15 Steps to Get Ready for the Swing-Trading Day

Your daily routine in the pre-market hours sets the stage for the rest of the trading day. Gathering usable information, picking fights carefully, and making the right moves while your competition is still in dreamland can mean the difference between a very profitable session and a losing nightmare.

The most interesting pre-market activities take place ahead of big economic releases, such as Friday's monthly labor report. They also occur after notable trend or reversal days, where price surges into the close. Many traders get trapped in these events, and then try to extricate themselves before the next morning's opening bell.

Traders have a tough time interpreting early news and its eventual impact on the upcoming session. But the process of pre-market preparation isn't as hard as it looks when you organize your wake-up efforts into key zones of market action. Start with these 15 tips and techniques to get ready for the market day.

1. Check CME index futures: Pull up the S&P 500 (SPX) and Nasdaq-100 (NDX) futures and note current price levels. Then look at the overnight action, marking out the highs and lows posted through that period.
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