Trading Routine and Reviews

A trading routine is the fixed set of things you do before, during and after the market every day, plus the deeper reviews you run each week and month. Consistent traders are rarely more talented than inconsistent ones. They are more repetitive: they prepare the same way, trade the same way and review the same way, which makes their results easier to understand and improve.

The daily routine#

A daily routine has three parts. Here is a sample for a swing trader who trades US stocks after work; adjust the times to your style.

Before you trade (15 to 30 minutes)#

1. Check your state. Sleep, stress and mood. If you are not in a good state, trade smaller or not at all. See Mental State Tracking.
2. Review open positions. Confirm stops and targets are in place.
3. Check the calendar. Earnings, economic releases and central bank meetings that could affect your positions or watchlist. See Trading Economic Releases.
4. Scan for setups. Run through your watchlist looking only for your defined setups.
5. Plan the orders. For each candidate, fill in the Pre-Trade Checklist and write the entry, stop, target and size.

While trading#

• Place planned orders, ideally as Bracket Orders, then step away if your style allows.
• Do not add trades that were not planned unless they pass the full checklist.
• Stop for the day if your Maximum Trade Risk and Daily Loss Limits is hit.

After trading (10 to 20 minutes)#

• Log every trade and every skipped setup in your Trading Journal, with screenshots.
• Note one thing you did well and one thing to improve.
• Update open position notes for tomorrow.

The weekly review#

Once a week, usually at the weekend, spend 30 to 60 minutes on a deeper look:

1. Read every trade from the week. Grade each one A, B or C for plan adherence, as described in Post-Trade Analysis.
2. Count rule breaks. What was the most expensive mistake?
3. Check risk. Did any trade exceed your risk rule? Was total open risk ever too high?
4. Review the market. What kind of week was it: trending, choppy, volatile? Did your setups suit it?
5. Plan next week. Upcoming events, markets to focus on, one behaviour to work on.

The monthly review#

Each month, step back further and use numbers:

Then make one change to your plan for next month, based on evidence, and write it down. Changing many things at once makes it impossible to know what helped.

Keeping the routine sustainable#

• Keep it short. A routine you can do in under an hour a day lasts. A three hour routine gets skipped.
• Use templates. The same journal template and checklist every time make the routine automatic.
• Schedule it. Put reviews in your calendar like appointments.
• Take breaks. A planned week off after a drawdown or a long run is part of a healthy routine.

Common mistakes#

• Skipping the after trading step on bad days, when the information is most valuable.
• Turning reviews into self criticism instead of finding specific, fixable issues.
• Reviewing results but never changing anything.

Frequently asked questions#

What should a trader do every day?#

Check their own state, review open positions and the event calendar, plan any trades with a checklist, execute only planned trades, and log everything afterwards.

How long should a trading review take?#

A few minutes per trade daily, 30 to 60 minutes weekly and one to two hours monthly is a common rhythm.

What is the most important part of a trading routine?#

The review. Preparation and execution matter, but reviewing is what turns experience into improvement.

Next, see how to measure your own progress as a trader in Skill Development and Progress Tracking.