Workflow
The risk-first pre-trade review checklist
Ten decisions that turn a moving chart into a reviewable plan—without pretending a checklist removes market risk.
Use the checklistLumiere Learn
Make the risk decision before the order decision.
A source-backed library for active traders who want a repeatable pre-trade review: define the setup, decide what invalidates it, size from a dollar-risk budget, and practice the workflow in IBKR Paper TWS.
The short version
A pre-trade review should produce a falsifiable plan, not a prediction.
Before an order ticket, write down the market context, the setup, the evidence that would prove the idea wrong, the maximum planned dollar loss, the order behavior you expect, and the conditions that mean no trade. If one of those fields is missing, the review is incomplete.
Decision quality
How to define trade invalidation
Separate the price that makes the setup wrong from the order used to manage risk and the price you may actually receive.
Define invalidationRisk math
Position sizing by dollar risk
Calculate a maximum theoretical share count from entry, invalidation, and risk budget—then reduce it for real-world constraints.
See the formulaIBKR practice
IBKR Paper TWS setup and troubleshooting
Confirm the simulated account, understand paper-fill limitations, and connect Lumiere in read-only mode.
Open the setup guideComparison
Pre-trade review versus a trading journal
Understand the different decisions each workflow supports—and why one should not be marketed as a substitute for the other.
Compare the workflowsEditorial standard
What these guides will—and will not—claim.
Guides name primary sources, show the date reviewed, distinguish market structure from execution mechanics, and state material limitations. Examples are illustrative, not recommendations. Lumiere is not affiliated with or endorsed by Interactive Brokers.
We do not publish profit promises, “winning setup” claims, invented benchmarks, or performance statistics without a defined methodology and auditable sample.
See the workflow