The First AI Workflow Every Trader Should Build (FULL GUIDE)

In this article, I’m giving you my exact 5-step trading process that completely revolutionized how I trade. It’s genuinely one of the most valuable things I could give you, and it took years to finally get this right. I’m not saying to copy my process exactly, but if you can extract even a couple of valuable components, I’m confident it will help you navigate the markets.

Since January I’ve had one goal in mind: “How can Implement AI into my trading process”

The biggest trap that new traders fall into when trying to implement AI is thinking that it will magically fix their mistakes. I want to make one thing clear, if you are not a profitable trader then AI doesn't suddenly change that.

There are multiple different ways AI can facilitate your trading which I will cover in future articles, for now the focus is on the trading process.

1. Market Outlook

A) Market Context

Before you take any trades, you need to understand what the Market Context is.

I break this down into three parts:

1. Weekly Bias

2. Daily Bias

3. Pro-Trend or Counter-Trend

Clearly defining my weekly bias allows me to always be aligned with the HTF trend, for example if we are in a HTF uptrend and price starts to accept above a range high then I am more likely to treat that as a breakout compared to a deviation if the HTF trend was bearish.

My Daily Bias has a larger impact on the type and direction of trades I am taking; this is because even in a HTF uptrend you will still have range bound price action (Re-Accumulation Ranges)>

Therefore, understanding what the daily trend is helps you decide if you're looking for trend continuation setups or simply looking to fade the range extremes.

Finally, you have the Pro-Trend or Counter-Trend checklist. I like to always focus on the highest probability setups, which means that they are likely to be Pro-Trend.

If the market is in an uptrend, then the pro-trend trades are longs. Knowing which direction, the trend is flowing will allow you to always be on the right side of the trade.

B) Setups on Radar

If I have any potential setups that are developing, then I simply input the price where I am looking to do business and then I adjust the type of setup it is.

For example, for me it could be a Mean Reversion or Range Extreme playbook. I have a trade sheet fully dedicated to my trade plan which we will cover together.

C) High Impact Data

I connected my outlook sheet with a Macro data tracker so that every time I load up my trading sheet for the day, it will tell me all the key events on radar.

It’s very important to be aware of any data releases as the last thing you want is to open a trade with a key data release right around the corner.

D) Key Levels

Once you know the market context, setups on radar and any high impact data.

The next part of your preparation comes down to identifying all the key levels on the chart as those can help you better structure your trade and provide more conviction to any existing setups.

As you can see from my list, I share all the key levels that I look out for from swing highs / lows to Supply and demand zone. All play a key role in my system.

E) TPO’S / Composites

The final part of my market outlook prep is identifying any inefficiencies on the TPO charts, while the TPO chart is a not a strategy on its own.

It does provide a lot of value when it comes to trade location and secondary forms of confluence.

2. Daily Focus List

A) Weekly + Monthly Goals

I like to have both my weekly and monthly goals clearly defined every day when I get to my desk as it helps me get in the zone and be aware of what I am trying to work on for the week / month.

Personally, I don't like setting PnL goals and instead focus on goals based on my weaknesses.

Monthly goals are my more HTF goals, for example they could be:

- Make sure all my trades are journaled

- Risk dynamically on my setups

- Focus on locking in profits sooner instead of round tripping

My weekly goals basically consist of me turning my monthly goals into smaller ones.

If we use the “Focus on locking in profits sooner instead of round tripping” goal, then my weekly goals that can help me achieve that monthly goal will be:

- Always use TP limit orders

- Do not adjust TP after executing trade

At the end of the day, if you are not journaling your trades then you won't be able to set meaningful goals.

B) Daily Task List

This section of the sheet is very simply my own to do list, but the catch is that it's all focused on how I can improve my trading.

Every morning, I write down what aspects of my trading I am looking to improve. It can be as simple as refining my existing trading sheets, reviewing my trading journal or even testing a new strategy.

My focus with this list is that at the end of the current day, I was able to achieve something that helps me get just that 1% better.

3. Trade Plan

A) Trade ID

This is just where I tag my setups, the more important part is “Checklist Completed” as this ensures that I have gone over the first Market Outlook sheet that defines all my key levels.

