The pre-market checklist

Everything in the previous seven modules produces a decision that has to be made before 9:30: the product, the levels, the day-type lean, the setups that are eligible, the size, the limits. A checklist is how those decisions get made every day in the same order, so that the version of you at 9:32 inherits the work of the version at 9:00 instead of improvising. This lesson gives you the checklist, and the rule that makes it work: no ticks on the list, no trades.

Why a written list

Pilots and surgeons use checklists not because they lack skill but because skill is unreliable under time pressure and habituation. The open is both. A trader on their 200th session knows the levels without looking, and that is the session where they forget that CPI is at 8:30 and the overnight levels are stale.

The checklist also produces the document that the post-market review (next lesson) grades. Without it, the review can only judge outcomes. With it, the review can judge whether the plan was right and whether it was followed, which are the two things you can improve.

The checklist

Print it or keep it as a template. Fill it in by hand or in a text file; the act of writing is part of the point.

  PRE-MARKET  ___/___/___         Product: ______    Window: 9:35 to 11:00

  CONTEXT (5 min)
  [ ] Index futures vs yesterday's close: ____ %  Gap: up / down / flat
  [ ] Overnight high ______  Overnight low ______  Yesterday H/L/C ____/____/____
  [ ] Scheduled: 8:30 ______  10:00 ______  14:00 ______  Earnings in my names: ______
  [ ] No-entry windows today: 9:58 to 10:03 [ ]  13:45 on (Fed) [ ]  other ______

  INSTRUMENT (10 min)
  [ ] Primary: ______  PM volume ______  Spread at 9:29 ______  (skip if spread > limit)
  [ ] Catalyst name (optional): ______  Gap ____ %  PM vol ____x  Catalyst: ______
  [ ] Levels drawn: PDH  PDL  PDC  ONH  ONL  PMH  PML  nearest daily level above / below

  PLAN (8 min)
  [ ] Day-type lean at 9:30: trend up / trend down / range / no lean (default range)
  [ ] Eligible setups today: ORB [ ]  VWAP reclaim/reject [ ]  Gap-and-go [ ]
                             Failed breakout [ ]  (after 10:30: continuation [ ] fades [ ])
  [ ] Dead today: ______________________
  [ ] If-then line per instrument:
      1. ________________________________________________
      2. ________________________________________________

  RISK (5 min)
  [ ] Daily limit $______ (net)   Per-trade $______   Normal stop ______  Ceiling (1.5x) ______
  [ ] Bracket preset: size ______  stop ______  target 1 ______
  [ ] Max trades: ___   Consecutive full stops to quit: ___   11:00 alarm set [ ]
  [ ] Platform daily-loss block ON [ ]   Broker auto-flatten ON at $______ [ ]
  [ ] Trailing floor (prop): $______  Room: $______  Personal limit today = min rule: $______

  STATE (2 min)
  [ ] Slept ______ h   Distraction-free until 11:00 [ ]   Anything I want to "get back" today? Y / N
  [ ] If Y above: size is half today, or no trading.

  [ ] ALL BOXES TICKED. Ready at 9:30. Signed ______

Thirty minutes, as in Module 2. Sections can be shortened once they are habit; the boxes cannot be skipped.

Three lines that need explaining

"Default range." When the lean is unclear at 9:30, the plan assumes a range day, because it is the most common type and because its setups (failed breakout, fades) have the tightest stops. Being wrong in the "range" direction costs a small stop; being wrong in the "trend" direction costs a full ORB stop and possibly two.

"Anything I want to get back today?" The single best predictor of a tilted session is starting it with a debt in mind: yesterday's loss, last week's missed trade, a bill. A yes answer does not forbid trading. It halves size, which halves the cost of the tilt that is statistically likely to follow. Trading Psychology has the full protocol; this line is its daily trigger.

"Signed." Signing a plan is a small act that makes deviating from it feel like what it is. It is cheap and it works.

What the checklist forbids

• A trade in an instrument not on the sheet.
• A setup not ticked as eligible.
• A size not equal to the preset (or half, if the state section said so).
• An entry during a no-entry window.
• A fourth trade, or a third after two full stops, or any trade after 11:00 on a red day.

Every one of these is a trade the review will grade F regardless of result, and every one is a trade that the checklist made visible in advance.

The catalyst line

For stock traders, the optional catalyst name is where most of the danger lives. The filters from Module 4 (4%+ gap, named catalyst, 3× pre-market volume, price above $10, spread $0.02 or less) are written on the sheet so that a name that fails one is crossed out at 9:15, not argued with at 9:31. Index futures traders leave the line blank and are, on average, better off for it.

Key idea: The checklist moves every decision that can be made before 9:30 to before 9:30, and makes the ones that cannot (the trigger itself) into a matter of matching a pre-written line. No ticks, no trades.

Try it: Fill in the checklist tomorrow, in full, and do not trade. At 11:00 grade the plan: was the lean right, did the if-then lines trigger, would the eligible setups have been the right ones? Do this for five sessions before trading the checklist live.

Recap

• The checklist converts Modules 2 through 7 into a 30-minute routine with tick boxes for context, instrument, plan, risk and state.
• Default to range when the lean is unclear; its setups fail cheaply.
• A "yes" to wanting to get something back halves size for the day.
• The sheet forbids trades in unlisted instruments, ineligible setups, wrong size, no-entry windows and any trade past the caps.
• Sign it; the review grades against it.