Should I Be Trading Today?

George runs one mental checklist before he touches the buy or sell button. Three questions, asked out loud, every single time. It is the most-repeated line in the live trading room, and it fires again on every trade he takes.

Walk through each one. Should I be trading? This is the master gate, and it covers everything on this page. Am I biased? You interrogate whether you have already decided which way price “has to” go. Am I following price or fighting price? You only pull the trigger when the answer is following. George narrated a clean run through the gate… “Should I be trading? Am I biased? Am I following price or fighting price? We were following price beautifully” (Apr 14, 2026).

Answer honestly and the checklist protects you from your own worst habit. George catches himself on it live… “one of the recurring themes were you keep shorting this, don’t you? Should I be trading? Am I biased? Am I following price or fighting price?” (Apr 1, 2026). The questions surface the bias before it costs you. Discipline starts before the trade. Stay honest about which days are trade days.

The second question hides a trap. Waiting for price to arrive at a level is fine. Deciding the market “has to” go up or down for some reason… that is prediction, and George calls it the biased cousin.

Read the difference carefully. Patiently waiting at a Strong Level is disciplined. Insisting the market owes you a move is prediction. One follows price action. The other fights it. George stays on guard for the slide from one into the other… “Am I biased? Am I predicting price? Am I being disciplined? Got to watch that. Constantly vigilant” (Jun 21, 2026).

What if you are fighting price and take the trade anyway? Size down. When George plays a counter-trend spot, he does it small and only at fair locations… “I’m fighting price. But small. At what I believe to be fair locations in which to do that” (May 27, 2026). Fighting price is expensive. Charge yourself less for it.

Some days the honest answer arrives before the open. The conditions are wrong, and no amount of skill fixes them. George reads the calendar and calls it early… “Should I be trading? It’s the day before nonfarm payroll, it’s the week after a shortened holiday week” (Dec 5, 2024). He does not force it.

Watch for the setups that stack the odds against you:

• Pre-report chop. The day before NFP, CPI, or FOMC, price coils and traps. These are Level 10 conditions… reduced size or FLAT as a TRADE.
• Holiday-shortened weeks. Thin liquidity, unreliable moves, low participation. Easy to sit out.
• All-time highs with no clean level. No level, no trade. When price floats in open air, there is nothing to lean on.
• The day after a big event. The hangover session runs squirrelly and slow.

Your own state counts too. Frustration is a condition. So is a tired brain. George names both on the same Feb 1 session… “it’s the day after FOMC, I’m frustrated I missed this first trade” and “by Thursday my brain just starts to get a little slower, should I be trading” (Feb 1, 2025). When the answer is no, sitting out is the trade. There’s always another trade tomorrow.

Here is George’s frame for the whole readiness check. You are an athlete, and the chart is your field. Athletes train, warm up, and show up in condition before they ever compete.

The image comes from a scripture George leans on… “everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training” (Feb 4, 2026). Strict training is the standard. He pictures a pro walking onto the floor and getting checked before the whistle.

So run your own vitals. George turns it into a fourth self-check question: “Am I physically ready? Did you sleep well? Are you hydrated? Did you go for a walk this morning? Did you stretch?” (Jun 9, 2026). He backs it up in his own life with rucking and stretch breaks… “we’ve gotten into rucking. It’s a great workout on my legs and my shoulders” (May 30, 2025). This is what George means by “Be the best you.”

Nervous at the entry? That is a vital reading too. It flags a problem before the trade goes wrong… “If you’re nervous, if you’re sweating, if your foot’s tapping, you probably traded too big or you didn’t wait for the optimal entry” (Mar 24, 2026). Fix the size or fix the entry. Don’t push through the alarm.

One question traders forget entirely. It has nothing to do with the chart. Do you actually have the time to trade this session? A trade you cannot manage is a trade you should not take.

Patience takes time. If you have thirty minutes before a meeting, you will rush the trade, cut it short, or bail at the first wiggle. George’s rule is blunt… “Don’t try to squeeze in trading. That’s not good. Don’t squeeze in trading. Trading requires the best you, and it requires your full attention” (Jun 11, 2026). A squeezed trade never gets your full attention. He returns to it a week later: “Do you have enough time to even manage it? Are you trying to squeeze in trading?” (Jun 16, 2026).

No time is a clean, honest no. Close the platform and come back tomorrow.

An athlete’s rest is training too. George treats time off the chart as fuel for the next session. Rest deliberately, and you come back a sniper.

Rest works on two clocks. Inside the session, George runs scheduled break alerts… “Take a break. Refresh. Recharge. Remember, trading requires the best you” (Jun 10, 2026). Across the calendar, he plans days fully off to recharge for the stretch ahead… “let’s take that next Friday off, have a 4-day weekend, and come back charged” (Nov 22, 2024). Both keep the batteries full.

Rest is part of the work. Keep this routine sharp with a pre-flight checklist and a steady Sunday chart prep so every session starts from a rested, ready base.