This checklist helps you decide, step by step, whether to take a trade, how big to make it, or to pass. It follows the seven steps of the decision cycle. Each rule has a yes/no check. A step you cannot finish ends the cycle as a pass, which is a legitimate result.
Observe
Write a note on each coin in scope: its trend and its nearby levels.
Check: each coin has a dated note with the timeframe, the trend in a word and the nearby levels as prices.
A coin you cannot describe plainly is not ready for a plan. See multi-timeframe analysis.Skip any coin outside your charter.
Check: the coin is on your Markets line.
The charter fixes the scope before a candle tempts you to change it. Trading mindset writes one.
Shortlist
Put a coin on the shortlist only for a one-line reason you set in advance.
Check: each coin has its line, the line was written before the scan, and a coin without one is off the list.
A reason chosen afterwards bends to fit the chart. Finding coins to trade covers the screens.Read the contract's funding rate and interval before the coin goes on the list.
Check: the rate, the interval and the next payment time are written beside the coin.
Funding is charged on full position value and adds up over a hold. Funding rates also says why a stretched rate is not a direction.Pass when nothing meets the reason, and log the pass.
Check: an empty shortlist produces a dated log entry with the reason.
A pass that follows your own rule is a finished decision. Keep it in the trading journal.
Conditional plan
Write the plan as an if-then sentence with a trigger you can see on the chart.
Check: the trigger is a price level or a candle close on a named timeframe, not a feeling.
A trigger you cannot point to cannot be reviewed later. The setups show plans.Write the target as a price at a real level before you enter.
Check: the target is a price at the next support or resistance in the direction of the trade.
A target pushed past a level price must cross first improves the ratio on paper only. Risk to reward covers where it goes.
Invalidation
Name one price where the idea is wrong, with a reason you can point to on the chart.
Check: the price and the level it sits beyond are in the plan before the order form opens. If the only reason is that it makes the size fit, pass.
A stop chosen after the size lands where the loss you can stand puts it. See stop-loss placement.Put the stop a buffer beyond that price.
Check: the buffer, as a multiple of ATR(14), is written down and the order price includes it.
This manual's choice is a buffer of a fraction of ATR(14) beyond the level. Its examples assume 0.5, which is not a tested value. See ATR.
Risk budget
Size from the planned loss and the stop distance, with a cost allowance in the distance.
Check: the planned loss is written in cash, and the size is that cash divided by the distance, not the reverse.
If the size is too small to be worth taking, pass. Position sizing has the sum.Check the reward to risk after costs once the stop and size are set.
Check: the ratio uses the stop order price and the cost allowance, and is written net of costs.
The chart's ratio overstates what the trade pays. Risk to reward shows the correction.Run every limit on the risk limits page before you place the order.
Check: each limit is ticked for this trade. A failed ceiling, group or total limit means size down or pass. A failed liquidation limit means a lower leverage setting or a pass. A failed cost limit means a pass or a shorter planned hold, because a smaller size shrinks costs and the planned loss together. An active pause means no new trade.
The numbers live in one place so they cannot drift: the risk limits.
Execute
Make the ticket match the plan: entry, order type, stop, size and the unit you typed.
Check: each field equals the plan, and you know whether size is in contracts, units or dollars.
If they disagree, the cycle ends as a pass. See placing orders.Attach the stop to the entry where the form allows, or place it as soon as the entry fills.
Check: a stop order is open on the exchange for the filled quantity, reduce-only where offered.
Without reduce-only, a leftover stop can open a position. Order types explains why.Confirm the filled ticket still passes the liquidation and margin-mode limits.
Check: after the fill, the ticket's liquidation price and margin mode pass both limits on the risk limits page.
Otherwise the exchange can close the trade before your stop does. See liquidation price.
Review
Log every decision, passes included, with the result in R net of costs.
Check: every closed trade has its R and every pass its reason.
A log with only the trades hides the decisions not to trade. See expectancy and drawdown.Ask two questions: did you follow the plan, and is the plan worth following.
Check: the first answer is in the log before you judge the second, which waits for enough trades.
One result cannot answer it. Testing a setup says how many trades it takes.
A checklist confirms that the work was done. It cannot say whether a setup is any good, what price does next, or that a stop will fill at its price. The chapters on risk and position sizing and review and practice build these rules out.