Trading plan
A trading plan is the written rules you set for a trade before you enter it, made when you are calm. Its job is to be followed when a live trade tempts you to leave it. A feeling, however strong, is not a reason to change the plan. A new fact is.
Why write it down
Most trading money is not lost to bad plans. It is lost to good plans that were abandoned at the exact moment they were tested. The gap between the plan you made and the plan you actually follow is where the damage happens. Writing the plan down, while you are calm, gives you something to check against when you are not.
What goes in it
A plan states the rules in advance: why you are entering, the exact price at which you would be wrong and would exit, and how much you are willing to lose, which decides the size of the position. Seeing a shape on a chart and deciding your risk are two separate steps, done in that order.
Feeling or fact
The urge to deviate rarely announces itself as emotion. It feels like information, a sharp, physical sense that something is wrong. So the useful check is simple: has any new fact appeared, such as news, a changed number or something you did not know when you made the plan? Or has only the price moved, and your stomach moved with it? Only a new fact is a reason to change the plan.
Following it is a skill
Holding to a plan is not a personality trait some people are born with. It is a practiced skill, built one followed-through decision at a time. Someone who holds their plan today is not naturally calmer than you; they simply held it the last time too. Maetis does not give trading advice.
A trade that dips (hypothetical)
Later that evening your trade dips further against you, and it does not recover before you check it again. You re-read your printed trading plan and find no new fact: no news and no changed setup. You hold the trade exactly as written, not knowing yet whether it will profit. You followed the plan, which is a separate question from whether the trade works.
Common questions
- What is a trading plan?
- The written rules you set for a trade before you enter it, made when you are calm.
- What should a trading plan include?
- Why you are entering, the price at which you would exit if wrong, and how much you are willing to lose, which sets the position size.
- When should I change my plan?
- When a new fact appears that you did not know when you made it. A strong feeling or a price move alone is not a reason.
- Does a trading plan make a trade profitable?
- No. It only means you are acting on rules you set calmly. The trade can still lose money.