Planning 6 min read
Trading plan template: the 8 sections every day trader needs
A trading plan turns 'I'll see what the market does' into a set of decisions made before you're under pressure. It doesn't need to be long. It needs to be specific.
The 8 sections
- Markets: the 1–3 instruments you trade and why.
- Sessions: the exact hours you trade, and when you stop.
- Setups: each setup with a name and a chart example.
- Entry rules: 3–5 tick-box rules per setup.
- Risk: % per trade, maximum lot size and where stops go.
- Daily limits: max loss, max trades and the two-loss rule.
- Review: what you check after each session and every Friday.
- Bad days: what you do after a losing streak (smaller size, day off, review).
Make the plan enforceable
Turn your entry rules into tick boxes you check on every trade. In TradeIQ each setup has a playbook, and its rules appear in the trade form. Your reviews then compare your win rate when every rule was met against when one was skipped.
Questions traders ask
What should a trading plan include?
Markets, sessions, setups, entry rules, risk per trade, daily limits, a review routine and rules for bad days.
How long should a trading plan be?
One or two pages is enough, as long as every rule is specific enough to check.