Trading plan template (with a filled-in example)

A trading plan is a one-page list of rules that decides, before the market opens, what you trade, how you enter, where you get out and when you stop for the day. Copy the 8-part template below, fill each line with a rule you can answer yes or no to, and check yourself against it every day.

The template

MY TRADING PLAN · last reviewed: ____ 1. What I trade: ____ (e.g. US and Canadian stocks over $10, 2 ETFs) 2. My setups: ____ (max 3, one line each) 3. Entry trigger: ____ (what must be true before I click) 4. Stop and size: stop at ____ ; risk ____% of the account per trade 5. Exits: target ____ ; or exit when ____ 6. Daily limits: max ____ trades ; stop after ____ losses or −____R 7. News and earnings: ____ (e.g. flat before earnings unless sized for the gap) 8. Review: daily yes/no on each rule ; weekly review on ____

Copy it into a note, print it, or keep it next to your screen. Every blank should end up as something you can check at the end of the day: “Did I risk 1% or less on every trade?” works. “Be patient” does not.

How to fill it in, step by step

Narrow what you trade. A short list of instruments means fewer impulse trades on things you haven’t studied.
Write down at most three setups. If a trade doesn’t match one of them, it isn’t in the plan. That single line prevents a lot of overtrading.
Define the entry trigger. What exactly has to happen before you click buy? Include a “no chasing” limit.
Put the stop first, then size from it. Decide where the idea is wrong, then let the position size calculator turn your risk % into shares.
Plan the exit before the entry. Know your target and your reason to get out early. The risk-reward calculator shows the win rate your plan needs to break even.
Set daily limits. A trade cap and a loss limit end the bad days early. They are the backbone of stopping revenge trading.
Add a news and earnings rule. Reports and headlines move stocks in gaps, where stops don’t protect you. Decide in advance whether you hold through them, and at what size.
Schedule the review. A daily yes/no check on each rule, plus a weekly look at which rules you break most.

A filled-in example

MY TRADING PLAN · last reviewed: Sep 28, 2026 1. What I trade: US and TSX stocks over $10 with 1M+ average volume 2. My setups: (a) pullback to the 20-day average in an uptrend (b) breakout above a 3-week range on above-average volume 3. Entry trigger: setup is on my watchlist before 9:30; no chasing more than 2% above the trigger price 4. Stop and size: stop under the pullback low or the range; risk 1% per trade, sized with the position size calculator 5. Exits: half at 2R, rest on a close below the 10-day average 6. Daily limits: max 3 trades; done for the day after 2 losses or −2R 7. News and earnings: close swing trades before earnings unless the position is sized so a 15% gap costs under 1% 8. Review: 2-minute yes/no check every day; weekly review Sunday

Notice that nothing in it predicts the market. Every line is about the trader’s own behaviour, which is the only part a plan can control. On a day this trader loses money but keeps all eight rules, the plan worked. On a day they make money after a fourth trade that wasn’t a setup, the plan was broken, and the journal should say so.

Why most trading plans fail

Most traders have written a plan at some point. The problem is that it lives in a document nobody opens on a busy Tuesday. A plan only changes behaviour when it is checked, and the check has to be small enough to keep doing. That is the idea behind Tradeonomist: two minutes a day, one question per rule, “did I keep it?”. Want a quick read on last week? Try Rule Check.

Related lesson

Rules written while calm are better than decisions made while a position is open, because stress narrows attention and shortens the time horizon. That’s why the plan is written on the weekend and only read during the week. There are 1,000 short lessons like this in the Tradeonomist curriculum.

Questions

What should a trading plan include?

At minimum: what you trade, your setups, the entry trigger, where the stop goes and how you size, how you exit, daily limits, what you do around earnings or news, and when you review. Each part should be a rule you can answer yes or no to.

How long should a trading plan be?

One page. If you can't read it before the open in two minutes, you won't read it at all. Put the detail in your journal and keep the plan to rules.

How often should I change my trading plan?

Change it on a schedule, for example once a month after a review, never in the middle of a session. Judge a rule over at least 20 to 30 trades before you drop it.

Is a trading plan the same as a trading journal?

No. The plan is what you intend to do; the journal records what you actually did. The useful link between them is a daily check of whether you kept each rule in the plan.

Educational only, not financial advice. The example plan is an illustration, not a recommendation. Trading involves risk, including the loss of your capital.

Not on the App Store yet

Write the plan. Tradeonomist checks you kept it.

Two minutes a day: write what you did, read one lesson, answer whether you kept your rules. It scores the decision, not the P&L. Free forever.

Two emails at most: one to ask what you would want the app to do, and one on the day it ships. Your address is never shared or sold, and a reply takes you off the list.