A trading plan is your edge written down as rules, on a single page. It's the document you read before every session, the standard you review every trade against, and the thing that stops you from making decisions in the heat of the moment.
Markets & times
- Instruments: NQ, ES
- Session: 09:30–11:00 New York
- No trading: FOMC days, first Friday 08:30
Setup
- Daily bias from HTF structure
- Sweep of overnight high or low
- 5-minute CHoCH with an FVG
Entry
- Limit at the FVG
- Only if target ≥ 2R
- Max 2 attempts per day
Exit
- Stop: beyond the sweep
- Target: previous day high or low
- Take half at 1.5R, stop to breakeven
Risk
- 0.5% per trade
- Daily stop: −1.5%
- Halve size after −5% drawdown
Review
- Journal every trade, same day
- Weekly review on Sunday
- Change rules only after 50+ trades
What goes in it
- Markets and times: exactly what you trade, when, and when you don't.
- Setup: the context and trigger, in words a stranger could follow.
- Entry: order type, minimum reward-to-risk, maximum attempts.
- Exit: where the stop goes, where the target goes, and how you manage the trade in between.
- Risk: risk per trade, daily and weekly stops, and what happens in a drawdown.
- Review: when you journal, when you review, and when you're allowed to change the rules.
Rules for the rules
- Specific beats clever. "Strong momentum" isn't a rule; "a candle body at least twice the 20-bar average" is.
- Fewer is better. Every extra condition is another way to talk yourself out of, or into, a trade.
- Change it slowly. Only change a rule after enough trades to know it's the rule, not the market's mood.
Key takeaways
- A trading plan turns your edge into written rules on one page.
- Cover markets and times, setup, entry, exit, risk and review.
- Make rules specific enough that someone else would take the same trades.
- Change rules only after a meaningful sample of trades.