Morning Prep Routine for Day Traders & Trading Options Expiration Friday

Morning Routine:

I can’t be confident when I perform the routine the night before. I do this the same day I trade.

You may be able to do the 89range levels (slower timeframe) the night before.

Wake-Up @6am EST

First thing, turn on cpu, and load your charts

Eat Breakfast: Green Tea, Fruit Smoothie (whey protein), Fresh Fruit (Cantaloupe)

630am EST

Check what happened overnight

Reading the news feed, looking at the charts, trying to find out if anything happened while I was sleeping.

Check the news for today

US Session news I will plan to avoid 5 minutes before and 5 minutes after.

I get my real time AUDIO news from TradeTheNews.com

I get my CAD news (crude oil) from ForexFactory.com

I can get a week at a time from Econoday

I need to plan my day around the news.

Do we have any CAD news that will affect my crude oil market today?

Is today a Wednesday? Crude Oil Inventories?

Don’t forget….what news do we have later today, or early tomorrow that may have traders waiting?

Plan your day using this information. What news do I have now, and what news might traders be waiting for?

Set your alarm clock 5 minutes before the first news event.

700am EST

Check the dollar, what is the DX trying to tell me?

Is it trending? Is it sideways? Did it recently FAIL at the breakout?

Try to find CLUES in the dollar index….personality!

What is the dollar doing RIGHT NOW

I plan my day around this.

Grab the markets im looking to trade this morning, 89range chart first.

Find your swing highs and mark trend line from the highs

Find your swing lows, and mark trend from the lows

These two trend create an easy guide for the major support and resistance.

Then look for wedges, sideways ranges, and price channels.

Now the 89range chart is done, I now move to a faster timeframe to plan my attack.

The 89range wont show me the exact levels of support and resistance that I will be using, all the 89range does is show me the best AREAS to be trading.

Look at the 34range chart for the SPECIFIC plan of attach.

Look for the Previous Days range, OPEN, BMT, PHOD, PLOD

Those price levels will act like magnets.

If we are inside the range from yesterday im buying the lows and selling the highs (range bound market)

If we see prices HIGHER/LOWER (outside) the range from yesterday we assume a trending, or moving market so we look to trade breakouts.

Your 34range chart you are looking for the same price patterns as the 89range

Price Channels

Price Wedges

Sideways Ranges

Find your PHOD, PLOD, OPEN and BMT and those are your price magnets.

With this information we move to the 13range chart and keep looking for these 3 price patterns.

Once I finish with the 13range make sure all the trend lines are correct and then plan your attack.

Example:

At the highs of the wedge, so sell the highs

Dollar is range bound, so this makes sense.

Outside day (below the PLOD) so if price make new LL’s sell retracements.

Inside day if we break above 98.63. if we go above .63 we now want to buy these lows with pullbacks.

Sell the wedge highs and avoid the BMT/OPEN

Fruit Smoothie:

1 scoop whey protein

½ serving (4oz) of Sugar Free Almond Milk

Spoon of frozen blueberries

Spoon of frozen strawberries

½ banana (all the sugar you need for all day)

“Magic Bullet” for 10 seconds and its great!

Be very careful with supplements:

- Sugars

- Cholesterol

- Bad fats (trans fats, saturated fats)