What a trading plan includes

Welcome to Module 4. You now know how futures work, how to read a chart and how to manage risk. This module puts it together into a plan you can trade every day.

Why a written plan matters

Trading decisions happen fast, under pressure, with money moving. That is the worst time to make up rules. A written plan moves your decisions to a calm moment before the market opens. During the session, your only job is to follow it.

A plan also makes improvement possible. If you trade differently every day, you cannot tell what works. If you follow the same plan, your journal shows exactly what to fix.

The 8 parts of a 1-page plan

1. Market and session. Which contract and which hours. Example: MNQ, 9:30am to 11:30am ET.
2. Setup. The 1 or 2 patterns you trade. Lessons 14 and 15 give you 2 to start with.
3. Entry trigger. The exact event that gets you in. Example: a 5-minute candle closes above the level.
4. Stop. Where the idea is proven wrong (lesson 11).
5. Target. The next level or a fixed multiple of your risk (lesson 11).
6. Size. Your dollar risk per trade and the formula from lesson 10.
7. Daily limit. Your daily loss stop, maximum trades and losing streak rule (lesson 12).
8. Skip conditions. The situations where you do not trade at all.

Skip conditions deserve extra thought

Knowing when to sit out is half of a good plan. Common skip conditions include:

• A high-impact news release during your session (lesson 8)
• Poor sleep, illness or a stressful day away from the screen
• A holiday-shortened session with thin volume
• You already hit your daily limit yesterday and have not reviewed why

A sample plan

This is an example to study. Your numbers will depend on your account, your market and your practice results.

Keep it to 1 page

A 10-page plan never gets read. Print yours or keep it open next to your charts. Read it before every session.

Change it on weekends

Your plan will evolve. Make changes during your weekend review, based on your journal. Avoid editing it during the trading day, when the last trade is still fresh and emotions are high.