Most losses are not analysis failures
Go back through any honest trading journal and sort the losers into two piles: trades that followed the plan and lost, and trades that were never really planned. The first pile is the cost of doing business - an edge only shows up across many trades, and some of them have to lose. The second pile is where the account actually bleeds, and every item in it was preventable in the thirty seconds before entry.
Why a list beats discipline
Discipline is a finite resource that runs out exactly when you need it: after a loss, late in the session, when a move is leaving without you. A list does not care how you feel. It asks the same ten questions in the same order whether you are calm or furious, which is the entire point.
Make it yours
This version is deliberately generic. After fifty trades, your own journal will tell you which two or three mistakes actually cost you money - trading the first fifteen minutes of a session, holding through news, sizing up after a win - and those belong on your list, replacing anything here that never catches anything.
The three tools behind the checks
Item four is the position size calculator. Item six is the risk and reward planner. Item seven, on crypto perps, is the funding rate calculator. Run them before the ticket, not after the loss.
The two halves of a trading loss
Sort any honest journal into two piles. The first is trades that followed the plan and lost - the unavoidable cost of an edge that only works across many trades. The second is trades that were never really planned. The first pile is business. The second pile is where accounts actually bleed, and every item in it was preventable in the thirty seconds before entry.
Most traders assume the second pile is small. It is usually the larger of the two by money lost, because unplanned trades are also the ones taken at the wrong size.
Why a list beats discipline
Discipline is a finite resource that runs out exactly when it is needed: after a loss, late in the session, when a move is leaving without you. A list does not care how you feel. It asks the same ten questions in the same order whether you are calm or furious. That is the entire mechanism, and it is why checklists survived in aviation and surgery long after everyone agreed the professionals involved were competent.
Make it yours after fifty trades
This version is deliberately generic. After fifty trades your own journal will name the two or three mistakes that actually cost you money - trading the first fifteen minutes of a session, holding through news, sizing up after a win. Those belong on your list, replacing anything here that never catches anything. A checklist that never fails you is not protecting you.
The tools behind the checks
Item four is the position size calculator. Item six is the risk and reward planner. Item seven, on crypto perpetuals, is the funding rate calculator and the liquidation price calculator. Run them before the ticket, not after the loss. If you want to practise the whole sequence with nothing at stake, the Practice Arena enforces the stop for you.
Frequently asked
What should be on a pre-trade checklist?
At minimum: the reason the trade exists, the higher-timeframe context, where the stop goes and why, the calculated position size, the risk as a percentage of the account, the reward-to-risk ratio, total trading costs, upcoming news, correlation with positions you already hold, and your own emotional state. Ten items takes about thirty seconds and removes most avoidable losses.
Does a checklist really improve trading results?
It cannot turn a bad setup into a good one. What it does is eliminate the category of loss that has nothing to do with analysis: the oversized entry, the stop at a round number, the trade taken five minutes after a loss. In most journals that category is larger than people expect, which is why the fix is procedural rather than analytical.
Why does emotional state belong on a trading checklist?
Because the worst trades are rarely the worst setups. They are ordinary setups taken at double size by someone who just lost, or who watched a move leave without them. Naming the state before you click is the cheapest intervention available, and if the honest answer is that you are chasing, the correct position size is zero.
How do I check correlation before entering?
Ask what single thing has to be true for all of your open positions to work. Three long altcoin positions are one bet on crypto beta. Long EUR/USD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD together is one short-dollar bet at triple size. If the answer is the same for every ticket, your risk is the sum, not each one separately.
Should I use the same checklist for every strategy?
The risk items are universal: size, stop, correlation, state. The setup items are not. A breakout trader needs a volume check that a mean-reversion trader does not. Keep the universal half fixed and let the strategy half evolve with what your journal says is actually costing you money.
How long should the checklist take?
Thirty seconds. If it takes longer, it is too long and you will skip it exactly when you most need it, which is during a fast move. Ten items is near the practical ceiling for something you must do before every single entry.
What if a setup passes every check and still loses?
Then it was a good trade that lost, which is the normal cost of doing business. An edge only shows up across many trades, and some of them have to lose. The checklist is not there to make you right. It is there to make sure the losses are the planned kind.
Is this checklist saved between visits?
No, by design. It resets so that each trade gets a fresh, honest pass rather than the ticks from your last session carried forward. Nothing you tick is stored or sent anywhere.
Trading is high risk and most retail accounts lose money. This tool is education only, not financial advice.