7 Tips to Having a Productive Financial Morning Routine
Posted by Blain Reinkensmeyer
August 21, 2007 at 10:53 am
Every trader has a morning routing when it comes to preparing for the market day. Some traders are more intense than others because they have more at stake. Regardless of the size of your portfolio, here are some tips that can help get your morning started right.
- Wake up before the market opens. The stock market opens every day at 9:30 AM EST and by waking up before you have time to prepare for any potential market surprises or simply set a strategy up for the day. Some traders wake up three hours before the opening bell, some three minutes; it is all based on your routine you develop. Note: I don’t recommend trading in the early hours.
- Give the financial news a quick check. For me I simply head over to yahoo finance and read the headlines. More often than not it gives me a quick glimpse of what the market itself is up to and any stocks that have big news. If you don’t like reading, than simply flip on CNBC and watch a few minutes. Below is a screenshot from Yahoo Finance’s Top Financial News for today:
- Check the pre-markets. This is almost a must if you are a day trader because plays can come about pretty quickly. Personally I use the NASDAQ Pre Market Indicator for attaining pre-market quotes. Pre-market trading occurs from 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM EST every day. For the simple trader, the whole purpose of this is to get an idea of what stocks if any are on the move early.
- Get quotes for stocks you personally own. For how fast you can do this it is invaluable to your morning routine. Just simply attain a quote somewhere for your stocks and check the latest headlines for any surprises. This is also a good opportunity to see if your stocks moved in the after hours trading the previous night.
- Active Traders, setup your trading station before the market opens. This is really a “duh” for those that trade out of their homes, but I can honestly say I struggled at this when I used to day trade. I would try to wake up 5 minutes before the opening bell, gather news and get myself setup, and more often than not it doesn’t work. Get your computer running early so you are ready if need be.
- Give your portfolio a quick overview. Sign into your online stock broker account and just give your portfolio a glance. Maybe you forgot to place a stop on one of your orders, or perhaps you see a position you want to cash out of that day. Heck, just making sure your portfolio value is where it was last night is worth the two minute sign in.
- Read the IBD. Investors Business Daily (IBD) is an outstanding way to get updated on what the market is up to and what happened yesterday that you should know about. There are tons of ways to maximize your productivity with a copy of the IBD every day. Find out more at investors.com.
All in all, your routine should accomplish some simple tasks:
- Get yourself up to date on the market as a whole.
- Make sure your portfolio is still in tact.
- Get an idea for stocks that may be in the spotlight today.
- Overview positions and check for any major news or surprise movement.
- Be ready to roll when the market opens at 9:30 AM EST.
How you conduct your routine is completely up to you. Some of you I am sure are out the door as the sun is rising. A good solid routine to check out the markets could only took 10 minutes and give yourself an edge on the day.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure to Subscribe to the feed. (You can also subscribe with Updates via email).
Related Posts:
- The Best Posts of August, 2007
- Happy Holidays!
- TD Ameritrade and Etrade to Merge?
- Featured on ZenHabits Today, Thanks Leo!
- 16 Tips to Trade Stocks with Success
Filed Under Stock Trading |
Subscribe to the Blog
|
Recieve Blog Updates by Email!
----------------------------------------
Blain, do you trade on a daily basis?
I also put all my financial website resources in one firefox bookmarks folder. Then, I can open everything at the same time and flip through all my favorite finance website in one window.
For previous quotes, I use Microsoft Money to get a glance of my overall portfolio. It is very user friendly and all the information is a click away.
Cheers,
FB.
I also wonder if Blain trades daily and would like to know what stocks you own, what stocks your looking at, and how you’ve done… maybe we’ll learn from your successes and your mistakes!
Yahoo Finance is a great site (I just wish it was PERFECT- they do get the odd error when using the filter, but that is the feed providers fault!).
[...] doing my morning routine today I came across news that TD Ameritrade (AMTD) and Etrade Financial (ETFC) might merge. The two [...]
I love you Yahoo Finance and Microsoft Money. I pretty much use the two of them exclusively for stock information and the daily happenings.
[...] Stock Trading to Go discusses his morning routine for financial productivity. There are some great tips in here. [...]
[...] 7 Tips to Having a Productive Financial Morning Routine [...]
[...] 7 Tips to Having a Productive Financial Morning Routine [...]
I’m new comer hin this site and I’m interested to learn more about stock trading. This seven tips is good start lesson for me. Thanks.
hmmm, nice tips ! I dont know if i could follow it everyday. do you? great if you do
Bot all the time, but I try to stay in a focused environment that I am happy with.
Thanks for leaving a comment, see you around the site soon.
Just saw the link
1) Spend 5 minutes just waking up.
Usually around 7:00 AM to 7:30 AM EST
2) Put on the morning robe - and make coffee. Then I cue my “Morning Music” plalist on the ol’ PC.
3) I use Bloomberg on my PC, on one monitor, and for the other monitor, log into my trading platform. I’m quickly coming to the conclusion that I’ll need another monitor before too much longer.
4) Spend time with the wife after I look over the headlines.
5) By 9:00 I’m hot in heavy in front of my PC - looking over premarket. Sometimes I have to be up a little earlier if I’m involved with a Futures market trade. By 9:30 am, I cue up my “Trading Playlist” and I’m off to work.
:)