This is how you prepare for the next trading week in 30 minutes

October 03, 2026.

The next trading week starts already before your first decision.

From the previous week a few important experiences can remain. Out of the times of the economic events of the next days multiple are already known. You can also know on which days and in what periods you will have the opportunity to trade.

If you only try to gather these directly before trading, you must quickly decide from multiple separate informations what matters on the given day.

A short Sunday routine can organize this in advance.

For this we use three 10-minute steps.

Short summary

• How to compress the previous week into three usable findings?

• How to fit the known events of the next week into your own trading time?

• What is it worth noting down in advance so that mid-week you do not have to gather the same informations again?

• What should get onto a simple weekly trading sheet?

• What should you do if circumstances change mid-week?

First 10 minutes: compress the previous week

In these ten minutes it is not necessary to re-analyze all your trades.

For this it is worth dedicating separate time, if any decision or recurring problem requires deeper examination.

Now you are looking for three short findings.

1. What repeated?

Look through your already existing journal, your notes or your performance data, and look for one such thing which appeared multiple times.

This can be for example:

• a recurring trading period;

• a certain market environment;

• the same execution problem;

• or such a situation in which you could consistently more cleanly apply your own method.

Here you do not yet have to decide whether you change something.

First just name what you saw multiple times.

If you have too few similar cases at your disposal, treat it as an observation for now. You might need more comparable trades for you to truly be able to speak of a recurring pattern.

Write it down in one sentence:

Last week I observed this: __________

2. What requires separate analysis?

The goal of the ten-minute routine is not that you immediately solve every question.

If you find something whose cause is not yet clear, mark it separately.

For example it can stand out that in a given period you had multiple weak results. From this you do not yet know automatically whether the period itself, the market environment, the execution or something else stood in the background.

At such times write it down:

I want to examine this separately: __________

With this you avoid modifying your own process based on too little information during a fast Sunday overview.

Detailed trade analysis has its separate place. In the Sunday routine now you only decide what deserves more attention later.

What does not need to be touched now?

This point is at least as important as the previous two.

The start of a new week in itself is no reason to change what currently works consistently.

If there is such a part of your process which you followed appropriately, and there is no new information that would justify a change, write that down too.

I continue this unchanged: __________

This way by the end of the first 10 minutes three separate things stand before you: an observation, a question waiting for deeper analysis and a working part which you currently do not touch.

This is enough for the previous week to remain not only as a result number.

Second 10 minutes: fit the next week to your own trading time

The economic calendar of the next week is still little in itself.

What truly matters is which of the known events meet that time when you will actually trade.

Therefore first start with your own time.

1. When can you trade this week?

Write down those periods of the next week when expectedly you will truly be in front of the market.

For example:

• Monday: 15:30–18:00

• Tuesday: no trading

• Wednesday: 14:00–17:00

• Thursday: 15:30–18:00

• Friday: 15:30–17:00

This will be that framework onto which you fit the following informations.

2. Which known events fall into these periods?

Now open the economic calendar of the next week.

You do not have to analyze in detail on Sunday what a CPI, NFP or FOMC can mean for the market. The interpretation of these is a separate topic.

Here you only look for:

does any important event meet your own trading time?

If yes, write it onto your weekly schedule.

For example:

• Wednesday 14:00–17:00 — important economic event at 14:30

This way mid-week you no longer have to look through the entire calendar again to know whether there is a previously known event in your own trading time.

Always note down the events in that time zone which you actually use during trading, and check the time zone setting of the economic calendar too.

If you use a prop firm account, check here too whether the given event affects the current news trading rules of your account type.

3. Is there such a known circumstance which changes your usual week?

You have already separately marked the economic events.

Now exclusively look for those previously known circumstances because of which some part of the week can deviate from the usual.

Such can be for example:

• US holiday;

• modified trading time;

• such a day when because of your own schedule you can only trade for a shorter time;

• such a week when the trading schedule of any market regularly watched by you deviates from the usual.

Write these down onto the same weekly timeline.

By the end of the second 10 minutes this way you will already not simply have an economic calendar.

You see your own trading week on it.

