How Can a Trader Create a Personalized “Cognitive Bias Checklist” to Review before Making a Trade?

A trader can create a personalized cognitive bias checklist by first identifying the biases they are most susceptible to, perhaps by reviewing a trading journal. The checklist should then be framed as a series of questions to be answered before executing a trade.

For example, to counter herd behavior, a question could be: "Am I making this trade because my own analysis supports it, or because it's popular on social media?" To combat confirmation bias: "Have I sought out and considered at least one strong argument against this trade?" And for loss aversion: "If I didn't already own this asset, would I buy it at the current price?" This pre-trade ritual forces a moment of self-reflection and encourages a more objective, rule-based approach to trading.