Trading Plan

Short. Specific. Pair, session, setup, risk%, stop rule, target rule, max daily loss, journal requirements. If it doesn't fit on one page, it's a wishlist, not a plan. The plan removes in-the-moment decisions. Decisions made calm are better. ### The test of a real rule A rule is real if a stranger could read it and audit your trades against it without asking you a single question. "Trade with the trend" fails that test. "Long only above the 50 EMA on the 15m, London session, entry on the retest, stop below the swing low, 1% risk" passes it. Everything vague in your plan will be resolved in your favour at the exact moment you are least able to judge. The part almost everyone skips is **invalidation**: the written condition that means this setup is now wrong and you are out. A setup that cannot be wrong is not a setup, it is a hope. ### Pre-commitment is how markets themselves work The mechanism you are copying is already in use around you. Under ESMA's retail CFD measures, in force since 1 August 2018, providers must close out a retail client's open positions at 50% of the minimum required margin, on a per-account basis, and must show a standardised risk warning stating the percentage of that provider's retail accounts that lose money. That close-out rule is written in advance, it is automatic, and it never negotiates with itself at the moment of pain. Your plan is the same idea, except you set the trigger and you set it far earlier, long before a regulatory backstop has to catch you. And the external floors are moving. FINRA's $25,000 minimum equity requirement and pattern-day-trader designation no longer apply as of 4 June 2026, replaced with real-time intraday margin monitoring. Which means the number that actually stops you now is the one *you* wrote down. ### What earns a line on the page - Instrument or pair, and nothing outside that list - Session and time window (state the timezone) - Setup definition, plus the invalidation condition - Risk per trade as a % of account - Stop rule and target/exit rule - Max daily loss and max trades per day - The journaling requirement, so the plan audits itself ### The common mistake Writing a plan you would have to be a different person to follow. If your plan bans a behaviour you do every single week, the plan is not aspirational, it is dead on arrival. Write the plan for the trader you actually are, then tighten it as your discipline earns the right.