# Trading Risk Management Checklist
## I. Pre-Trade Checklist (Before Entering)
### Market Conditions
- [ ] **Economic Calendar**: Are there any high-impact news events (Fed meetings, CPI, Earnings) soon?
- [ ] **Market Trend**: What is the overall trend of the market (SPY/QQQ) and the sector?
- [ ] **Volatility**: Is VIX high or low? Is the asset's ATR (Average True Range) expanding?
### Trade Setup
- [ ] **Edge**: Does this setup clearly match my tested strategy rules?
- [ ] **Risk/Reward**: Is the potential reward at least 2x the risk (R:R >= 1:2)?
- [ ] **Stop Loss**: Have I defined a hard stop-loss level *before* entering?
- [ ] Is it based on technicals (e.g., below support), not just an arbitrary dollar amount?
- [ ] **Position Sizing**:
- [ ] Calculate max loss: (Entry Price - Stop Price) * Shares.
- [ ] Is max loss < 1-2% of my total account equity?
- [ ] **Liquidity**: Is the volume sufficient to enter and exit easily without massive slippage?
## II. During-Trade Checklist (While Open)
### Monitoring
- [ ] **Emotions**: Am I feeling anxious? (If yes, position size might be too big).
- [ ] **News**: Any breaking news affecting the specific asset?
- [ ] **Price Action**: Is price moving as expected?
- [ ] If price stalls at resistance, consider taking partial profits.
- [ ] If price breaks key support, **respect the stop loss**. DO NOT move it further away.
### Management
- [ ] **Trailing Stop**: If the trade moves in my favor, have I moved my stop to Breakeven?
- [ ] **Scaling**: Should I scale out (sell 1/2 or 1/3) to lock in gains?
## III. Post-Trade Checklist (After Exit)
### Review
- [ ] **Outcome**: Win / Loss / Breakeven.
- [ ] **Execution**: Did I follow my plan?
- [ ] Did I FOMO in?
- [ ] Did I panic sell?
- [ ] Did I hold too long?
- [ ] **Journaling**: Log the trade in the trading journal.
- [ ] Screenshot the chart.
- [ ] Note the "Why" and "How".
- [ ] **Lesson**: What is one thing I learned or reinforced from this trade?
## IV. Golden Rules
1. **Preserve Capital**: The #1 goal is to stay in the game.
2. **Cut Losers Fast**: "It's okay to be wrong, it's not okay to stay wrong."
3. **Let Winners Run**: Don't choke a winning trade too early out of fear.
4. **No Revenge Trading**: If you take a loss, walk away. Don't try to "make it back" immediately.
