A pre-market routine that changes how you trade
Most pre-market routines are information gathering, which is why they do not change behaviour. A routine that works ends with numbers written down: your size, your ticket count, and the loss that ends your day.
The protocol: The Five-Minute Set
Trigger — Every session, before your first chart.
- 1.Rate your sleep and your load 1 to 5. Anything at 4 or 5 halves your size today — write the halved number.
- 2.Write today's ticket count.
- 3.Write today's stop-for-the-day in currency, not percent.
- 4.Name the two setups you will take today, out loud. Everything else is off the table.
- 5.Read all four numbers back aloud, then open your charts.
- How long —
- Five minutes.
- You know it worked when —
- At the end of the session, your actual size, ticket count and worst loss all match what you wrote.
- If it doesn't work —
- If any number was breached, the next session's size is halved. Log which number broke first — it is almost always the same one.
Numbers, not intentions
"Trade well today" cannot be checked at 3pm. "Four tickets, half size, stop at 400" can. Every line of the routine should be something you can audit after the close.
Load matters more than sleep
Traders track sleep and ignore load: a fight at home, a deadline, a sick child. Cognitive load narrows your attention in exactly the way tilt does, without the loss to warn you.
Read it out loud
Reading the numbers aloud sounds trivial and is the part most likely to be skipped. Speech engages a different loop than reading and makes the numbers far harder to quietly revise mid-session.
Work this through with the Coach
Tell it what happened on your last trade and it will pick the protocol for your state, not a generic one. Free to use.
Questions traders ask
How long should a pre-market routine be?
Five minutes is enough if it ends in numbers. Long routines get abandoned on the days you need them most.
What if my setups change intraday?
Then write the two you will take at the open and treat anything new as tomorrow's research, not today's trade.