Private browser-only worksheet
A free risk-first pre-trade review template
Write the decision before the order ticket. This worksheet checks the minimum review fields and calculates a simplified whole-share ceiling without collecting a symbol, notes, account details, or the values you enter.
Direct answer
What should a pre-trade review template contain?
At minimum: the current source and time frame, observable setup, entry condition, thesis invalidation, maximum dollar-risk budget, whole-unit size, execution constraints, and the condition that means no trade. The calculator below answers only the arithmetic question. It cannot approve the trade, evaluate suitability, guarantee an execution price, or cap realized loss.
Interactive template
Calculate the ceiling; complete the review.
No form submission exists. Inputs stay in this page's temporary memory and disappear when the page closes or resets. Lumiere does not store, transmit, or attach these values to analytics.
Worksheet status
Inputs incomplete
Add entry, invalidation, and dollar-risk budget before using the sizing result.
Complete the numerical inputs to identify the binding ceiling.
Still unconfirmed: source and freshness, setup-derived invalidation, execution and no-trade conditions.
How the template reaches a result
- Validate direction.For a simplified long-share example, invalidation must be below entry. For a simplified short-share example, invalidation must be above entry.
- Calculate price risk.Use the absolute entry-to-invalidation distance as planned risk per share.
- Round down.Divide the dollar-risk budget by risk per share and round down to a whole share.
- Apply capital.If a maximum capital value is supplied, use the lower of the risk-sized and capital-sized share counts.
- Keep the stop conditions.Zero shares is a valid outcome. A positive number remains a ceiling that still requires execution, portfolio, source, and suitability judgment.
Why the result cannot guarantee maximum loss
The SEC explains that a triggered stop order becomes a market order and that the execution price can differ significantly from the stop price in a fast-moving market. A stop-limit order controls the permitted price but may not execute. FINRA's day-trading risk disclosure also warns that volatile markets, halts, system failures, commissions, margin, and short selling can create substantial or greater-than-initial losses.
IBKR's Check Margin feature can preview estimated commissions and margin impact before transmission. That account-context check belongs after the written review; it does not turn the worksheet into a recommendation or use up every dollar of buying power.
Primary source reviewed August 4, 2026: SEC Investor Bulletin: Stop, Stop-Limit, and Trailing Stop Orders.
Primary source reviewed August 4, 2026: FINRA Rule 2270: Day-Trading Risk Disclosure Statement.
Broker source reviewed August 4, 2026: IBKR TWS: Check Margin Pre-Order.
Use the worksheet in the full sequence
Start with the ten-field checklist, define observable invalidation, and use the position-sizing guide for the formula's limitations. IBKR Paper TWS users can then follow the broker handoff before independently deciding whether to open an order ticket.
From template to guided review