Pre-market routine

A pre-market routine is a short checklist you complete before the market opens, so the day starts from your rules instead of from the first price move. It can take about a minute. Rate your sleep and mood, note why you are trading today, re-read each of your if-then rules one at a time, set today's maximum number of trades, and read the plan you wrote the evening before. If you are trading to win back yesterday's loss or out of boredom, treat that as a warning sign and trade smaller or not at all.

The checklist

Sleep and mood: a quick 1-5 rating each.
Why am I trading today: my setups may show up, routine, win back a loss, or bored.
Re-read each rule on its own, slowly.
Set today's maximum number of trades.
Read last evening's plan: the scenarios and what would make them wrong.

The evening before

Write tomorrow's plan in the evening, when markets are closed and you are calm: your general view, two or three if-then scenarios, what would invalidate each one, and any events to watch. Reading it in the morning connects the calm plan with the live session.

Make it hard to skip

A routine helps only if it is done every day. Tie it to opening your journal: the journal opens after the last rule. Track your streak of completed routines rather than your profit streak.

Educational content about trading process. Not investment advice.

Questions

What if I wake up late and the market is open?

Do the routine anyway before your first trade. A late routine is better than none, and the delay itself is useful information.

Should I check the news in the routine?

Note scheduled events that matter to your instruments, but avoid turning the routine into a search for trade ideas. Its job is to set your rules and limits.

Useful calculators

Put this into practice

DisciplineTrade turns these routines into a daily habit: rules re-read each morning, plans before entry, behaviours flagged automatically. Free.

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