Before placing any trade, run through this checklist. Trend, timeframe alignment, indicator confluence, entry timing and risk management.
Publié le 4 juin 2026
Most trading mistakes are not analytical failures. They are process failures.
The analysis was sound, but the entry was impulsive. The setup was valid, but the stop was placed arbitrarily. The trade direction was correct, but the position size was too large for the account. These errors do not stem from a lack of knowledge — they stem from the absence of a consistent process that runs before every single trade.
A trading checklist solves this. It externalises the decision-making process into a structured sequence of checks that must be completed before capital is committed. It removes the emotional shortcuts that lead to bad trades: the "I just know this is going to work" feeling, the FOMO entry after a move has already run, the oversized position on a "high conviction" idea.
This is the checklist. Work through it before every trade, without exception.
Technical analysis operates within a fundamental context. Before looking at a single indicator, spend sixty seconds on two questions:
Is there a high-impact news event in the next four hours? NFP, CPI, central bank decisions, and GDP releases can invalidate any technical setup instantly. Check an economic calendar (Forex Factory, Investing.com) before every session. If a major release is imminent for the pair you are analysing, the risk profile of the trade changes entirely — spreads widen, liquidity thins, and stops get hunted around the data. Either wait for the dust to settle post-release, or factor the volatility risk explicitly into your position size and stop placement.
Is the pair in a long-term fundamental trend? A pair in a multi-month fundamental trend (driven by a clear divergence in central bank policy between the two currencies) carries more momentum than one without a macro narrative. This does not change your technical process, but it should inform your conviction level and your willingness to hold a winning trade longer.
If no major events are imminent and you understand the macro backdrop, proceed.
The daily chart defines the directional context for every trade you take on lower timeframes. This step is non-negotiable.
Check the MA alignment on D1:
Check RSI on D1:
Check MACD on D1:
Record your D1 bias: Bullish, Bearish, or Neutral. Only take trades that align with this bias. A neutral D1 bias is a valid reason to pass on a trade — ranging daily markets produce a high rate of failed setups on lower timeframes.
Once the D1 bias is established, check that H4 is aligned. The trade direction should be consistent across at least two timeframes.
On H4, run the same three checks:
Timeframe alignment verdict:
If alignment is confirmed, proceed. If misaligned, pass on this trade and look at other pairs.
Every trade must be anchored to a specific, well-defined level. "Price is near support" is not sufficient. The level must be:
Validated: At least two meaningful touches in the past. One touch is a coincidence. Two touches establish structure.
Clearly defined: You can state the exact price zone (e.g., "1.0850–1.0870 is the key support zone, formed by prior swing high and D1 MA50"). Not a vague area, a precise zone.
Currently relevant: Price must be at or approaching the level. A level that is 150 pips away is not yet relevant to today's trade decision.
Ask yourself: If this level breaks cleanly on a daily close, is the trade invalid? If yes, you have the right level — it is the line that separates your trade being correct from being wrong. If the answer is "I'm not sure," you have not identified a genuine structural level yet.
Mark the level on your chart. Write down the price. This becomes your reference point for stop placement in Step 7.
With the trend established and the key level identified, verify that at least two indicators confirm the trade direction at this specific level.
Confluence checklist (aim for 3+ of these):
Scoring: 4–5 confirmations = high confluence, strong case for the trade. 2–3 = moderate confluence, proceed with standard sizing. 0–1 = low confluence, pass.
Do not enter a trade with fewer than 2 indicator confirmations. This rule alone will eliminate a significant portion of losing trades from your history.
This step separates patient traders from impulsive ones. Identifying a confluence zone is not a trade. The entry candle — the specific price action signal that confirms the market is reacting to the level — is the trade.
Valid entry candle types:
Pin bar (rejection candle): A candle with a small body and a long wick pointing away from the direction of the expected move. A bullish pin bar at support has a long lower wick — price probed below the level, was rejected, and closed back above it. The wick is the evidence of rejection.
Engulfing candle: The current candle's body fully engulfs the previous candle's body in the opposite direction. A bullish engulfing at support — where a bearish candle is followed by a bullish candle that entirely contains it — signals that buyers overwhelmed sellers decisively.
Inside bar breakout: A candle that trades entirely within the range of the previous candle (inside bar), followed by a breakout in the trend direction. Common at consolidation points before trend continuation.
MA crossover at the level: On H1 or H4, the fast MA crossing above the slow MA (for buys) at the key support level is a mechanical trigger version of the entry confirmation.