Last 10 minutes: prepare a single weekly sheet

Now you already have:

• the three most important outcomes of the previous week;

• your trading time of the next week;

• the known events falling into these;

• the possible unusual circumstances.

In the last ten minutes you organize this on a single short sheet.

The goal is that when you sit down to trade mid-week, you do not have to gather the same informations again.

1. Write down your planned trading periods

Only those should feature on it when you actually plan to trade.

This will be the skeleton of the weekly sheet.

2. Mark those times which you know in advance

Put next to it:

• important economic event;

• modified trading time;

• holiday;

• relevant period because of account rule.

No long explanation is needed.

It is enough if you see which times deviate from an average trading period.

3. Write onto it the single observation of the previous week

Not so that you automatically change it.

So that in the next week too you can watch whether it appears again.

For example:

Watch this week: the execution of my late afternoon trades.

This way the observation of last week gets transferred to the next week without you drawing a too fast conclusion from a few trades.

4. Write down what you must separately analyze

If in the first ten minutes you found something which requires more data or separate examination, give it a specific place in the week.

For example:

Thursday evening: detailed analysis of previous week's late afternoon trades.

5. Determine when you look at the weekly sheet again

On Sunday you cannot know everything about what will happen on Thursday or Friday.

Therefore have a short checking point.

For example:

Wednesday evening: rechecking of known events of Thursday and Friday.

This helps to keep the plan fresh without you rebuilding the whole week again every day.

This is how the ready weekly sheet can look like

At the end of the complete system something like this can stand before you:

Previous week

• Observation: late afternoon multiple uncertain executions appeared.

• I analyze separately: Thursday evening I look back at these trades.

• I continue unchanged: my current entry conditions.

Next week

• Monday: 15:30–18:00

• Tuesday: no trading

• Wednesday: 14:00–17:00 — important event 14:30

• Thursday: 15:30–18:00

• Friday: 15:30–17:00 — important event 14:30

Separate attention

• I watch this week: late afternoon execution.

Separate analysis

• Thursday evening: detailed overview of previous week's cases.

Weekly recheck

• Wednesday evening: checking of Thursday and Friday events.

This already fits in a note, document or own weekly template.

And mid-week you exactly see when you trade, what is expected in these periods, what you continue to watch, and which question you must separately deal with.

Frequent questions (FAQ)

What if I barely traded last week?

At such times do not try to look for a recurring pattern from little data. Write down that you do not have enough comparable information from the previous week, then concentrate on the schedule and previously known circumstances of the next week.

The weekly routine is usable then too.

What happens if circumstances change mid-week?

Update that part which the new information affects.

That is why a rechecking time also features on the weekly sheet. The Sunday plan provides a starting point, while to new informations arriving during the week you can still adapt.

What if I don't finish in 30 minutes?

If any question requires deeper analysis, mark it separately, and deal with it later.

The 30 minutes serves the purpose of you organizing the necessary informations from the perspective of the next week. For the understanding of a more complex trading problem it is worth reserving separate time.

Summary

The 30-minute Sunday preparation organizes three separate tasks one after another.

In the first 10 minutes you compress the previous week. You highlight an observation, you mark a question which requires separate analysis, and you also record what you currently have no reason to touch.

In the next 10 minutes you adjust the next week to your own trading time. First you determine when you will actually be in front of the market, then to these periods you add the already known economic events, the possible modified trading times and every such circumstance which is known in advance.

In the last 10 minutes you organize the whole thing onto a single weekly sheet. On it will be your planned trading periods, the important times, the observation watched further from the previous week, the question waiting for separate analysis and that time when mid-week you recheck the plan.

This way before your first weekly trade you no longer have to gather from separate places what happened earlier, when you can trade, and what known events wait for you.

You have a short weekly overview from which you immediately see how your own trading week starts.

If you don't have a Solo Clash account yet, you can also treat this as part of the preparation.

Look at our account types, and choose the one whose rules best fit to how you would like to trade. This way for the start of the week your own schedule, the important events and the account used for trading can also be clarified in advance.

[I look at the account types→]

The article serves an educational purpose. The market environment and the known events can change during the week, therefore it is worth supplementing the preliminary preparation with fresh informations.