What to Do Before Looking at Charts: A Morning Prep Routine for Day Traders

Most traders start their day by looking at charts.

They mark levels. They check the overnight range. They glance at futures. Maybe they scroll Twitter for "what are we watching today." Then they trade.

This is backwards.

The Problem with Starting from Charts

Charts without context are just lines on a screen. You can mark every support and resistance level from the last month, but that does not tell you which ones matter today. It does not tell you which patterns have been working this week. It does not tell you what you learned yesterday.

Starting from charts is starting from scratch every morning. You are ignoring the most relevant data you own: your recent reviews.

Start from Your Own Data

Yesterday-you just traded the exact market conditions you are about to face. Same overnight levels. Same gap behavior patterns. Same volatility regime. Same institutional flow dynamics.

That version of you left instructions in your review. A primary lesson. Conditional rules. Pattern observations. Levels that held or broke.

Reading those notes before opening a chart is like getting a briefing from someone who just walked the terrain you are about to cross.

The 5-Step Morning Prep (10 Minutes)

Step 1: Read Yesterday's Primary Lesson (1 minute)

Open yesterday's review. Read the one-sentence primary lesson.

Ask: Does this apply today? If yesterday's lesson was "don't short the first VWAP rejection when the gap is above 0.5%," check tonight's futures. If we are gapping up, the lesson is active.

Step 2: Review Yesterday's Conditional Rules (2 minutes)

Read the IF/THEN rules from yesterday's review.

Which ones are still relevant? Mark the ones where today's conditions might match. These go on your watchlist.

Example: Yesterday you wrote "IF opening range breakout occurs before 9:50 ET on 5-min candle volume above 70k, THEN enter on first pullback to OR high." If today's pre-market volume suggests an active open, this rule is live.

Step 3: Check This Week's Hot Patterns (2 minutes)

Scan the last 3-5 reviews for recurring observations.

What has been repeating? Gap fades working every day? Opening range breakouts failing? VWAP acting as magnet?

If a pattern has appeared 3+ times this week, it is likely still active. If it failed yesterday after working all week, the regime might be shifting.

Step 4: Note Key Levels That Carried Forward (2 minutes)

From yesterday's review and the overnight session:

• -Yesterday's high and low
• -Levels that held multiple times (support/resistance)
• -Untested levels (price approached but did not reach)
• -Overnight high and low

These are today's zones. Not generic levels from a charting tool -- specific levels that your recent reviews flagged as important.

Step 5: Write Today's Bias and Scenarios (3 minutes)

NOW open the chart. With all the context from Steps 1-4, write:

• -Today's bias (long, short, or neutral) and why
• -2-3 scenarios you will watch for
• -What invalidates each scenario

This is your plan. Not a prediction. A plan with defined actions and defined invalidation points.

Why This Order Matters

The traditional order (chart first, then plan) anchors you to what you see right now. The TBTY order (review first, then chart) anchors you to what you know from recent experience.

Levels without context are guesswork. Levels plus recent pattern data are edge.

You are not checking charts and hoping for setups. You are arriving at the session with a playbook of active rules, a list of patterns that have been working, and a bias grounded in your own data.

A Filled-Out Example

Step 1 -- Yesterday's lesson: "Gap fades above 0.8% have failed this week. Only fade gaps between 0.5% and 0.8%."

Step 2 -- Active rules: "IF gap between 0.5% and 0.8% AND price fades to VWAP in 20 min AND VWAP rejects twice, THEN short at third touch."

Step 3 -- This week's pattern: Gap fades have worked 3 out of 4 days when gap was under 0.8%. The one failure was a 1.1% gap.

Step 4 -- Key levels: Yesterday close 5420. Rejected 5435 twice this week. Overnight range 5418-5430.

Step 5 -- Today's plan: Futures indicate a 0.6% gap up to ~5452. Bias: fade to VWAP if rejection confirms. Scenario 1: Gap fades to VWAP, take the short per rule. Scenario 2: Gap holds above VWAP, do not force the fade. Invalidation: If price holds above overnight high for 15 minutes, thesis is wrong.

The Compound Effect

After one week of morning preps, you notice which reviews you reference most. After one month, your pre-session preparation is grounded in 20+ data points, not gut feeling.

This is how the review system becomes a loop: review feeds prep, prep feeds execution, execution feeds the next review. The compound effect is not in any single step. It is in the daily repetition.