Pre-Trade Checklist Template for Forex: One Page, With a Log
Twelve statements about your own rules to answer before an entry, a log of the answers, and a summary that compares all-Yes trades with the rest.
3 Nov 2026 · 5 min read
On this page
A pre-trade checklist is a short list of statements about your own rules that you answer before an entry, not a list of rules for you to follow. This one prints on a single page, and its log shows afterwards how the trades you took with every item answered Yes compare with the rest.
Download it
- Pre-trade checklist template, Excel (.xlsx): a one-page Checklist, a Checks log and a Summary.
- Pre-trade checklist template, .csv: the twelve statements as a list.
No sign-up. It needs Excel 2019 or later, Google Sheets or LibreOffice. The Checklist sheet is set to print on one page.
The twelve statements
These are starting wording. They say nothing about what a valid setup is, where a stop belongs or how much to risk: each one points back at a rule you wrote. Rewrite every line so it matches your own rules, models and markets, and delete the ones that do not apply to you.
| # | Part | Statement (answer Yes or No) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Setup | This matches a setup I have written down. |
| 2 | Setup | I can say in one sentence why this entry is valid now. |
| 3 | Risk | My stop is placed, and I know where it is and why. |
| 4 | Risk | The amount I am risking is inside my limit for one trade. |
| 5 | Risk | I have room left under my daily loss line. |
| 6 | Risk | The reward to my first target is at least the minimum I set for myself. |
| 7 | Conditions | I have checked the scheduled events I have a rule about. |
| 8 | Conditions | The spread and cost are within what I expect, by my own number. |
| 9 | Conditions | I am not adding to this to make back a loss. |
| 10 | State | I am rested and not rushed. |
| 11 | State | I could take a loss on this without it changing my next decision. |
| 12 | Records | I know where I will record this trade. |
The log and the summary
The Checks log sheet has a row for each check: date, symbol, direction, a Yes or No under each statement, whether you took the trade, and its result in R. The column headings are linked to the Checklist sheet, so rename a statement once and it changes in the log. Two grey columns count the Yes answers and mark a check where every item was Yes.
The Summary sheet then gives the number of checks logged, how many were all Yes, and the average result in R of the trades you took when every item was Yes beside the average when at least one was No. It is arithmetic on your own log. A few rows prove nothing, and a checklist that is never answered No is not telling you anything.
Turning the checklist into journal fields
- Pick the three or four statements you are most likely to answer No to. Those are the ones worth tracking.
- Add one Yes or No column for each to your journal, or one column holding the count of Yes answers.
- Fill them in before the trade, not after it. An answer written after the result is a memory of the result.
- After a few dozen trades, split your results by those columns. The trading journal template has a Followed my plan column that does this for one question, and its by-model table works the same way for any label you add.
What a checklist cannot do
- It records an answer, not the truth. It cannot tell whether your stop is in the right place, only that you said it was placed.
- It does not judge a trade. Every item can be Yes on a trade that loses and No on one that wins. The Summary compares averages over many checks, not single outcomes.
- It can become a ritual. If you tick the same twelve Yes in a few seconds on every trade, shorten it to the items that ever make you pause.
To work out the size that keeps one trade inside your risk limit, see the lot size calculator. For what to record on each trade afterwards, see what to write in a trading journal.
We're working on a free journal and a backtester, with no date yet. Today Trepeat is a trade copier for MT4, MT5 and cTrader, currently on demo accounts, and you can add notes, a grade and screenshots to any copied trade once it closes, with a calendar of your results.
That journal has no pre-trade checklist, so this file is one, kept by you; see the journal documentation for what it records.
Written by the Trepeat team.