A trading plan is a short list of rules decided before any trade: what qualifies an entry, how much is risked, when a position is closed, which events are avoided, and how results are reviewed. This template lists each rule as a blank to fill with a number, with the common published values beside it, so the plan can be checked mechanically on every trade.
Because the moment a decision feels hardest, a large loss or a fast gain, is the moment judgment is least reliable. A rule decided in advance turns that moment into a lookup. Written rules also make results auditable: if every trade followed the same plan, the journal shows whether the plan works; if every trade was improvised, it shows nothing.
Five sections, each a short list of numbers. Fill the blanks once, keep them for a meaningful sample of trades, and change them only on review.
1. What you trade
2. Entry rules
3. Size
4. Exit rules
5. Review
Mechanically. Before an entry, every line in sections 2 and 3 is a yes or no; one no means no trade. After entry, section 4 is the only reason to close. A credit spread calculator turns the strikes and credit into the maximum loss and breakeven the size rules need.
Partly. Optionscanner holds this kind of plan as a rule set you adopt: the entry gates screen every candidate, the exit rules are checked against each open position with the rule that fired shown on its card, and the agent runs only on rules you have adopted. Whether a written plan or software, the test is the same: the rules are decided before the trade, and the record shows whether they were followed.
Because the moment a decision feels hardest, a large loss or a fast gain, is the moment judgment is least reliable. A rule decided in advance turns that moment into a lookup. Written rules also make results auditable: if every trade followed the same plan, the journal shows whether the plan works; if every trade was improvised, it shows nothing.
Five sections, each a short list of numbers. Fill the blanks once, keep them for a meaningful sample of trades, and change them only on review.
Mechanically. Before an entry, every line in sections 2 and 3 is a yes or no; one no means no trade. After entry, section 4 is the only reason to close. A credit spread calculator turns the strikes and credit into the maximum loss and breakeven the size rules need.
More in Process and discipline: Paper Trading: What Simulated Results Do and Do Not Prove · Meta-Labeling: A Second-Opinion Model for Rule-Based Trades · Options Order Execution: Limit Prices, Fills, and Slippage