What I do in the five minutes before 08:00

[FXS London Scalper]

People ask about routines, so here's exactly what happens at my desk from 07:55 to 08:00 London. It's short on purpose.

• 07:55. Close everything that isn't a chart or the platform: email, chat, news feeds. The news feed comes back at 08:30.
• 07:56. Read my plan for the day out loud, quietly. Levels on EURUSD and GBPUSD, the one or two setups I'm looking for, and the times of any data. Reading it aloud sounds silly, but it stops me skimming.
• 07:57. Check the daily loss limit for today in money, not R, and write it on a sticky note on the monitor.
• 07:58. Check spreads on both pairs. If they're still wide, I note that the first few minutes are off limits.
• 07:59. Hands off the mouse. I wait for the first M1 bar after 08:00 to close before doing anything.

The last step is the one that made the biggest difference. Most of my worst trades in the past were entries in the first 60 seconds, driven by excitement rather than a setup.

None of this is clever. It's a buffer between the rest of my morning and the first decision. What do you do in the last minutes before your session starts?