First thing to do everyday is check for high impact news. MyFxBook is one place you can get it, they even have a plugin for the Chrome Browser that gives you notifications before these news events and then the result of the news.

Next is step back and look at what the market is doing here is what the Dow is up to

Weekly Chart Daily Chart 4 Hour Chart 1 Hour Chart 30 Minute Chart 15 Minute Chart 5 Minute Chart It becomes very obvious that we are in a bear market, the trend is down. But the market tends to move in cycles, it goes with the trend for a while and then has a break and retraces. Looking at the bigger picture will show this and you can see the cycles at work. The market tends to move in similar amounts in each phase.

There are opportunities to trade both ways but trades that run with the trend will have the bigger moves.

I have updated the templates so you don't see all the lines on the higher timeframes. These are now in the zip file on page 1.