Trading plan
A trading plan is your rules written down before the money is on the line: what you trade, where you get in, where you get out, and how much you risk.
In depth
Four lines cover most of it. Conditions: what has to be true before you take the trade, such as price at a marked level with a decisive candle. Entry: the actual price, not a vague area. Stop: the price that says the idea was wrong. Target: where you take it off.
Add one sizing rule, such as a fixed share of the account per trade, and the plan is done. Keep it short enough to read in ten seconds before the open. A plan you have to scroll through is a plan you stop reading, and a plan you stop reading was never a plan.
Why it matters
Without a plan you decide in the moment, and the moment is when you are worst at deciding. The stop moves because the loss feels temporary. The target moves because the profit feels small. Written first, those two prices stop being opinions. The plan also gives you something to check your results against later.
TraderLog does not store the plan or grade you against it. It shows what you did. Write the plan in the day's free-text entry, then read it back next to the stats page and the P&L calendar a month later. The five-item daily checklist scores what you covered before the open.
Frequently asked questions
Your conditions for a trade, the entry price, the stop, the target and how much you risk.
One page. If you cannot read it before the open, you will not read it at all.
Keep your Trading plan trades on the record in TraderLog
Trades import from Schwab and IBKR on their own, every day lands on a calendar with its P&L, and the day's entry sits beside it. Replay any trade on a TradingView chart. Free for 14 days, no card.
Every trading morning at 8:40 ET our model draws the SPY, QQQ and IWM zones it expects to matter, on a TradingView chart, before the open. Where price reaches one, it has turned 74 percent of the time. Free, no account. See today's map