Pre-Trade Checklist + A Simple Scoring System for Better Decisions

Most trading losses don’t come from “bad analysis.” They come from rushed decisions. When money is on the line, the mind looks for shortcuts: “If I don’t enter now, I’ll miss it,” “I’ll make it back on this trade,” or “It has to come back.” The problem is that trading is not a place where emotional guessing survives for long. You might get lucky once, but the same habit will eventually cost you more. That’s why a pre-trade checklist is like a seatbelt. It won’t make you a genius. It simply prevents repeatable mistakes. A checklist means asking a fixed set of questions before every entry. If the answers aren’t good, you skip the trade. Over time, this turns your decisions from emotional to repeatable. It also helps you identify your real weaknesses: Do you trade during major news? Do you enter without a clear stop loss? Do you trade when you’re tired or frustrated?

The 10-point Pre-Trade Checklist Before you enter, check these items:

1. Is the market clean and readable, or messy and choppy?
2. Do I understand the overall condition (trend, range, or unclear)?
3. Do I have a clear level/zone, not a random entry in the middle?
4. Can I explain my entry reason in one clear sentence?
5. Is my stop loss (SL) defined and placed logically?
6. Is my initial target (TP) defined?
7. Is my risk on this trade small and consistent?
8. How many trades have I taken today, and am I still focused?
9. Is there high-impact news coming soon that can distort price?
10. Is my mental state stable (not tired, angry, stressed, or overexcited)?

Scoring: 0 to 10

Give each item 1 point if it’s true, 0 if it isn’t. Add them up.

• 8–10: Acceptable trade
• 6–7: Only consider with smaller size
• 5 or less: No trade

Add one strict rule: if your stop loss isn’t clear, or your entry reason isn’t clear, you do not enter. This alone removes a huge percentage of emotional trades.

To make this system actually work, keep it simple: after each trade, write down your score and the outcome. You don’t need a perfect journal. Just “Score: 7” and “Result: win/loss.” After 20 trades, patterns will show up fast. Most traders discover that their biggest losses often came from low-score trades they “just felt like taking.”