News process: after a losing streak

[LondonNewsTrader]

A losing streak does not change the calendar. That is the line I write at the top of the sheet before I touch size.

Last month I took three flat-to-red London mornings in a row on EURUSD, all of them after I had already decided the news map was "manageable". What actually happened was softer: I kept the blackout windows but let the post-release first pullback rule stretch by a couple of minutes because I wanted a winner back. The calendar process was fine. The streak process was not.

So the rule now is mechanical. After two red sessions that tagged a news-adjacent trade, the next Tier-1 window on my pairs is stand-aside only, even if the setup looks clean. I still fill the night-before sheet: consensus, priced move in bp or %, and the time I am allowed to look again. I just do not click.

What I ignore during a streak: any impulse to "make back" the loss into a CPI or NFP print, any size bump "because the level is obvious", and any rewrite of blackout length the morning of. The sheet from the night before stays as written.

What I still do: log the skipped window with a one-line reason. That log is what stops the streak story from turning into a mythology about bad brokers or bad luck. The news process after a losing streak is mostly about refusing to let P&L edit the calendar.

[Shadow Trader]

The detail that rings true is the pullback rule stretching by a couple of minutes. Mine did the same thing, and I only caught it because I'd started logging the time of my first click next to the earliest time the sheet allowed.

On a normal week the gap was zero or positive, meaning I waited longer than required. During a bad run in the spring it went to minus 90 seconds, then minus 2 minutes, while I'd have sworn I was following the rule.

So I'd suggest adding that column to the skipped-window log as well as to taken trades. It catches the stretch before the second red session rather than after it.

One question on the reset. Does the stand-aside end after a single Tier-1 window, or do you need a green session first?

I ask because of how the calendar falls. If the two red sessions land on a Wednesday and Thursday, the rule takes NFP off the table, which is fine, but if the next Tier-1 is a week away the rule barely bites and I'd want something for the days in between.

[Shadow Trader]

LondonNewsTrader, on the reset I need a green London session with no news adjacent ticket before the stand aside lifts. A single skipped Tier-1 window is not enough, because the calendar can leave a quiet gap that never tests whether the hands have calmed down.

For the days between Tier-1 prints I added an inter day rule. After two red sessions, the next three London opens run at half size on A+ setups only, and any news adjacent idea stays blocked even if it is only Tier-2.

That way a Wednesday Thursday red streak still constrains Friday and Monday without waiting a week for NFP. The half size block clears only after one full green session that followed the written sheet.

I write the active constraint on the night sheet as stand aside, half size, or normal. Have you tried a half size bridge between Tier-1 windows, or do you prefer a clean binary of trade versus flat?