Five days of structured practice that turn knowledge into skill
You have just completed 17 lessons covering market basics, chart reading, order types, risk management, and demo account setup. Statistically, you are about to do absolutely nothing with it. You finish the course, feel informed, tell yourself you will start practicing tomorrow — and tomorrow becomes next week, then "after I learn a bit more." You are not looking for more knowledge. You are looking for permission to delay action.
The opposite failure mode is just as destructive: you finish the course, open your demo account, and immediately fire off 15 trades a day with no structure, no logging, and no review process. You treat demo trading like a video game, learn nothing, and after two weeks of random results either quit or convince yourself you are ready for real money because of a few green days.
This first week exists to prevent both outcomes. It is structured, it is specific, and it is boring. That is the point.
Your First Week Routine
Day 1 — Setup (No Trading)
Do not trade today. Today is setup day. Open TradingView, create a new layout called "Foundations Practice," and set up three charts: XAUUSD 4H on the left (half the screen), XAUUSD 1H top-right, and XAUUSD 15M bottom-right. This is the multi-timeframe view you will use for every analysis going forward.
On the 4H chart, add horizontal lines at the most recent swing high and swing low. Determine whether current structure is making higher highs/higher lows (bullish) or lower highs/lower lows (bearish). Write this down: "Date — 4H Structure: Bullish/Bearish — Swing High: [price] — Swing Low: [price]."
Open your broker's demo account. Verify that XAUUSD is available, confirm you can place a market order, a limit order, and a stop loss. Do not place any actual orders. Simply confirm you can navigate the order panel, adjust lot size, set a stop loss price, and set a take profit price.
Create your trading journal using a Google Sheet or Excel file. Leave it blank for today — you will fill it starting tomorrow.
| Date | Session | 4H Bias | 1H Confirm | Entry | SL | TP | Lot Size | Result (pips) | Result ($) | Screenshot | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 16 | London | Bullish | Y | 3,220 | 3,210 | 3,240 | 0.01 | +20 | +$20 | [link] | Clean FVG entry |
Total time commitment for Day 1: 45–60 minutes. That is it. Resist the urge to start trading.
Sit down on Friday evening or Saturday morning and answer these five questions using your journal data. Write the answers down — do not answer them in your head.
If you completed this week — five days, full routine, journal entries for every session — you are ready to begin the Strategy course. Strategy teaches you the complete SMC framework: Break of Structure, Change of Character, liquidity, Fair Value Gaps, order blocks, and the execution checklist that turns analysis into entries. Everything you practiced this week becomes the foundation that Strategy builds on.
Do not start the Strategy course until you have completed this first week. The concepts will not stick without the routine to anchor them.