Before your first live trade, what should be on the checklist?

A checklist before the first live trade can stop an avoidable mistake. It can cover the regulator, the account type, the margin, the stop loss and the amount you are prepared to lose. How to check if a forex broker is regulated covers the first item most checklists should include, and it is the item new traders most often skip.

Members often build their list from one bad experience. A checklist written after a good first trade is less useful, because the lessons that matter tend to come from mistakes. The list should be short enough to use every time, and specific enough that you can tell whether each item was done. A tick box that says "checked the broker" tells you nothing; a line that says which register you searched, and under what name, does. Writing the checklist before the first deposit, and reviewing it once after the first trade, gives the list a fair test.

We would like to hear your checklist:

• Which three items would you put first on a checklist for a new trader?
• Did you check the broker's regulator before you deposited? How?
• What did you forget on your first live trade?
• How long did it take you to trust your checklist?

Please share your own approach and reasoning, not calls for others to copy. Posts that promise a direction or sell signals will be removed.