I had a meeting this morning which prevented me from watching the open and preparing my trading list on time.  I was not planning on trading at all because I knew I would be playing catchup if I tried.

Here’s an exercise that makes days like this quite valuable, in my opinion, even if you don’t take any trades and don’t plan on it.

When I’m late to the market for whatever reason, I like to see how quickly I can generate my watchlist for the day and settle into my trading routine.  I also glance at the overall market with a attitude that isn’t predisposed to any market bias from having watched the overall market closely from the open.  Often times, your perspective on overall market action can be skewed if you’ve watched the open.  It’s useful to me to sit down without any bias and evaluate what I would have been thinking.

In some ways, days like this provide an opportunity to simulate a strong market day where you’ll have to quickly identify a watchlist from an abnormally large list of stocks since you have to id

I almost always learn a little something about my routine and how it could be made more efficient.  A few months ago, this exercise provided me with the information and motivation to create my watchlist generation tool which I use everyday.

I’d be interested to hear if there are other similar strategies that you might employ to improve a little even when you don’t take a trade.

Related posts:

1. Appointment This Morning – Automation: Activate!
2. A Proper Trading Desk Lets You See Less not More
3. My Daily Trading Radar – How To Use It
4. November Trading Results
5. New Trading Robot Version Adds Great New Features