forex-scalping.com

One line before every trade, my remaining buffer in money and in stops

on a prop account I started putting a single line at the top of my journal before each trade: how much I have left before the daily limit, and how much before the overall limit, both in money and in number of full stops at my current risk.

It sounds trivial, but it changed things. When I see "two full stops left today", I treat the next trade very differently from when I see "five". It makes me pick better setups, and it stops me from taking a marginal one when I'm already close to the limit.

It also catches situations I might not notice in the moment. If a trade is open and floating negative, the buffer line reminds me that it counts. If the account is near the overall limit, I might decide to skip the day.

I update it after every closed trade. It takes about ten seconds. I also look at the overall buffer first thing in the morning, so I start the day knowing where I stand, not guessing.

It's a simple habit, and since I started doing it I haven't had a day where I was surprised by how close I was to a limit.

I do something similar but I also write the number of trades I am allowed today at my normal risk before I hit the daily limit with commissions included. Seeing two full stops left changes my behaviour completely, like you said. On days when it says one, I only take the A setup or nothing. It sounds obvious, but before I wrote it down I would get to the end of the day shocked at how little room was left. Having the number in front of me removes that surprise.

The floating trade point is important. A lot of firms measure the daily limit on equity, so an open trade that is down counts against you in real time, even if you plan to hold it. I once had a trade floating against me while I opened a second one, and for a moment I was much closer to the limit than I realised. Since then my buffer line includes open positions at their stop. If both stops hit, where would I be? That is the number I care about.