MarksFX Academy

Free starter tool · 15-minute routine

Stop walking into the gold session unprepared.

Get the free Gold Pre-Market Checklist, the starter tool from MarksFX Academy: the 15-minute routine Mark Bechara uses to map bias, key levels and risk before the gold session.

Free · Instant access

Send me the checklist

Get instant access to the printable checklist, plus occasional short lessons on turning it into a daily habit.

Free. Unsubscribe anytime.

Educational content only, not financial advice. Trading involves substantial risk of loss. We use your email to send a few short lessons and occasional emails about our memberships. Unsubscribe anytime. See our privacy policy.

What's inside

  • A 5-step routine: news, bias, levels, scenarios, risk
  • A 3-question review for after the session
  • A printable version for your desk

Why a routine

Most mistakes happen before the trade

No plan, no levels, trading into news, oversized risk. These are avoidable, and they all happen before you place an order. The checklist turns preparation into a habit, so your decisions come from a plan instead of emotion.

Step 1

Trading into news

Gold reacts hard to USD data like CPI, NFP and FOMC. You check the calendar first, so a release doesn't catch you mid-trade.

Steps 2 and 4

No plan

If you can't say what you expect and why, you don't have a plan yet. You write your bias and your scenarios down before the open.

Step 3

No levels

You mark the prices that matter, like yesterday's range and the Asian session range, before price gets there.

Step 5

Oversized risk

You set your risk per trade and your daily limit while you're calm, not in the middle of a losing trade.

The checklist · About 15 minutes

The Gold Pre-Market Checklist

Before you open a single trade, set a 15-minute timer and work top to bottom. Tick each box as you go and fill in the blanks. Don't aim for perfect. The goal for your first week is to do it every day.

MarksFX Academy · marksfxacademy.com

The Gold Pre-Market Checklist

Date

0 of 17 ticked

  1. Step 1

    News & calendar

    Know what's on the calendar before you look at a chart.

    • Times:

    • No new entries minutes before and after high-impact news.

  2. Step 2

    Higher-timeframe bias

    Decide what you expect, and why, before the session opens.

    • My bias today is because .

    Example: “My bias today is neutral because the daily is ranging and the 4H has no clean break of structure yet.” Neutral is a valid answer. It tells you to wait.

  3. Step 3

    Key levels

    Mark the prices that matter before price gets there.

    • High Low

    • High Low

    • Zone:

    • Pools:

  4. Step 4

    Scenario plan

    Plan your reaction instead of improvising it.

    • If price , I look for .

    • If price , I look for .

    • I stay out if .

    Example, for education only: If price sweeps the Asian low and then breaks structure to the upside, I look for a long setup from the order block that caused the break. I stay out if price is chopping inside yesterday's range ahead of a news release.

  5. Step 5

    Risk check

    Set your limits while you're calm.

    • % per trade

    • Max daily loss Max trades

    • My rule:

After the session3 questions

Post-session review

Close the loop, so tomorrow's plan is better than today's.

  1. Q1Did I follow my plan?

Education only

This checklist is a study and preparation tool. It is not financial advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell anything. Trading gold and other leveraged products involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. You make your own decisions and manage your own risk. Read the full risk disclosure.

Next step · Gold VIP

Compare your prep with Mark's, live.

Inside Gold VIP, Mark opens every weekday session at 8AM PT with his plan: the levels, the scenarios and what would keep him out, said out loud. Fill in your checklist first, then see how your read compares. You also get the full SMC course, the recordings vault, the Risk Mastery PDF and a trading journal. It's $49 a month, and you can cancel anytime.

Join Gold VIP · $49/mo How the live sessions work

Cancel anytime. Secure checkout through Whop. Education only, not financial advice.

Want to watch first? Mark teaches free live on TikTok, so you can see how he explains a chart before you join. Find Mark on TikTok

Curious what members think? MarksFX Academy averages 4.9★ from 1,619 reviews on Whop. Read the reviews on Whop