Field note
What a risk sheet must contain before it is useful
A blank template is not a risk sheet. The document has to name your markets, your R, and your stop rules in language you will follow under pressure.
During the Risk Desk Intensive, the risk sheet is the deliverable. Early drafts often look impressive and remain unused: long theory paragraphs, no numbers, no markets named.
A sheet that traders actually keep beside the keyboard tends to include:
- Markets and timeframes covered
- Maximum loss per idea (in R and in currency)
- Maximum session and weekly loss
- Stop placement rule tied to structure (with any allowed buffer)
- Conditions that cancel the day’s plan (budget spent, consecutive losses, gap protocol)
- A short pre-order checklist (three to five lines maximum)
What we leave off: motivational quotes, broker logos, and indicator settings that do not change the stop. The sheet is a constraint document. If it cannot be read in under a minute before the open, it will not be read when it matters.
Traders finish the intensive only when the sheet matches the charts they brought — not when they can recite a generic risk lecture.