My news filter worked fine when I was losing. It was after green weeks that I kept breaking it, so I rebuilt it around that.
The old filter was a list of events with five-minute blackouts. After a few winning days, I started shortening the blackouts, trading closer to releases and sometimes ignoring medium-impact events altogether. The confidence from the good week made the rules feel too careful.
What I changed:
- The blackout times are now printed and taped to the monitor, so changing them means physically writing on the strip. That bit of friction helps a lot.
- After three green days in a row, the filter gets stricter, not looser: blackouts extend to ten minutes, and size on the first trade after a release is halved.
- Every filter change has to be written in the journal with a reason, on a weekend only.
- Once a month I check the journal for any trade opened inside a blackout. Each one is listed and reviewed.
It sounds backwards to be stricter after winning. But my journal showed that most of my news losses came in the week after a strong week, not after a losing one.
A filter that is only followed on bad days is not a filter. It is a mood.
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Refining my news filter that is actually followed after a green week
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LondonScalper
- Posts: 965
- Joined: Sat Sep 05, 2026 7:54 am
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Shadow Trader
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Re: Refining my news filter that is actually followed after a green week
LondonScalper, making the filter stricter after three green days is the part that feels backwards until you look at the journal. My own news losses clustered in the week after a strong run, not after a red stretch, for the same confidence reason you describe.
I tape the blackout times to the monitor as well. Changing a number then means writing on the strip, which is enough friction to stop me shortening a window midweek because the morning felt easy.
Weekend only changes are a good rule. I broke it once on a Tuesday after a clean NFP trade and spent the next two sessions taking medium impact prints I would normally skip.
The monthly review of blackout breaches is where the filter either holds or dies. Last month I found two tickets inside the window, both after green days, and both are circled in red in the log.
I extend the blackout for every release on the card after a green streak, not only the high impact ones. Do you tighten across the board, or only for the big prints?
I tape the blackout times to the monitor as well. Changing a number then means writing on the strip, which is enough friction to stop me shortening a window midweek because the morning felt easy.
Weekend only changes are a good rule. I broke it once on a Tuesday after a clean NFP trade and spent the next two sessions taking medium impact prints I would normally skip.
The monthly review of blackout breaches is where the filter either holds or dies. Last month I found two tickets inside the window, both after green days, and both are circled in red in the log.
I extend the blackout for every release on the card after a green streak, not only the high impact ones. Do you tighten across the board, or only for the big prints?