The decisions you should not be making in the heat of a trade are the mechanical ones: sizing, stops, logging, rule-keeping. A 12-item checklist takes them off the table, so the only thing you actually decide in real time is the trade itself.
The Definition
A trading checklist is what stays the same across every trade. The setup may be different, the mechanics around it are not.
A trading checklist is a fixed list of conditions that have to be true before, during and after a trade. It is not the trading plan itself - it is the operational layer that makes the plan actually happen. The plan says risk 1% per trade. The checklist asks is the risk on this specific trade 1%, yes or no, before I click.
The reason it works is that nobody makes good decisions about position sizing or stop placement at the moment of entering a trade. Those decisions should already be made, baked into a list, and applied with no thinking. The thinking is reserved for the only thing that should be discretionary: reading the market in front of you.
Without a checklist, every trade is a renegotiation: should I size up here, should the stop be tighter, should I log this one. A checklist freezes those answers so that the trader is not relitigating the plan 30 times a day. See the related trading plan template for the strategic layer this list operationalises.
The 12 Items
Tap an item to mark it ticked. The list is for reference, not a tracker - tracking adherence over time is what the journal is for.
■ Before the trade (5)
01
Setup matches the plan
The trade is one of the defined setups in your plan, not a derivative or "close enough" version. If you cannot name the setup in three words, skip the trade.
02
Risk capped at the plan limit
Position sized so the loss at the stop equals the planned percentage of the account (typically 1%). Not "about right", exactly right. Use the position size calculator if needed.
03
Stop placed before entering
The stop is on the chart, attached to the order, before the entry fills. No mental stops. The level is structural, not arbitrary - tied to a swing, an ATR, or a defined invalidation point.
04
Target defined upfront
The take-profit level (or trailing rule) is decided before entry, not in the middle of the move. If the implied risk-reward ratio is below your minimum, the trade does not qualify.
05
News calendar checked
No high-impact event scheduled inside the trade's expected duration that could blow the stop on an unrelated move. NFP, CPI, central-bank calls are non-negotiable to check.
■ During the trade (3)
06
Stop not moved wider
The stop only ever moves to reduce risk or to lock in profit, never away from the entry. A widened stop is a different trade than the one you took.
07
No size increases mid-trade
No averaging down, no doubling up on a winner unless the plan explicitly defines a scale-in rule. Position size is set at entry, not improvised after.
08
Exit driven by the plan, not the screen
Trade exits at the planned target or stop, or at the rule-based event that overrides them (trailing rule hit, news release, session close). Not because it "feels right" to bail.
■ After the trade (4)
09
Logged with setup tag
The trade is recorded with the setup name from the plan. Untagged trades cannot be grouped, cannot be analysed, and quietly disappear from the per-setup edge calculation.
10
R-multiple recorded
Result expressed as R-multiple, not just dollars. Dollars change with size, R does not, and only R lets you compare this trade to the last 50.
11
Process note if anything broke
If any item above was not honoured, one sentence on which one and why. Not a confession - data. Drift is fixable, but only the drift that gets recorded.
12
Daily limit respected
If the day's loss limit or trade-count limit was hit, no more entries today. The hardest single rule to follow, the one with the biggest payoff over a year.
Why It Works
A checklist replaces discipline with reading. Reading is something tired traders can still do at the end of a long session.
Position size, stop placement and target are decided before the trade. The only live decision is whether to take it, not how big or where the stop goes.
An item ticked on 90% of trades and skipped on 10% reveals exactly which discipline is slipping. Without the list, the slip is invisible.
Trades that ticked all 12 boxes versus trades that ticked 9 reveal whether the issue is the strategy or the execution. Almost always the second.
Item 1 alone (setup matches the plan) blocks the impulse trade that does not actually fit any defined setup. The "kind of a breakout" trade fails the box.
After a loss, after a winner, late in the session, on a Friday. The checklist runs the same way every time, regardless of emotional state.
Adherence data feeds the weekly review. Most reviews discover that the strategy is fine and adherence dropped to 70%.
Supported Platforms
Tracker Fx fills in the objective parts of the checklist - risk, stop, R-multiple - directly from the broker. You mark the subjective ones.
cTrader
Connects via the official cTrader API. Risk per trade, planned stop and R-multiple are auto-filled per trade.
Learn about cTrader → 7-day free trial included
Bybit
Connects via read-only API key (Bybit Global). Position sizing and R-multiple captured on Perpetuals and Spot.
Learn about Bybit → 7-day free trial included
OANDA
Connects via the OANDA API. Risk per trade and stop adherence visible on forex, indices and metals.
Learn about OANDA → 7-day free trial included
MetaTrader 4 & MT5
Connects via API to any MT4 or MT5 broker. The mechanical checklist items sync automatically, without plugins or CSV exports.
Learn about MetaTrader → 7-day free trial includedFAQ
A trading checklist is a fixed list of conditions that have to be true before, during and after a trade. It removes in-the-moment decisions about whether a setup qualifies, whether the risk is sized correctly, and whether the trade was logged properly, by deciding them once and applying them every time.
A complete checklist covers three phases. Pre-trade: setup matches the plan, risk capped at the plan limit, stop placed before entry, target defined upfront, news calendar checked. In-trade: stops not moved wider, position size not increased, exit conditions held. Post-trade: trade logged with setup tag, R-multiple recorded, and a process note if any rule was broken.
Discretion is the part of trading that has to be earned. A checklist protects the parts that should not be discretionary: position sizing, stop placement, logging, and not breaking rules under stress. The discretion stays with reading the market, the mechanics stay with the checklist.
On each trade, mark which items were honoured and which were not. Over a sample of 50 to 100 trades, the percentage of trades that ticked every box is plan adherence. Most traders find their issue is not strategy quality, it is that plan adherence sits at 60% when they thought it was 95%.
Tracker Fx pulls the objective parts of the checklist directly from the broker: risk per trade, stop versus planned stop, R-multiple, setup tag. The trader marks the subjective items. Adherence is computed and shown next to performance, so the link between following the checklist and the equity curve becomes visible.
Yes. Tracker Fx includes a 7-day free trial with full access to all journaling and analytics features. The free trial is available for all supported platforms, including MetaTrader.
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Connect cTrader, Bybit, OANDA or MetaTrader and Tracker Fx fills in the mechanical checklist items automatically. Adherence stops being a guess and becomes a number.
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