Every successful trader is structured and organized in their approach to the markets and trading. Just as all the professionals have a trading plan which tells them what to do and when to do it during a trading session, they also have a daily and weekly schedule that tells them when to prepare, trade, review, and study to guarantee an effective feedback loop and make sure that they steadily improve and check their performance.

Creating a weekly routine isn’t that complicated and there are only a handful of things you need to take into consideration. When creating your weekly schedule, there are 4 main components that need to be factored in to make sure that you get the most out of your time:

(1) When you create your trading plans for the week ahead

(2) When you enter your trades into your journal

(3) When you update your trading plans throughout the week

(4) When you perform a trade and performance review

Let us show you how a weekly trading routine could look like.

The routine of a swing-trader

(1) Prepare for the upcoming trading week on Sunday evening and analyze the markets you trade. Then write your trading plans based on your observations.

(2) Journal your trades into Edgewonk in the evening after you are done with your trading. Journaling 30 minutes in the evening is usually all you need and it will make a huge difference.

(3) Continually update your trading plans every evening throughout the week.

(4) Every Friday, schedule 30 – 40 minutes to go over your Friday checklist.

(5) The review process takes place every Saturday when the markets are closed. The Sessions feature in Edgewonk will help you here.

An example of a day-trader could look like this

(1) You do your complete market analysis during your Sunday, prepare your charts and write your trading plans.

(2) In the evening, after you are done with your trading, you enter the trades you took during that day into your journal. Day traders should also perform a brief review to become aware of potential behavioral weaknesses or market changes immediately.

(3) The next morning, as part of your preparation, you follow our 5 points checklist.

(4) During the weekend, you perform a detailed performance review and check your past trades. Every month, or every 50 trades, you should do another, deeper performance review in order to stay in touch with your strategy and make sure that your execution of is as flawless as possible.

Creating your own routine

As we mentioned earlier, there are 4 main components to a daily and weekly trading routine: creating trading plans, entering trades into your journal, updating trading plans and reviewing your performance.

We have created a timetable template for you, including a sample, which you can fill out and make it your own in order to take your trading to a professional, organized and structured level.

You don’t have to be too rigid on how you schedule your week and day, but you should have a very good understanding of when to prepare for your trading, what to do during your trading days, when you journal your trades and when to do a performance review. And don’t be too hard on yourself, the main purpose of this process is to raise self-awareness about the way you approach trading and to make sure that you use your time most effectively.

Weekly timetable sample – download your weekly timetable below

Click here to download the PDF template

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.

– Jim Rohn