Why would a pro disagree?
Learning & understandingI believe [a trading belief I hold]. Give me the strongest case an experienced trader would make against it, and what evidence would tell me I’m wrong.
The prompts from your Starter Pack, ready to copy on whatever device you have to hand. Each one asks an AI to argue with you at a different stage: your belief, your strategy, your backtest, your size, and your record.
Swap anything in [square brackets] for your own detail. The more specific you are, the less generic the answer.
These work in any assistant. Every answer is a draft, not a fact: check numbers, quotes, and code against a real source before you act on them.
I believe [a trading belief I hold]. Give me the strongest case an experienced trader would make against it, and what evidence would tell me I’m wrong.
Argue as hard as you can against this strategy. In what conditions does it lose? Worst realistic losing streak? Hidden costs? Is it fitted to a story, or is there a real reason it works? Be blunt. [strategy]
Assume I’ve fooled myself. Find signs of overfitting or unrealistic assumptions in this backtest, and tell me how to test it out-of-sample. Be sceptical. [paste results + rules]
My account is [amount] and I risk 1% per trade. I want to [buy/sell] [instrument] at [entry] with a stop at [stop]. Work out cash at risk, stop distance, and exact size. Show the steps and state your assumptions.
Act as a blunt, experienced trading coach. From this journal, find where I make versus lose money, whether I follow my own rules, any emotional patterns, and my single highest-impact fix for next month. Use my real numbers. Don’t flatter me. [paste journal]
[paste context block] Give me this week’s scheduled data and events for my markets that could cause volatility, ranked by likely impact. Cite sources. End with ‘what could make this read wrong’.
Needs an AI with live web access, and it asks for sources. Check two of them before you let it change anything you do.
The Sceptic’s Prompt Vault covers seven categories across the whole workflow, and sits inside The Sceptic’s Toolkit alongside the Playbook, the Trade Checklist, the Risk Cheat Sheet, the Journal, and the Position Size Calculator.
Educational content, not financial advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any instrument. Most retail traders lose money; only risk what you can afford to lose.
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