forex-scalping.com

Coming off a red week, I don't trust myself fully on the Monday. My abort criteria are always written down, but after a losing week I document a stricter version on Sunday evening, so that Monday's decisions aren't made by a frustrated version of me.

What I write, as it appears in the notebook for this Monday:

Normal rule: after two consecutive losers, 30-minute break, then continue at normal size.

Post-red-week rule: after two consecutive losers, I'm done for the session. No break and return. Done.

Normal rule: after two losers, the next trade can be any setup from the playbook.

Post-red-week rule: if I do continue after a single loser, only the London open range break, only EURUSD.

Normal daily loss limit: 1% of account.

Post-red-week limit: 0.6%.

Duration: these stricter rules apply until I've had two consecutive positive days, or until the end of the week, whichever comes first.

Then I sign and date it.

The reason for all this: in my records, the trading day after a red week has historically been worse than average, and the losses mostly come after the first two losing trades. The first two losers are just trading. Everything after them is me trying to fix the previous week in one morning.

Writing the stricter version on Sunday evening is the part most people skip. At 08:20 on a Monday after a second loser, nobody negotiates well with themselves.

The exit condition is where I'd push back a little. Two positive days is a fair bar, but a positive day can be a single scratch at +0.1R. I tie mine to process instead: two days with zero rule breaks, whatever the P&L, because a lucky green Monday can switch the strict rules off too early.

The 0.6% limit and the two loser stop also interact. If you normally risk 0.3% a trade, two losers already hit the limit and both rules say the same thing. At 0.25% there is a 0.1% gap left over, and that gap is exactly where a third trade sneaks in "because the limit still allows it".

The London range break only rule is the one I like most. Narrowing the playbook does more than shrinking size, in my experience, because the setups you remove are usually the improvised ones.

Do you track whether the strict weeks actually perform better, or is it mostly about capping the worst case? I've only ever measured the second, which probably says something.

LondonScalper, the signed Sunday page is what I copy, but I changed who it binds. Mine now binds size as well as count: first trade after a red week is half the normal risk, even before any loser, because the first click on that Monday was often the emotional one.

A scratch still counts as a loser for the two trade stop. I used to argue that a scratch was nothing, and that is how a third idea appeared before lunch.

The 0.6% cap stays. What I added is a hard platform max loss at that number so the 0.1% gap you get at 0.25% risk per trade cannot be spent by hand.

Two days of zero rule breaks is still my exit from the strict set. I do not watch P&L for that unlock at all.

Do you keep the signed page on the desk where you can see it, or only in the notebook? Visibility was the difference between following it and remembering it existed after the fact.