Pre-Monday open checklist: news, levels, max risk
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2026 8:46 pm
Pre-Monday open checklist -- weekends create stories; the card kills them.
Monday London is where gap narratives and social-media weekend takes try to sit in my chair. I use a short written card so I start from process, not from someone else's thread.
Card
1. Sleep score and size throttle (poor sleep = half size or observe).
2. News in the first three hours -- blackout windows marked.
3. Friday levels still valid? Gaps that need re-marking?
4. Max loss and max trades for the morning only -- not the whole week.
5. One bias sentence or "no bias, levels only."
I fill the card before charts, tea in hand. If I skip it, I notice by 07:15 because I am already improvising. Improvisation on Monday is expensive.
What is the first thing you force yourself to write before Monday's open?
I also glance at weekend gap size on my majors and decide whether Monday is a warm-up size day. Large gaps with messy spreads get the same treatment as post-holiday opens: prove the tape, then earn full size. The card takes three minutes and prevents a twenty-minute improvisation spiral.
Monday London is where gap narratives and social-media weekend takes try to sit in my chair. I use a short written card so I start from process, not from someone else's thread.
Card
1. Sleep score and size throttle (poor sleep = half size or observe).
2. News in the first three hours -- blackout windows marked.
3. Friday levels still valid? Gaps that need re-marking?
4. Max loss and max trades for the morning only -- not the whole week.
5. One bias sentence or "no bias, levels only."
I fill the card before charts, tea in hand. If I skip it, I notice by 07:15 because I am already improvising. Improvisation on Monday is expensive.
What is the first thing you force yourself to write before Monday's open?
I also glance at weekend gap size on my majors and decide whether Monday is a warm-up size day. Large gaps with messy spreads get the same treatment as post-holiday opens: prove the tape, then earn full size. The card takes three minutes and prevents a twenty-minute improvisation spiral.