A pre-trade checklist is a handful of yes-or-no questions you answer before every entry. Pilots use checklists not because they forget how to fly but because routine is where errors hide. Trading is the same: the mistakes that cost the most are the ones you know not to make.
An example for a day trader
- Is this one of my playbook setups, with every criterion met?
- Is there no high-impact news in the next 30 minutes?
- Is the stop at the level that invalidates the idea, and is the size computed from it?
- Is the risk within my per-trade and daily limits?
- Am I calm? Not trading to win back the last loss?
- Is the target at least 1.5R away?
Six items, ten seconds. If one answer is no, there is no trade.
What belongs on it
- Rules you have actually broken. A checklist built from your own mistake tags is far more useful than a generic one.
- Questions that can be answered at entry. "Will this trade win?" is not one.
- Few items. Beyond eight, people stop reading them.
Measuring it
A checklist only helps if it is used. Record which items were ticked on each trade, then compare: trades with every item ticked against trades with some missing. The difference in expectancy is the value of the checklist in money, and the share of complete checklists over time is a direct measure of discipline.
In SetupBook
Checklist rules are written once in the Playbook and appear in the trade form when you open a position, so they are answered before the outcome is known. Analytics shows the share of checklist items ticked over the last ten trades next to the equity curve in the "Discipline and equity" card.