The rule: Wait for the entry candle to close. Do not enter mid-candle. A pin bar that has a long lower wick at 14:00 might have a normal body by the time it closes at 16:00. Candle patterns are only valid once the candle has closed.
Your stop loss placement must be structural, not arbitrary. It must be placed at the level that definitively invalidates your trade thesis.
The structural stop rule: Place your stop just beyond the key level you identified in Step 4. If you are buying support at 1.0850–1.0870, your stop goes below the zone — typically 5–10 pips below the lowest recent wick that touched the support, to avoid being stopped by normal intraday spread fluctuations.
Ask the invalidation question: "If price reaches my stop level, is my trade idea wrong?" If yes, the stop is correctly placed. If price can reach your stop level and your analysis can still be correct, your stop is either too tight or in the wrong place.
Avoid these stop placement errors:
Write down your stop price before proceeding.
Position sizing is not a preference — it is a calculation. Run it every time, without exception.
The formula:
Position size = (Account risk in currency) ÷ (Stop distance in pips × pip value)
Account risk: Most professional traders risk 1–2% of account equity per trade. On a €10,000 account, 1% risk = €100 per trade.
Stop distance: The number of pips between your entry and your stop loss, calculated from Step 7.
Pip value: For most standard lot forex pairs, 1 pip = €10 (or $10) per standard lot. For mini lots, it is €1 per pip.
Example: €10,000 account, 1% risk = €100. Stop is 40 pips. Pip value = €10/lot. Position size = €100 ÷ (40 × €10) = 0.25 lots.
Never adjust the position size upward because you "feel more confident" about a trade. Confidence bias is the most expensive mistake in position sizing. High-confluence trades may justify the top of your normal range (say, 1.5% instead of 1%), but never exceed your maximum risk per trade.
Every trade needs a target before entry. This defines the trade's reward-to-risk ratio and prevents the most common profit management mistake: exiting early because a trade "feels" like it has gone far enough.
Minimum reward-to-risk ratio: 1.5:1 for short-term trades, 2:1 or higher for swing trades. If the nearest logical target only offers a 1:1 ratio with your stop, the trade does not have adequate reward potential — either pass or find a pair where the structure allows a better ratio.
How to identify the target: The target is the next structural level in the direction of the trade. For a buy from support, the target is the next resistance — the prior swing high, a major moving average above price, a round number, or the upper boundary of a trading range.
Do not set arbitrary pip targets ("I always take 50 pips on EUR/USD"). Targets must be anchored to the next genuine structural level. The market does not know your arbitrary number.
Write down your target price. Calculate the reward-to-risk ratio: (target − entry) ÷ (entry − stop). If it is below 1.5:1, pass.
Before placing the trade, run this final three-question check:
1. Am I entering for the right reason? The entry should be because the checklist is complete — not because you have been watching the pair for an hour and feel restless, not because a social media post confirmed your bias, not because the trade "looks obvious." If you cannot articulate the specific confluence that makes this trade valid, you are not ready to enter.
2. Would I be comfortable if this trade hit its stop loss immediately? Every trade can and does lose. If the answer is no — if losing this trade would cause you to override your risk management rules, revenge-trade, or feel disproportionate distress — the position is too large. Reduce it until the answer is yes.
3. Is there anything I have not accounted for? Check the economic calendar one more time. Check that there are no major correlated pairs in conflicting positions that might influence your analysis. Check that your internet connection and trading platform are functional. These are operational risks, not analytical ones, but they cause real problems when overlooked.
If all three questions are answered satisfactorily — enter the trade.
The value of a checklist comes entirely from its consistent use. A checklist you skip on "obvious" trades is no checklist at all — and "obvious" trades are precisely where emotional shortcuts cause the worst damage.
Print or save the checklist and run through it for every trade, in sequence, without skipping steps. The full process takes three to five minutes for an experienced trader and ten to fifteen minutes for someone building the habit. That investment is trivial compared to the losses it prevents.
Tools that help automate the analytical steps — like Scanvey, which shows which indicator conditions are active across all pairs and timeframes simultaneously — can compress the time needed for Steps 2–5 significantly. The scanning layer handles the repetitive indicator checks; the checklist handles the judgment calls that cannot be automated.
The goal is not to make trading faster. It is to make trading better. Slower, more deliberate entry decisions consistently outperform faster, more impulsive ones. The checklist enforces that deliberateness, trade by trade, until it becomes the only way you know how to trade.
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