worked example
One Friday review on a $25,000 account
This example plan, a variant that also allows bull call spreads and covered calls on shares already owned, caps total defined risk at 6% of the account ($1,500) and stock-backed capital at 40% ($10,000). Figures are before fees and use this module's hypothetical quotes, not model prices.
Open positions:
- Defined risk: $480 + $440 = $920 of $1,500. Room: $580, enough for one more $440 spread but not two.
- Stock-backed: $4,500 + $3,000 = $7,500 of $10,000.
- Overlap: three of the four positions lose if XYZ falls. The review notes it, and the plan's next XYZ trade waits.
- Assignment: the ABC call is $1 in the money ahead of an ex-dividend date. The rule says decide in advance: here, the plan accepts assignment and lets the shares go at $32, rather than closing or rolling the call.
Closed this week: a different bull put spread, not the open 45/40 one, closed at its $0.30 profit exit (+$30), a cash-secured put expired worthless (+$80), and two bull call spreads bought for $1.20 were held past their $0.60 loss exit and closed at $0.25 (-$190). Week: -$80. Following the loss exit would have cost $120 instead of $190, so the broken rule cost $70.
Illustrative and hypothetical. The ticker and prices are invented for teaching, and the figures exclude commissions, fees, margin interest and taxes, which reduce real results. Past or hypothetical outcomes do not indicate future results.
This week's open risk against the plan's caps
Defined risk: total maximum loss
Stock-backed: capital committed
The open XYZ 45 cash-secured put can lose up to $4,420 ($4,500 less the $80 premium) if XYZ goes to zero, and the covered call carries most of the shares' downside too. The capital cap limits how much of the account is exposed, not the loss.
How do you score the week's closed trades?
Score the process, not the outcome. For each closed trade, write one line: strategy, result, and "followed the plan: yes or no". Then sort by the last column. In the example, the two trades that followed the plan made $110; the one that broke it lost $190, $70 more than its own loss exit allowed.
Keep a running tally by strategy across weeks. One week shows discipline; it says almost nothing about whether a strategy works. Judge a strategy only after enough trades of it, and judge the rule that was broken before the rule that was followed.
When should a review change your plan?
Rarely, and never more than one rule at a time. A good test: would you make the same change if this week had been a winning week? If a loss exit keeps being skipped, the fix is often a habit (an order placed at entry) rather than a new level. Write every change in the plan with the date and the reason, so a later review can tell whether it helped.
Check your understanding
Your defined-risk cap is $1,500 and open spreads have $920 of maximum loss. How many more $440 spreads fit?
Show answer
One. $1,500 - $920 = $580 of room, which fits one $440 spread but not two ($880).
Why does the review check for ex-dividend dates on covered calls?
Show answer
Because assignment risk on a short call rises just before the ex-dividend date, especially when the call is in the money. The plan should decide in advance whether to accept assignment or close the call.
Two spreads bought for $1.20 had a $0.60 loss exit but were closed at $0.25. What did skipping the exit cost?
Show answer
$70. The actual loss was ($1.20 - $0.25) x 100 x 2 = $190; the planned loss was ($1.20 - $0.60) x 100 x 2 = $120.
Key takeaways
- Review weekly, at a fixed time, in four passes: open positions, risk totals, closed trades, one plan change.
- On every short option, check days left, distance to the strike, and earnings or ex-dividend dates before expiration.
- Total defined risk and stock-backed capital separately, and watch for one stock behind several positions.
- Score trades on whether they followed the plan, and change at most one rule per review, with the reason logged.
Common questions
How do you review your trading week?
In a fixed order: check each open position (days left, where the stock is against your short strike, events before expiration), total your open risk against the plan's limits, score each closed trade on whether it followed the plan, then decide on at most one plan change.
How long should a weekly trading review take?
Long enough to go through every open position and closed trade. With a handful of positions, it might take 20 to 40 minutes. If it takes much longer, you may be holding more positions than your plan can track.
What should I look for when reviewing my trades?
Whether each trade followed the plan's entry, exit and size rules, what breaking a rule cost, and patterns by strategy. Ignore how a single trade turned out; a good trade can lose and a bad one can win.
Should I change my trading plan after a losing week?
Not because of one week. Change a rule only when your journal shows a pattern across enough trades, change one rule at a time, and write down why. A losing week that followed the plan is usually the plan working as designed.