A pre-market routine is essential to succeeding as a day trader. Before the market officially opens, this is your time to do research, see what’s moving, and create a trading plan for the day.
In this blog, we’ll breakdown why you should create a pre-market routine and the different things you can add to your morning checklist before the market opens.
Why Create a Pre-Market Routine
The opening bell for the market starts at 9:30 a.m., but that doesn’t mean you should still be in bed opening your brokerage account. Setting yourself up for success is key to improving your trading performance.
Pre-market preparation is key. This is your time to do research, catch up on news, and get ahead of the competition. Create a pre-market checklist so you can be prepared when the opening bell rings.
How to Prepare During Pre-Market
Ultimately, you’re going to want to focus on what matters most to your trading strategy. However, it’s important to check external factors, such as geopolitical news and economic numbers, that will affect the market as a whole. We’ve outlined a few items that you might want to check every morning before trading, but your trading checklist does not need to be limited to this list.
Index Futures
Check the index futures such as the S&P 500 or Russell 2000 index futures.
Catch Up on News and Economic Reports
News happens 24/7 and is very influential in the markets. When you wake up, keep tabs on big news that could affect the market, individual stocks, etc. Check up on world markets too, because that could indicate what might happen to the U.S. market. You’ll also want to look for economic reports like retail sales, jobless claims, and other reports.
Check out Benzinga.com and Benzinga Pro for up-to-date market news.
Assess Market Conditions
Is the market especially volatile? Maybe it’s relatively calm. Have you been noticing any trends? This is the time to get an idea of what you can expect for volatility, which can affect your profits.
Analyst Ratings
Did any stocks you’re looking at get upgraded or downgraded by an analyst recently? Analyst ratings can cause movement on stocks in the upcoming session.
Earnings
Is it earnings season? Check which companies are releasing their report for the day. These are stocks or industries you might want to keep your eye on.
Check out Chatrooms
If you’re a member of a trading chat room, like inside of Benzinga Pro, check out what your chatroom is discussing to catch up on news, stocks to watch, and more.
Research Stocks
Use the Screeners, Newsfeeds, and other tools at your disposal to make a trading plan for the day and research stocks you are looking to potentially trade.
Find Pre-Market Movers in Benzinga Pro
In Benzinga Pro, you can easily find a list of pre-market movers using the Movers tool. This is the easiest way to generate a list of stocks on the move that you could research for a potential trade.
In the Movers tool, you can apply filters such as:
- Gainers, Losers, or Both
- Session (Pre-Market, Regular, After Hours)
- Period (5 min, 15 min, 30 min 1 hour, or session)
- Sector
- Market Cap
- Price
You can also choose auto-refresh or freeze the results.
Once you have your list of stocks moving in the pre-market, you can then move on researching the stocks further, whether that be technical analysis, fundamental analysis, or a mix of the two, and decide whether it’s a stock you’re looking to trade once the market opens.
Disclaimer: Benzinga is a news organization and does not provide financial advice and does not issue stock recommendations or offers to buy stock or sell any security. Benzinga Pro is for informational purposes and should not be viewed as recommendations. Benzinga Pro will never tell you whether to buy or sell a stock. It will only inform your trading decisions. You can find our full disclaimer located here.