One checklist for entry, exit and abstention after a market switch

A venue change rewrites the whole procedure

When the trading venue changes, the archive workflow does not carry over an old stock or futures playbook. Entry, exit, and abstention are rebuilt as one pre-trade sequence. Size is allowed only after that sequence is complete.

The working object is a single procedure. It has to bind the protective exit, the session-scale confirmation, the pair hold rule, and the scheduled flat window before a position is permitted.

Record the opinion, then place the falsification-stop

The pre-trade sequence first records a directional opinion and the market action that would disprove it. The falsification-stop is then placed beyond that disproof level. It is not parked on a round number and it is not a fixed pip offset.

Only after the stop is placed does the same sequence set a profit objective and compute reward-to-risk. The stated preference is three-to-one through five-to-one or better. Reward-to-risk is not calculated against a stop that has not yet been located.

Read structure on session-bars

The working chart stack starts with 480-minute bars so each candle maps to one regional session. Those session-bars are the structure chart. The stack steps down to 120-minute and 60-minute bars only to refine entries and exits.

Timeframes shorter than 60 minutes were rejected for this system because typical currency move size did not cover spread and commission costs. The short chart is not treated as a valid decision surface.

Currency entries wait for confirmation of a reversal on the 480-minute chart. Confirmation-entry requires higher lows and lower highs or a reversal candle. The sequence does not act on an anticipated turn.

Pair-specific holds share one cash risk

Each pair has its own hold rule under a pair-specific-program, because spike-and-pause behavior is not the same as channel-slide behavior. Pound setups were more often taken as short spikes. Euro setups were more often held as a grind-trade inside a 10- to 15-pip channel.

Size is fixed in cash terms. A 30-pip pound stop and a 10-pip euro stop represent the same money at risk if either trade is stopped out. That fixed-dollar-risk rule keeps the two recipes on one risk unit even though the pip distances differ.

Stay flat through shock windows

Because the market is continuous, the procedure requires working stop and limit orders. The busiest observed window was about 07:00-11:00 Eastern during the Europe-United States overlap. Orders are meant to be in the book through that flow, not placed after it has already moved.

The abstention rule is to be flat through identified shock windows such as CPI, PPI, policy releases, and major geopolitical events that historically produced outsized whipsaw. The stay-flat-window sits inside the same checklist. It is not a later overlay added after size has already been chosen.

Rebuild pair logic from observation

Imported stock or futures playbooks are treated as a failure mode. Pair behavior and confirmation logic are rebuilt from observation of the new venue. A larger trade sample is required so reward-to-risk arithmetic can dominate any single directional call.

The opinion is still recorded first. The rest of the procedure exists so that one call cannot override the falsification-stop, the confirmation-entry, the pair-specific-program, or the stay-flat-window.