A pre-session routine that takes ten minutes

[Shadow Trader]

Skipping preparation and jumping straight into the first setup is a common way to start a day on the wrong foot. A short routine fixes much of it.

A workable version:

1. Check the economic calendar for the day and mark high-impact events with times in a fixed timezone.

2. Note the previous day's high, low and close, and the Asian range.

3. Glance at the broader picture: yields, equities, and any overnight news.

4. Verify platform settings: spread, ping, lot size, and the connection.

5. Review the plan and the day's loss limit.

6. Take a moment to check physical state, such as sleep, hunger, and mood. If something's off, reduce size or skip.

None of this guarantees profit. It reduces avoidable mistakes, like trading into a news event that wasn't on the radar or using last week's lot size by accident.

Written down and ticked off, the routine becomes automatic within a couple of weeks.

Which step of the routine would have prevented the last avoidable loss?