You guys can laugh all you want if it helps you feel good about yourselves, but it does not change reality. Further, you seem to assume that I don't have experience with live trading. Quite the contrary. What I said remains true for 99% of would-be traders on ET. I've never denied that there's an emotional component in trading, but before you start worrying about that, you need a METHODOLOGY. You can't just be glancing at charts, getting a 'feel' for the markets, trading from gut and with intuition. That's the joke here, not what I'm saying. If you want to disagree with that, fine. None of my concern really. Does the OP strike you as a guy with a killer methodology and a guy who's worked out all the aspects of a given market? Of course not. That's why he shouldn't concern himself with emotions at this point, but put in the work to get a killer methodology in place, because without that as a foundation, emotions are completely irrelevant. After that, I'd say three years from now, THEN can he start worrying about emotions.
I like (most) of this thread. so I'll just answer the q as posed and avoid the arguments. I have a pre-market checklist out on my desk. like a pilots checklist I suppose. It includes a range of stuff from bathroom routine to clearing the visual field on my desk and monitors (only 2). I trade only ES, 25K volume chart from open til 11:30 AM Eastern. I may peek during the day but like LBR said above, the action for me is there and I've studied its behavior a lot. After 15 years of dabbling, learning, screwing up I've found my niche. I watch 1 or 2 setups only. I've got 1-2 alerts to help me see them. I seldom take other setups. indicators: 20 ema for context, yesterday's H/L, bar elapsed time. I am mainly an Al Brooks type trader and find his approach to prep and outlining a few scenarios for the opening period to be just enuf without getting too committed the market will behave a certain way. so....here's my checklist: (sorry for the acronyms, slang, etc.) Pre-Open checklist: Check connex and toggle to live account. Likely Open: TR, trend, chop… Read Brooks pre-open comments. FOMC activity @___. News @ ___ Day of Week: Monday, Friday; seasonal. Nearby magnets/tests: ema, SL/H’s, congestion, TL, HLCOY Gap? gap size, Y continuation? Large gap: watch fo RB1 Draw TL/TCL from Y. Set 60 S/R lines. Setup from Y-1RB, TCLOS, 3rd leg, etc. TR in final hours of Y? Strong trend in Y final hour? “Always In” direction from Y. Pushes from Y? Y’s leg structure. Y = daily RB? TLB in Y and/or TLBT? HLC open? Yes: expect trend; No: expect continuation/TR/chop. Gap? Gap size?, Y continuation? Set ATM’s
It is. However, in exchange it gives you the R:R ratios that longer term traders would only see in their wettest of dreams It also gives you very good trade management control. Couple that with the above (amongst other intraday trading advantages) and the hard work becomes very worth it.