Most blown day-trading accounts do not die on a bad thesis. They die on the second, third, and fourth click after the first one was already wrong.

You missed the open. Price already left. You still click. Then you add. Then you size up to "get it back." That sequence is not a strategy. It is a mood.

A simple filter I use:

• Mark the opening range (first minutes high and low).

• If you cannot write the invalidation in one line, you do not have a trade.

• One idea, one try. If it fails, you are done with that idea.

• Recap the session the same day, while the feeling is still honest.

The opening range will not make you money by itself. It just stops you from inventing a trade because you are already at the desk.

If that sounds obvious, look at your last five losses and count how many were chase trades after the range had already spoken.