Trading Plan Template: Rules You Can Check

A useful trading plan template turns intentions into decisions you can verify. “Be disciplined” is difficult to audit. “Do not enter unless the symbol, invalidation level and total planned risk are written down” gives you something concrete to check.

The template below is a starting structure, not a trading strategy or a recommendation about how much risk to take. Adapt the fields to your market, account rules and tested approach. We include a hypothetical practice example to show what a completed entry looks like.

Trading plan template: the one-page structure

Keep the operating plan short enough to read before an order. Put detailed research in supporting notes instead of hiding critical rules in a long document.

CME's risk-management trade-plan lesson includes leverage, maximum trade loss, maximum day loss and total exposure as planning considerations. The worksheet uses those distinctions without assuming one set of numbers suits everyone.

Describe a setup so another reader could identify it

A setup needs observable features. Write the timeframe, relevant level, required price behavior and the condition that would invalidate the idea. Avoid labels that depend entirely on how confident you feel.

For example, “price returns to the marked level during the chosen session, then completes the confirmation defined in my tested method” is still incomplete unless the level and confirmation are described elsewhere. The plan should point to that definition.

A sentence such as “I think it will bounce” records an opinion, not an entry rule. It can belong in research notes, but it does not replace the condition the order requires.

Our guide to drawing support and resistance helps separate a level's reason from its appearance. The plan should explain why that level matters before you decide how many contracts to use.

Put no-trade conditions beside entry conditions

A plan that lists only reasons to enter can become a permission slip. Include reasons to stay flat: uncertain data, a missing confirmation, inadequate room to the proposed exit, an account restriction or a session outside your tested window.

Make these conditions specific enough to act on. “Avoid bad conditions” leaves the decision open to reinterpretation. “Do not submit an order while the chart feed is delayed” is observable.

For scheduled events, write the policy you have chosen and tested. It may involve remaining flat or using a defined preparation process. Do not invent a rule midway through a volatile move because the price looks tempting.

The guide to trading NQ during news provides questions for that preparation. A calendar entry identifies an event; it does not predict the direction or size of the response.

Separate trade risk from session and account limits

A per-trade budget describes one planned position. A session stop rule limits what you allow across the session. Account rules may impose another boundary, including a daily loss limit that the firm calculates in its own way.

Record all three separately. Include open positions and costs when checking exposure. A second trade can individually fit its budget while taking combined exposure beyond the amount you intended.

Do not use an evaluation's nominal balance as the only input. Remaining room to a breach threshold can be much smaller. Keep the actual current limit visible next to the planned trade calculation.

The plan should also say what happens when one boundary is reached: which activity stops, how working orders are checked and when review occurs. “Try to recover carefully” is not a stop rule.

A hypothetical practice plan

Consider a practice session in one specified MNQ expiry. The trader has independently chosen a $60 maximum estimated loss for a hypothetical setup and decides that the chart idea would be invalid 12 points from the intended entry.

At $2 per point, one contract represents $24 to that level before costs. If the exercise allows $3 per contract for costs and execution differences, two contracts estimate $54. Three would exceed the chosen boundary.

This example illustrates how fields connect. It does not recommend $60, a 12-point stop or two contracts for you. The chart reason must be established independently; it should not be adjusted just to reproduce the sample arithmetic.

The practice note should also state the session window, no-trade conditions and the evidence to save. Without those, a mathematically valid size can still sit inside an incomplete plan.

Review adherence separately from profit

A profitable trade can break the plan. A losing trade can follow it. Keep two records so a favorable outcome does not hide a process error.

Before entry, preserve the original plan. After exit, add actual fills, costs and any changes, with their timestamps and reasons. Do not rewrite the original entry to make the result look deliberate.

CME's trade-log lesson emphasizes recording the reasoning behind trades and reviewing it afterward. A practical review should answer what was decided with the information available at the time.

Choose one issue to investigate from a group of comparable trades. A single result is weak evidence for changing an entire method, especially when the setup, market conditions and execution all differed.

A pre-session checklist you can actually use

Read the plan before opening an order ticket:

1. Confirm the market, expiry, timezone and data feed.
2. Mark the relevant levels and write their reasons.
3. Check the event calendar and account rules.
4. Write the entry and invalidation conditions.
5. Calculate total planned risk, including costs.
6. Identify the conditions that end the session.
7. Prepare the journal fields for the actual result.

The checklist is complete when each field has a clear answer, including “no trade” where appropriate. It does not become complete merely because the session has started.

If you want another explanation of the chart context before comparing it with your written rules, compare MyTradingBuddy Ai plans. Keep the plan as your decision record and review the Ai reasoning critically rather than treating it as permission to enter.