A Pre-Market Checklist for ES and NQ Futures Traders

The open of the regular session is a bad time to decide what you think. Price is moving, the screen is full, and you're choosing direction, size, entry and stop at once. A written plan done in the 30 to 45 minutes before 9:30 AM ET moves most of those decisions to a calmer time. It doesn't predict anything. It tells you in advance how you'll respond to specific conditions.

One timing point matters for anyone using KPL reference prices: they're anchored to the regular-session opening print, so they can't be completed before the open. In the pre-market, I plan around the levels that already exist and decide where the KPL map will matter once the open prints.

The checklist

1. Overnight context (about 5 minutes)

• Where is price relative to yesterday's regular-session close, and how large was the Globex range?
• Did news break overnight that moved the market sharply?
• Where is the VIX relative to its recent range? Use it as context for expected movement, not as a direction signal.

2. Economic calendar (about 3 minutes)

• List scheduled high-impact releases and their exact times in one time zone, such as ET.
• Decide ahead of time what you'll do around each one: stand aside, reduce size, or trade only after the first reaction settles.
• Put the release time on the chart so you don't walk into it by accident.

3. Mark the levels (about 10 minutes)

• Prior day's high and low, and prior week's high and low.
• Yesterday's VWAP and where the session closed relative to it.
• Round numbers near current price, such as 25-point levels in ES.
• The Weekly Opening Price on Mondays. Globex typically reopens Sunday evening, but confirm your product's schedule on the CME calendar, since holidays change it.
• The KPL map, after the regular-session open print gives it its anchor.

4. Write a bias (about 5 minutes)

A bias is a default tilt for which setups you'll prioritize, and I hold it loosely. Inputs I look at: price above or below yesterday's VWAP, its position relative to the prior week's range, and where it opened relative to the Weekly Opening Price. None of these is a reliable forecast on its own. Write it down, for example: Neutral, prefer longs near the prior day's low, only if the first 30 minutes hold it. Writing it stops you from rewriting your opinion to match a losing trade.

5. Define two or three setups (about 5 minutes)

For each setup write the exact level, the confirmation you require, the stop price, and the first target. A setup like long at 5,210 if price holds with TICK above -400, stop 5,206, target 5,225 is testable. A setup like buy if it dips is not.

6. Set risk limits (about 5 minutes)

• Pick a maximum loss for the day in dollars before the open and stick to it. The number is yours to choose, and it should be an amount you can lose without changing your behavior.
• Convert stops to dollars. At $50 per point, ES loses $200 on a 4-point stop. MES at $5 per point loses $20 on the same stop. NQ is $20 per point and MNQ is $2 per point.
• On event days or high-volatility mornings, consider cutting size. Hypothetical example: if your normal size is 2 ES, trade 1.
• Confirm your connection and data feed are working, and that your platform is on the right contract month and the right account.

Hypothetical daily-limit example: if your daily limit is $400, four losing MES trades with 4-point stops at 5 contracts each would cost $100 apiece and reach it. Slippage can make a stop lose more than planned, so leave room.

7. Reset (about 2 minutes)

Close news feeds and chat, reread your written plan once and wait for the open. If a trade isn't on the plan, you don't take it just because it looks good.

The short version

On a rushed morning, do three things: mark the prior day's high and low, check the calendar for scheduled releases, and write one line with your bias and one specific setup. That takes about six minutes and covers the most common avoidable errors, which are trading without levels and being surprised by a scheduled release.

Check it afterward

At the end of each day, compare what you wrote with what you did. Count the trades that matched your written setups and the ones that didn't, and look at results for each group over several weeks. That comparison tells you whether the checklist is changing your behavior. If you want the daily KPL map, the Intro membership is $97 per month after a 7-day trial and includes the course, daily ES and NQ KPL and the community. The map is a reference tool and doesn't promise outcomes.