forex-scalping.com

A pre-session routine that takes five minutes and prevents most disasters

Many bad trading days start with an unprepared session. Platform settings were changed, spreads were not checked, and news was missed. A short routine can catch these problems before real money is at risk.

A useful version covers a handful of items. Check the economic calendar for the next few hours. Confirm the connection and platform status. Look at current spreads versus normal. Verify default order size and one-click settings. Review the plan and the daily loss limit.

It also helps to note the state of mind. If tired, upset, or distracted, the session may need to be shortened or skipped.

Writing the routine down turns it into a checklist, which is more reliable than memory. Tick items off as they are done.

The routine takes five minutes and has no cost. Yet it prevents errors such as trading with the wrong lot size, missing a data release, or running with a spread that is double normal.

What items are on the pre-session checklist, and which one has caught the most mistakes?

My checklist is short enough to run in four or five minutes, and the item that has caught the most mistakes is checking the lot size field before I touch anything else. Twice I had left a test size of 1.0 from a demo experiment sitting in the one-click panel, which would have been about ten times my normal risk. I now read that box out loud.

Second on my list is the spread against normal. I keep a note with the usual spread for each pair I trade, and if it is more than double I do not trade it for the next half hour. That saved me on a few thin Sunday opens when I would otherwise have jumped in.

The rest are the calendar for the next three hours, whether the VPS connection shows a green ping under 50 milliseconds, and my daily loss limit written on the same sticky note. I also rate my mood from one to five. Whenever I score myself a two or lower, I trade half size or just watch, and so far that rule has never cost me money.