I also re-confirm with myself what type of environment we are trading in (Ranging / Trending) to ensure I am on the right side of the trade.

B) Position Sizing & Risk

The first thing I want to point out is under each point I have “Why?” this is because it’s very easy to just write down some numbers from a chart just for the sake of it.

If you are able to explain “Why?” are entering at this price or “Why” your stop loss is placed at this level then you start to actually think through your logic, otherwise your just trading randomness.

At the bottom that section I have to fill out what my risk amount in % which is based on the value of my trading account, it’s important to mention that not all setups are equal.

This means that A* setup in my playbook has a much higher expectancy therefore I am willing to risk more of my account on that setup compared to a B or C tier setup.

C) Trade Confluences

How do I know if a setup is A or B tier?

That’s where the trade confluence section comes in. In my system I use various secondary forms of confluence to determine the expectancy of a trade.

That list includes:

- Divergences

- EMAs

- Composites

- Single Prints

The more confluences the better.

While justifying why you should take a trade is good, what's better is putting yourself on the other side where you try to find reasons not to take the trade.

Doing this might help you poke holes in your plan which can lead to you reducing your risk on a setup you thought was an A* but is just a B tier setup.

4. Trade Execution

A) Setup Checklist

Similar to the trade confluences section on the last trade sheet, the only difference is that the setup checklist is based on what’s happening at the moment of execution.

I have it split in 2 parts: Mean Reversion & Range Extremity which are the two playbooks that I trade with some subtle variations within them.

The more confluences I am able to tick off, the higher conviction the setup.

This is of course based on the data I have gathered for those confluences around my trading strategies.

B) Execution Pattern

Just like I have trading playbooks, I also have execution playbooks. Some execution playbooks can be used across multiple trading playbooks while others are specific to one playbook.

When journaling, you need to gather as much data as possible and by tagging what type of execution pattern your trading you will be able to see which patterns are more profitable than others.

C) Trade Entry / Exit

When I execute a trade, I rarely enter my full size in one clip. Instead, I like to scale into a trade which helps reduce the size of my losses.

The table is pretty self-explanatory, the only thing I want to shed a bit of light on is under “Strategy”.

Just like I explained under the execution patterns, not every execution will be the same. This is why it's important to track each strategy type.

5. Trade Closure

A) Thoughts during the trade lifecycle

Journaling the trade is common but journaling your emotions throughout the trades Lifecyle is something I rarely see anyone talking about yet it's the best way to learn more about yourself and how you react under different situations.

Price might be aggressively trading into you level of interest, but you freeze because you believe it will keep pushing higher, price then rejects from your level but your sidelines as you never pulled the trigger.

If you can understand why you froze, why you did not follow your original plan then you can try to find the root cause of the problem and then refine your trading process further to mitigate those mistakes.

Let's be clear on one thing, you will always have emotions. Even when I execute my trades, I feel an increase in emotions but the main difference with the old version of myself is that back then I would act on my emotions instead of my process.

B) Post-Trade Review

While it’s always nice to execute a trade and watch it play out perfectly, you learn the most from the trades where you make mistakes.

This is where the Post Trade Review comes into play, it’s important to mention that this is not the final form of review that I complete. I also have a detailed Weekly & Monthly performance review template which I will cover and share in a future article.

Trade Execution is one of the hardest aspects of the trade, when doing my trade review, I want to know if I am following my execution plan or deviating from it. If I am deviating from it then I have to understand why.

The next question “What worked well?” is more about understanding what my strong points in my trading are so that I can focus a little less on them compared to the weak points in my trading.

I then finish it off with listing off all the mistakes that I made during the trade; while also specifying at which stage of the trade Lifecyle I am making them.

This is because maybe my execution and management are completely fine, but when it comes to the trade closure I also mess up and get greedy which leads to me roundtripping.

Once I know at what stage of the lifecycle, I can then spend more of my time trying to fix that part of my trading.

Final Thoughts

I hope you found this article valuable.

I genuinely haven't seen another creator talk about leveraging AI to refine your own trading process, so I hope everything we've discussed here will help you gain a market edge.

Follow me @TraderMorin as I continue to share how you can leverage AI as a trader.