The Pre-Flight Checklist: A Day Trader's Pre-Market Routine

Pilots run a written checklist before every flight. Traders skip theirs and wonder why the day crashes. Here's the pre-market routine that earns you the right to trade each morning.

From the free MicrosTrader Trading Library… 140 lessons mined from 1,042 live ES and MES futures sessions taught since 2018.

The Pre-Flight Checklist is a written pre-market routine you complete before you may consider any trade. It gates three areas… your emotional state, your physical readiness, and your chart preparation. Every gate answers yes, or you keep your hands off the ES E-mini futures market until it does.

The name comes straight from aviation. A pilot with ten thousand hours still walks the wing and runs the written list, because the checklist catches what confidence misses. George holds day trading to the same standard… "A thorough pre-flight is where I want you to start" (May 5, 2026). This page lays out the full checklist, the gates inside it, and the honest audit that keeps it from rotting into a rushed formality.

“"Each day, before you're allowed to consider entering into the trade, show up prepared. Thoroughly prepared."”

— George, live session, May 5, 2026

ES futures Battle Plan chart from George’s published record

From George’s published record: Micros Trade Plan #324 — a 20-point move, mapped in advance.

Earning the Right to Trade

George frames the whole routine with one question, asked before the open every single day. Trading with real leverage is a privilege. You qualify for it fresh each morning through preparation. Skip the prep and you forfeit the day… there will be another trade tomorrow.

What earns that right? The pre-flight itself. Reading the Battle Plan. Listening to the AM Briefing. Marking your levels. Checking your own head. Then the answer flips and the language flips with it:

“"If you answered yes to those, you're cleared for takeoff."”

— George, live session, Jun 16, 2026

George has taught this in 30+ recorded sessions… and every claim in the full lesson links to the recording it came from. The full lesson covers far more than fits here.

Read the full lesson free at MicrosTrader.com →

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📍 Originally published on MicrosTrader.com

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