TOOLS • FOCUSED REFERENCE

Decision Checklists

Use short decision checklists when the process has more moving parts than memory can hold.

Decision checklists

Use a checklist when the decision has more moving parts than memory can hold.

Personal pre-decision reviewUse these lists before acting to confirm that the important checks were completed. Checkmarks stay only in this browser; they are not feedback, a score, or account data.

Company research checklist

Use before buying or re-evaluating an individual company. The list forces the thesis to connect the business model, SEC filings, cash flow, valuation, and evidence that would prove the idea wrong.

Explanation documented: how the company makes money and what drives unit economics. Reviewed: the latest annual report (10-K), quarterly report (10-Q), important event reports (8-K), and annual proxy statement (DEF 14A). Reconciled: earnings with cash flow, debt, dilution, and capital allocation. Testing completed: valuation under at least three operating outcomes. Documented: the evidence that would invalidate the thesis.

Portfolio review checklist

Use at a scheduled portfolio review. The list checks whether goals, liquidity, allocation, concentration, rebalancing rules, and costs still fit the plan.

Save the review date, target ranges, concentration notes, rebalance decision, tax considerations, and the next review trigger with the portfolio record.

Goals, dates, cash needs, and emergency reserves are documented. Allocation matches the time horizon and ability to absorb loss. Fund and stock overlap, concentration, and liquidity were reviewed. Rebalancing rules and review dates are written before market stress. Fees, taxes, and account restrictions were considered.

Broker and account readiness checklist

Use before opening, funding, or materially changing a brokerage account. The list checks provider registration, costs, permissions, settlement rules, security settings, and account restrictions.

Keep the selected account type, permissions, costs, settlement rules, security settings, and provider-verification notes together before funding the account.

Understanding confirmed: the account type, tax treatment, cash features, and permissions. Compared: total account, product, trading, transfer, and borrowing costs. Reviewed: current firm disclosures and registration information. Understanding confirmed: settlement, order types, margin rules, and any trading restrictions that apply. Beneficiary, security, and authentication settings are complete where relevant.

Systematic strategy review checklist

Use before putting a rule-based strategy into live trading. The list checks the hypothesis, entry and exit rules, research quality, trading costs, exposure limits, and failure conditions.

Record the strategy version, test period, cost assumptions, and approval decision so a later review can distinguish model changes from market outcomes.

The hypothesis and the reason it may persist are written in plain language. Entry, exit, size, maximum exposure, and failure conditions are explicit. The test avoids look-ahead and survivorship bias and includes out-of-sample data. Spread, fees, slippage, borrowing, and other execution costs are included. Live exposure starts small enough to survive model, data, and operational errors.

Market-data review checklist

Use before acting on a quote, chart, screener, or market data dashboard. Confirm symbol/security identity, data source, timestamp, session, delayed-versus-real-time status, corporate-action adjustments, bid/ask spread, and whether the chart uses the same venue and session assumptions as the intended trade.

Capture the data timestamp, session, source, and security identity with the decision so stale or mismatched market data can be detected later.

Confirmed: the exact security, exchange/session, currency, and timestamp. Reviewed: bid, ask, spread, volume, and liquidity, not only last price. Checked: whether ratios are trailing, forward, adjusted, or estimated. Marked: earnings, dividends, splits, or other events that can distort comparisons. Explanation documented: what question the data answers and what it does not.

Fund and ETF review checklist

Use before buying a mutual fund, ETF, closed-end fund, or specialized ETP. Then inspect the legal wrapper, objective, benchmark, holdings, concentration, expense ratio, tracking, distributions, spread, premium/discount, underlying liquidity, tax structure, leverage/derivatives, and the job the fund serves in the portfolio.

Save the fund objective, benchmark, holdings date, costs, liquidity notes, and portfolio role before comparing it with alternatives.

Understanding confirmed: the wrapper, objective, benchmark, and management style. Reviewed: holdings, concentration, sector, geography, factor, duration, and credit exposure where relevant. Compared: expense ratio, loads, spread, premium/discount, turnover, and tax impact. Understanding confirmed: any leverage, derivatives, daily reset, buffer, option overlay, or issuer-credit feature. Defined: the portfolio role and checked overlap with existing holdings.

Bond purchase checklist

Use before buying an individual bond or comparing a bond with a bond fund. Then verify issuer, CUSIP/security identity, maturity, coupon, price, accrued interest, yield measure, call/put terms, seniority, credit, minimum denomination, liquidity, settlement, tax treatment, and how the bond fits the portfolio cash-flow schedule.

Document the exact CUSIP, yield measure, settlement cash, maturity/call terms, credit view, and intended holding role before submitting the order.

Reviewed: issuer, seniority, coupon, maturity, credit, call/put/convertible terms, and tax treatment. Compared: YTM/YTC/YTW and spread with similar maturity and credit. Understanding confirmed: clean price, accrued interest, full settlement cash, markup/spread, and minimum quantity. Stress-tested: rates, credit spread, default, call, and liquidity. Defined: whether the plan is hold-to-maturity, liability matching, income, or trading.

Options pre-trade checklist

Use before opening an options position. Then verify strategy rights and obligations, strike, expiration, multiplier, premium, break-even, assignment/exercise, settlement, liquidity/open interest, volatility, event risk, collateral or buying power, and the maximum loss under a gap.

Write the payoff, assignment consequence, collateral need, liquidity plan, and exit rule for every leg before opening the position.

Rights and obligations documented for each leg. Calculated: maximum gain/loss or explained why it is not bounded. Reviewed: delta, time decay, implied volatility, liquidity, and spread. Understanding confirmed: exercise, assignment, ex-dividend, expiration, and after-hours risk. Defined: the cash/share consequence if assigned and can fund it.

Retirement-account review checklist

Use during an annual retirement-plan review. Then review contribution limits and eligibility for the current tax year, employer match and vesting, fees, investment menu, beneficiary designations, rollover choices, Roth/pretax mix, required distributions, withdrawal rules, and whether the asset allocation still fits the retirement horizon.

Keep the review date, tax-year assumptions, beneficiary check, contribution decision, and withdrawal constraints with the household plan.

Contribution rate, employer match, vesting, and automatic escalation are reviewed. Asset allocation still matches horizon, spending needs, and risk capacity. Account fees, fund costs, beneficiary designations, and security settings are current. Withdrawal, conversion, rollover, and distribution rules relevant to the account are understood. The retirement plan has been coordinated with taxable accounts and near-term cash needs.

Macro-event review checklist

Use before a major economic release, central-bank decision, or earnings event. Then record the scheduled time, consensus, prior reading, likely revisions, relevant positions, expected volatility, liquidity conditions, and which result would actually change the portfolio thesis rather than merely create a headline reaction.

Write the expectation range and the portfolio exposure before the event, then compare the release with that record rather than with hindsight.

Defined: the event time, consensus, prior figure, and likely revision risk. Identified: which holdings are directly exposed to the event. Documented: the range of outcomes that would materially change the thesis. Checked: liquidity, spread, and gap risk around the event. Review rule: compare actual results with expectations and require evidence before revising the long-term thesis.