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How to write a trading plan you'll actually follow

A trading plan is your decisions, made while you're calm. One page you follow beats 20 pages you never read, and you can write yours today.

Beginner guide · 8-minute read · Updated 2026-10-21

Why write one

Most trading decisions go wrong in the moment, not on paper. A plan moves the big decisions out of the moment:

• What you trade.
• When you trade.
• Which setup you take, and which you skip.
• How much you risk, and when you stop.

When the chart is moving fast, you don't have to think. You just check the page.

Keep it to one page

A good plan fits on one sheet of paper or one phone screen. If it's longer, it's probably mixing in things you're still learning. Keep those in your notes, not your plan.

Below is a template. Copy it, fill in the blanks, and print it or keep it next to your screen.

The one-page trading plan template

1. Markets

• I trade: ________ (start with one to three markets you know well).
• I don't trade: anything not on this list.

Example: "SPY and QQQ only" or "EUR/USD only."

2. Times

• I trade between: ____ and ____ (with your time zone).
• I don't trade: in the first ___ minutes of the open, or within ___ minutes of big news.

Useful anchors: US stocks trade 9:30 am–4:00 pm ET; forex runs from about 5 pm ET Sunday to 5 pm ET Friday. See the market hours tool and how to read an economic calendar.

3. Direction

• I check the bigger chart first: ________ (for example, the daily).
• I only look for trades in its direction.

4. My setup, in one sentence

• I enter when: ______________________________.

Example: "The daily trend is up, price pulls back to the last low it turned up from, and a 15-minute candle body closes back above it."

If it won't fit in one sentence, it isn't clear yet. Keep cutting until it does.

5. Stop and target

• My stop goes: just past the last turning point my idea depends on.
• My target goes: at the next real level, and only if it's at least 2× the stop distance.
• If the next level gives less than 2-to-1, I skip.

6. Risk

• I risk: ___% a trade (many traders use about 1%).
• That's $____ on my current account.
• I size every trade from the stop distance, using the position size calculator.

7. Limits

• Daily: two losses and I'm done for the day.
• Weekly: down ___ units of risk (for example, 5) and I stop live trading until next week.
• If I break a rule: I stop for the day.

More on why in daily loss limit.

8. Before every trade

• I run my pre-trade checklist. If any box is a no, I think twice.

9. Review

• I log every trade in my journal — plan first, result after.
• Every ________ (day of the week) I review the week and pick one thing to fix.
• I only change this plan on review day, never during the trading day.

A filled-in example

That's it. It's short, and every line is something you can check yes or no.

Your plan grows in stages

The same plan works at each step. Only the stakes change.

1. Practice on past charts. Test the plan in replay. Never peek. Log 100 trades. See how to backtest.
2. Paper trade. Follow it in real time with no money at stake.
3. Go small. If you choose to go live, start with the smallest size your broker allows.

Each stage tests whether you can follow the plan under a little more pressure.

Common mistakes

• Too long. If you can't read it in a minute, you won't check it in the moment.
• Vague setup. "Buy when it looks strong" can't be tested or followed.
• No limits section. Most big losses come from not knowing when to stop.
• Rewriting it after every loss. Losses are normal. Change the plan on review day, based on the journal.

Try it today

1. Copy the nine headings above onto one page.
2. Fill in every blank. Leave none empty.
3. Read your setup sentence out loud. Is it one sentence?
4. Put the page where you'll see it every time you trade.

Questions