Are you fit to trade today?
Seven quick questions before the session. You get a state, Clear, Careful or Stand down, and one thing to do about it.
Free, takes about a minute, and nothing you answer leaves your device. It is a checklist for the habit of asking, not a medical or psychological test.
Before today's session, is this true?
Not yet
Free Monday email: my higher-timeframe read of the week, and where new tools like this one are announced. Get the email
Your last 14 days
Each dot is a check-in you logged. Empty means none.
Trades you log in the Trade Review Scorecard are matched to the day's check-in, so it can show whether you follow your plan better on Clear days.
Read your rules
Using it well
The check-in is worth most when it changes what you do, even on a day you would rather it did not.
Answer before you open the charts
Once price is moving, the answers bend to fit the trade you want. Ask first, while nothing is at stake.
Let it change your size
Careful is not a mood. It is a smaller size and fewer trades. The Position Size Calculator turns that into contracts.
Write the week's rules first
The Pre-mortem gives you three if-then rules for the week. Save them and they appear on this page, ready to read before you start.
Get the Monday market read, and the Week-Ahead Calendar.
Every Monday you get my higher-timeframe overview of where the market sits going into the week, with the week's calendar linked in it. Nothing you entered here is sent anywhere. The email is where you hear about new tools like this one.
Double opt-in: confirm from your inbox and the calendar opens straight after. Unsubscribe anytime.
Continuum Community works through the week together: the market context, the process work, and exercises like this one. Continuum Education is the full process in one place, as a one-time purchase with lifetime access.
The research behind it
- Lo, A. W., and Repin, D. V. (2002). The psychophysiology of real-time financial risk processing. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 14(3), 323-339.
- Coates, J. M., and Herbert, J. (2008). Endogenous steroids and financial risk taking on a London trading floor. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(16), 6167-6172.
- Venkatraman, V., Chuah, Y. M. L., Huettel, S. A., and Chee, M. W. L. (2007). Sleep deprivation elevates expectation of gains and attenuates response to losses following risky decisions. Sleep, 30(5), 603-609.
The Pre-session Check-in is a checklist and not a medical, psychological or diagnostic test. The research behind it shows that sleep, stress and physical state can change how people take risks, including professional traders. It does not validate these seven questions or the thresholds. The scoring, the state boundaries, the two questions that raise the minimum state, and the actions suggested for each state are my own rule of thumb, so change them to fit how you trade. Your answers and your log are kept in this browser only, and clearing your browser data removes them. Trading involves risk, and you should only trade with money you can afford to lose.
