Lesson 06

Running the plan, and grading it

Trade only what's on the card. Grade the plan and the trader separately.

In one lineAt the bell the card is the boss. After the close, you grade the card and you grade yourself, separately.

The morning, in order

EveningDraw the map from the day that just closed (Lesson 02).
08:30Note the news. Data at 8:30 or 10:00 gets its own line on the card.
09:00Update the overnight high and low. Write the if-thens (Lesson 04) and the room (Lesson 05).
09:25Where will it open? Write the one-sentence script (Lesson 03). Card is final.
09:30The bell. Trade only lines that are on the card.
10:30The check: is the day still behaving like the script? If not, the risk-case lines take over.
16:00Flat. The card goes in the journal as written.
AfterGrade the plan, then grade yourself. Two different questions.

At the bell

The open is where the plan earns its keep: most of the day's volume, most of its range, and the least time to think. That is exactly why the thinking was done at 9:00. From 9:30, three rules:

Only lines on the card. A new idea at 9:47 goes on paper for tomorrow's map. If it was good, it will still be there.
Triggers, not touches. Price reaching a level is not your signal. The trigger you wrote is.
Wrong means out. You wrote that price before you had a position. Trust the version of you who had no position to defend.

At 10:30 the first hour is done and you check the script: still rotating, or is it trending? The plan doesn't start then; it gets checked then.

Grade it twice

Grade the plan	Grade the trader
Did price react at the levels on the map?	Did you take only lines that were on the card?
Was the script (base or risk case) right by noon?	Did you wait for the trigger, or act on the touch?
Did the lines that fired reach their targets before their stops?	Did you exit at wrong, or move it?

The two columns fix different things. A bad plan you followed perfectly means work on the map. A good plan you didn't follow means work on you. Mixing them up is how traders end up rewriting a method that was fine.

Build your card

Fill it in tonight. It stays in this browser, and the copy button formats it for the Discord.

Key terms

The checkA fixed time to compare the day with the script.

Plan gradeHow good the map and scripts were.

Trader gradeHow closely you followed the card.

The cardThe written plan, unchanged after 9:25.

Try it

Build tomorrow's card with the builder above, copy it, and post it in the Discord before 9:30. After the close, reply to your own post with both grades. Do it for five sessions in a row and you will have something most traders never have: a record of how you actually trade the open.

AXIS Desk · The Pre-Market Plan · free. Education only, not trade advice. Futures trading involves substantial risk of loss; past patterns do not guarantee future results.