A trading plan records decisions before market pressure makes them harder. A journal records what actually happened. Together they help you compare your intended process with your actions instead of relying on memory or on a single profitable trade.
Education only. This page does not give investment advice or recommend a trade. Leveraged products can involve substantial loss.
Write conditions before outcomes
State the market, timeframe and setup you are studying. List the conditions required before an entry and the conditions that mean no trade. Add the intended entry method, the point where the idea fails, the planned exit and the maximum loss you can accept. A vague rule such as “buy when it looks strong” is difficult to test.
Include execution and costs
Your plan should account for spread, commission, financing where relevant and possible slippage. If a news release or thin liquidity could change execution, say how you will respond. An exit plan is useful only if it can be followed in the real conditions of the market.
Keep two records
Before a hypothetical trade, write the reason for the decision and capture the chart or relevant market context. Afterward, record the fill, costs, outcome and any deviation from the plan. Note whether you followed the rule separately from whether the position made money.
Review patterns, then edit
Group journal entries by setup and review a meaningful sample. Look for recurring execution errors, changing market conditions and rules that were too vague. Make one documented change at a time; otherwise it becomes hard to tell what helped or hurt the process.
Practice exercise
Create a one-page plan with seven fields: market, timeframe, setup, entry, invalidation, exit and maximum acceptable loss. Add a journal row for date, reason, screenshot, execution, costs, outcome and rule followed. Test the template on five historical examples.
Sources and further reading
These articles were edited from the educational Word pack supplied for the academy and checked against the linked public sources.