Pre-market
- Am I prepared to trade?
- Have I cleared my mind or meditated prior to trading?
- Have I reviewed my market feeds for any overnight news?
- Have I run my stock selection scans?
- Have I updated my watchlists?
- Have I updated my risk per trade calculations, along with 2ATR measurements and position sizes?
After market close
- Have I carried out my daily review of my trading?
- Have I updated my stops as per my rules?
- Have I logged my results?
- Did I only make logical, rational decisions throughout the market session?
Obviously, any questions that are repeatedly marked with a ‘No’ or an ‘X’ over a period of time will clearly highlight what you need to work on.
Finally, note how these questions make no reference to whether you made a profit or a loss. You can break every trading rule on a given day and make money. You can also trade perfectly on a given day in accordance with your rules and lose money.
The thing is, the more faithful you are to your process, you increase the probabilities of being successful over the long-term. Creating good habits will help you achieve this.