Pre-trade safety checklist: 10 boxes to tick before you click buy or sell

Pilots run a checklist before every take-off, however many flights they have done. The reason is not that they forget how to fly: it is that one skipped item can cost more than every routine flight saves. A pre-trade checklist does the same job. It takes under two minutes and it catches the trades your plan never intended.

The 10-box checklist

#	Box	Tick only if…
1	Setup	The trade matches a setup written in your plan
2	Market hours	You know which session is open, in Paris time
3	Calendar	No major release is due before your expected exit
4	Stop	The stop level is decided before the entry
5	Size	The size is calculated from the stop and your fixed risk
6	Reward	The target is at least the ratio your plan requires
7	Daily limit	You are not at your daily loss limit or trade cap
8	Costs	You know the spread and any overnight charge
9	State	You are not tired, angry or trying to win back a loss
10	Record	The journal entry is open, ready to fill

One empty box means no trade. Not a smaller trade: no trade.

Boxes 2 and 3: when

The market sessions tool shows what is open now. For releases, any economic calendar will do; note the time in Paris time and decide whether your plan allows holding through it (slippage and gaps).

Boxes 4 to 6: the numbers

Account $5,000, risk 1% = $50. Stop 20 pips on EUR/USD, target 40 pips.

	Value
Size	$50 ÷ (20 × $10) = 0.25 lot
Potential gain at target	40 × $2.50 = $100
Reward-to-risk	100 ÷ 50 = 2

Illustrative calculation, not an expectation of results.

Do it with the lot size calculator and the risk/reward calculator rather than in your head, every time.

Boxes 7 and 9: the discipline boxes

These are the boxes that get skipped most, because they are about you, not the chart. If you notice that you are ticking them quickly after a loss, read the warning signs of overtrading.

Before the first trade with any firm

Add one more box the first time: is the firm authorised, under that exact name, for what it sells you? A two-minute search of the AMF, FSMA and FINMA lists belongs before the first deposit, not after.

A checklist doesn't make a trade profitable; most retail traders lose money. It makes sure that the trades you take are the ones you planned, at the risk you chose.