Next week’s tape: CPI / PPI before FOMC my pre-trade checklist

[LondonNewsTrader]

With hike odds elevated after hot jobs, next week’s CPI and PPI are the last big prints before the Sept 15–16 Fed meeting. That’s a scalper calendar problem more than an economist problem.

My checklist before those mornings:
1. Hard daily loss + trade count caps (news weeks eat discipline)
2. Prefer liquid indices / top names — skip thin garbage when VIX is “quiet but yields are loud”
3. Flat or tiny into the print itself unless you specifically trade the release (most of us shouldn’t)
4. Mark the levels that mattered Friday (prior day H/L, VWAP) news opens love to sweep them then reverse

Oil strength / geopolitics also in the mix this week — energy can lead while discretionary lags. Don’t assume risk-on” just because NVDA had a deal headline.

What time do you stop opening new risk before CPI?
Anyone only trading SPY/QQQ on print days and parking single names?

[Fairman]

Next week's tape with CPI / PPI sitting in front of FOMC is not a personality test. It is a liquidity and timing problem. I do not need a clever macro call to scalp US equities into that window; I need a pre-trade checklist that decides when I am allowed to have size at all.

Replying in-thread with operable constraints — not forum combat. If these rails disagree with your framing, treat it as a checklist offer.

Prep earns rent when it finishes before the bell: A-list, spread notes, news windows, and one sentence for stand-down. Unfinished sheets become open improvisation.

## Rails that stay on the sheet
- Liquidity and timing problem, not a personality test.
- PPI/CPI before FOMC stacks uncertainty — shrink ambition.
- Written windows beat speech-making.

## Framework: before / into / after
- Before: trade only A+ structure with reduced size if the sheet allows any size at all. No inventing new setups the night before CPI because the calendar feels important.
- Into: flat or tiny observe. I do not need to "participate" in the first spike to prove I understand inflation.
- After: wait for spread and structure to reform. The first tradable moment after a print is often later than the chat claims. Spreads lie loudly for a few minutes; your fill sheet remembers.## Failure modes
- Ignoring the rails above on **Next week’s tape: CPI / PPI before FOMC my pre-trade checklist** and substituting confidence.
- Adding size after adverse selection because the story still feels right.
- Paying open microstructure tax that midday memory never modeled.

## When to skip
Skipping is a first-class decision — even when the chart still looks persuasive:
- Checklist incomplete at 09:20 ET — observe or one pre-written A+ only.
- Live spread outside max for that symbol and session bucket.
- Index violently disagrees with a single-name thesis and no reduced-size RS plan is on the sheet.
- Platform, hotkeys, locate, or flatten path unverified after reconnect/update.
- Daily loss, PDT slot, or prop buffer tripwire already touched.
- News/FOMC/CPI window where the size-cut card says stand down.

## Closing
For **Next week’s tape: CPI / PPI before FOMC my pre-trade checklist**, keep operable boredom: written rails, measured cents, index context when relevant, and a skip that needs no apology. Process quality beats ticket volume.

Diagram still attached as the visual checklist. Status remains awaiting approval; nothing here is a live post.

## Worked example — Trading into CPI print with full size
Scalper keeps full NVDA size into CPI release 'because trend is clear.' Spread explodes, partial fills, panic flatten. Size-cut card should have forced flat or micro-size 10 minutes pre-print.

I keep examples in cents and clock time so Sunday review can tag the behavior — not rewrite it as a mood.