Your routine

1. 1 The pre-market checklist

   Before each session, run the same short checklist, in the same order:

   1. Check yourself. Rested, calm, and with time to watch the trade? If not, do not trade today.
   2. Check the account. Balance, any open positions, and whether yesterday’s losses touch your limits. Work out today’s risk per trade and daily loss limit in money.
   3. Check the calendar. Note any big scheduled news for your pairs and what your plan says to do around it.
   4. Mark the chart. Draw the levels and setups your plan trades, on the timeframes it names.
   5. Write the plan for the day. Which setups you are waiting for, and where entry, stop and target would be.

   Only then do you watch for entries.

   Open this in the terminal ↗ (opens in a new tab)

   Quick check

   1. Question 1 · Multiple choice

      Which order follows the pre-market checklist from this lesson?

      A.Mark the chart, place a trade, check the account, check yourself.B.Check yourself, check the account, check the calendar, mark the chart, write the plan for the day.C.Check the calendar, place a trade, write the plan for the day, check yourself.D.Write the plan for the day, check the account, mark the chart, check yourself.

      Check

2. 2 When not to trade

   Not trading is a decision your plan should make easy. Write your own list, for example:

   • You have hit your daily loss limit or your cooling-off rule (lesson 11.4).
   • You are tired, unwell, upset, or in a hurry.
   • No setup from your plan is on the chart.
   • Big scheduled news is due and your plan says to stay out.
   • You want to trade to make back money, or because you are bored.

   A day with no trades, because none met the plan, is a day the plan worked.

   Quick check

   1. Question 2 · Multiple choice

      Which of these is a good reason to trade today?

      A.You lost $60 this morning and your daily limit is $60.B.A setup from your plan has formed on a pair and timeframe your plan names.C.You are bored and nothing has happened all day.D.You slept badly and feel irritable.

      Check

3. 3 The weekly review

   Once a week, with no market open, sit down with your journal:

   1. Fill in any missing entries and screenshots.
   2. Update your stats: win rate, average win and loss, expectancy, maximum drawdown (lesson 11.3).
   3. Count the rule breaks and which rules they were (lesson 11.5).
   4. Pick one change to try next week and write it into the plan with the date.

   One change at a time, so the journal can tell you whether it helped.

   Quick check

   1. Question 3 · Multiple choice

      In your weekly review you find three rule breaks and a negative expectancy. What is the best next step?

      A.Change five rules at once so next week is different.B.Double the risk to win back the losses faster.C.Pick one change, write it into the plan with the date, and keep journaling.D.Stop journaling the losing trades.

      Check

4. 4 Your Green belt mission

   To earn the Green belt:

   1. Write your trading plan. One page covering the nine points from lesson 11.1, with checkable rules.
   2. Take 10 practice trades with it on the practice account in the web terminal. Use the order ticket with a stop-loss on every trade.
   3. Journal all 10, with setup, reason, screenshots, result in R and emotion (lesson 11.2), plus your stats from lesson 11.3.

   Pip will review your plan and journal. The review looks at whether you followed your own rules and recorded every trade honestly, not at whether the trades made money.

   Open this in the terminal ↗ (opens in a new tab)