Creating a Trading Routine

What is a Trading Routine?

A trading routine is a structured checklist you run before, during, or after a trading session. It brings consistency to how you show up as a trader — ensuring you're always prepared, focused, and operating according to your plan rather than winging it.

Professional traders in every market follow routines. Not because they're rigid — but because consistent preparation leads to consistent performance. The routine is what separates "I had a good setup today" from "I was ready for it."

Creating a New Routine

1. Go to Trade Plan → Routines (or the Routines section in the Trade Plan tab)
2. Tap Create New Routine
3. Give it a name (e.g. "Pre-Market Prep", "Pre-Trade Checklist", "Post-Session Review")
4. Build your steps

You can also start from one of the built-in templates — see Routine Templates for details.

Structuring Your Routine

Routines are divided into phases, and each phase contains steps. A phase is a logical grouping (e.g. "Market Prep", "Mindset Check", "Admin"), and steps are the individual items within it.

Example: Pre-Market Routine

Phase: Market Prep

• Check economic calendar for today's high-impact events
• Mark key levels on daily and 4H charts
• Note any overnight moves or gaps
• Identify key support and resistance zones

Phase: Mindset Check

• Rate current mental state (1–10)
• Review my Why statement
• Read my mindset notes
• Any reason I should not trade today?

Phase: Admin

• Confirm risk settings haven't changed from yesterday
• Check available margin
• Review any open positions from yesterday

Types of Routines

Pre-Market

The most important routine for most traders. Done before the trading session opens — ensures you're prepared and have context for the day.

Typical contents: news/event check, chart analysis, level marking, mindset review, account check.

Pre-Trade

A shorter routine run immediately before entering a specific trade — often overlaps with the strategy flow. Some traders use a routine to check readiness, then use the strategy flow to check the trade itself.

Post-Session

Done after the session closes. Forces reflection and learning rather than just closing the laptop and moving on.

Typical contents: review trades taken (or not taken), log observations in Business Notes, evaluate emotional state during the session, note anything to improve tomorrow.

Intra-Day / Mid-Session

A brief check-in during the session. Useful for traders who run for multiple hours — helps re-centre focus and re-evaluate conditions.

Adding and Editing Steps

Inside each phase, tap Add Step to create a new step. Each step has:

• A title — the thing you're checking or doing
• Optional detail — context, instructions, or a reminder note
• A type (checkbox, timer, note prompt, etc., depending on the step template)

You can drag steps to reorder them and delete steps you no longer need.

Marking a Routine as Active

Once your routine is ready, toggle it as Active in the routine settings. Active routines:

• Appear on the Dashboard in the Routine widget
• Show in the sidebar on iPad and Mac for quick access
• Are available to run immediately from the widget or sidebar

Inactive routines are still saved and can be activated at any time.

Scheduling a Routine

You can schedule routines to appear on specific days and at a specific time. Scheduled routines show up automatically in the daily task list on the Dashboard — no need to manually start them each day.

Setting a Schedule

1. Open the routine and go to Settings
2. Toggle Schedule on
3. Select the days of the week (e.g. Mon–Fri for market days)
4. Set the scheduled time (e.g. 07:30 for a pre-market routine)

Scheduled routines appear on the Dashboard widget with a status:

• Due — the scheduled time hasn't arrived yet
• Not Started — it's past the scheduled time but you haven't started it
• In Progress — you've started working through the steps
• Complete — all steps checked off

Midnight Expiry

By default, scheduled routine sessions expire at midnight. If you started a session but didn't finish it before the day ends, it's automatically logged to Flow History as incomplete and cleared for the next day.

You can turn this off in the routine settings if you have routines that span overnight (e.g. a weekly review started Sunday evening and finished Monday morning).

Reminders

If you've enabled notifications, TradingPlan can send you a reminder before your scheduled routine is due. Set the reminder offset in the routine settings — e.g. a 15-minute reminder for a routine scheduled at 08:00 will notify you at 07:45.

For full details, see Scheduling Routines.

Free Plan Limit

On the free plan, you can have one routine. To create additional routines for different sessions or purposes, upgrade to Pro.

Tips for Effective Routines

Keep them actionable. Every step should be something you actually do, not a vague reminder.

Keep them short enough to actually do every day. A 5-minute routine done daily beats a 30-minute routine done once a week.

Separate preparation from execution. Your pre-market routine is about preparation. Your strategy flow is about execution. Mixing the two creates confusion.

Review them monthly. After running a routine for a few weeks, some steps will feel useful and some will feel like friction. Remove what doesn't add value.