December 13, 2025 · Wei Tan
Building a Pre-Market Risk Checklist
A short checklist that forces risk decisions before the first candle of the session.
A pre-market risk checklist is short on purpose. It forces decisions before price action starts negotiating with you.
What belongs on the list
Account equity and max daily loss. Open heat if any overnight risk remains. Volatility note (ATR vs recent median). News windows for your markets. Size band for the day: full, half, or flat. One sentence on the primary theme you will trade—and what you will ignore.
Keep it visible
Print it or pin it beside the screens. Checking a list you cannot see is theatre. Checking a list before the first order is infrastructure. Review the checklist weekly and retire any item that never changes a decision.