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Red flags and abort criteria (risk discipline)

A written plan without abort criteria is a wish list. I keep a short red-flag list taped beside the monitor. If two fire, I am done for the session — not “careful,” done. This sits beside the trading plan, not inside the vague “be disciplined” paragraph nobody obeys when adrenaline is high.

Examples that actually get used:

• Second rule-break in the same hour
• Spreads > my filter on the pair I am trading
• Heart-rate / jaw-clench after a loss (yes, I notice)
• Urge to widen stop “just this once”
• Calendar Tier-1 inside my blackout window and I still want size

Abort means: flatten, log the flag, timer on, no “small” revenge size. The point is to decide before adrenaline when you will walk away. Green mornings are when I am most tempted to treat the list as optional — that is exactly when it must stay binding.

What belongs on your red-flag list that is not already in the trading plan? And how do you stop abort criteria becoming soft suggestions after a green morning?