I used to review bad trades and blame the same things every time
entry was late
stop was too tight
should have waited longer
But the more I looked back, the more I realized a lot of them were not really execution mistakes first
They were trades taken in conditions that were never clean enough to justify the risk
So now before I even think about entry, I check 3 things
1. Higher timeframe direction
If the bigger picture is messy or unclear, I already know the lower timeframe needs to work much harder to be worth it
2. Lower timeframe agreement
I want the entry timeframe to support the bigger picture, not fight it. If one looks clean but the other looks mixed, that is usually where I get trapped
3. Expansion or chop
Some markets are actually moving. Others just look active. I try to separate real expansion from random rotation before I do anything
That alone has saved me more bad trades than any entry trick ever did
Most of the damage for me came from setups that looked almost good enough
Curious what other people check before they even care about entry