Analysis is more reliable when it follows a routine. A top-down process stops you jumping into small timeframes before you understand where price is in the bigger picture.
The routine
- Choose the market and the timeframes in your plan. Do not change them to suit today's idea.
- Higher timeframe: direction and key levels. Is the market trending or ranging? Mark the major swing highs and lows and the support and resistance zones.
- Middle timeframe: location. Where is price relative to those levels? Is it pulling back, extending, or stuck in the middle?
- Lower timeframe: trigger. Is there a defined event that matches your plan, with an obvious point where the idea is wrong?
- Risk check. Where is the stop? What size does that imply? Is the risk-to-reward acceptable? Are you inside today's limits?
- Decision. Trade, wait, or stand aside. Write down which and why.
Keep notes, not predictions
Write what you see, not what you expect: "Daily uptrend; price at the lower half of the range; waiting for a one-hour break of structure." That keeps you responsive rather than attached to a forecast.
Mark zones, not lines
Price tends to react in areas, not at exact prices. Draw support and resistance as bands that cover the cluster of touches and wicks, not as hairlines.
Know when to stand aside
Some days there is no clear structure, the levels are not close, or the risk is too wide. "No trade" is a position, and one of the most useful.