Run your trading like a small business, on one page.

A trading plan covers the business, and a trade plan covers one position. You need both, and they answer different questions.

The trade plan says what must be true, where you get in, where you're wrong and where you get paid. The trading plan sits above it. It decides which markets you may touch and which hours you're at the screen. It also caps what the day can risk. It lists the days you stay out and when you check your own numbers.

Without the business layer, every good trade plan floats. You size up after a win because nothing says you can't. You trade a central bank afternoon because you happened to be free. The plan below belongs to an invented part-time options trader with an $8,000 account. Copy the structure and swap in your own numbers.

Our example trader buys calls and puts on two index ETFs and nothing else. Two symbols means two charts to prepare each night, which is a load a day job allows.

Levels get drawn the evening before on the daily, 4-hour and 1-hour charts. Direction comes from a higher chart, and entries are timed on a lower one. That work happens before the open, so the trading window can be short.

The hours are whatever the job really allows. For this trader it's a fixed window in the morning, written as clock times. Outside that window there's no trading, even if a setup looks perfect on the phone at lunch.

Write your window the same way, as times you can defend on a busy week. A plan that assumes free hours you don't have gets broken on day three.

One way to set the money rules is to carve a daily slice from the account. Ten percent of the account is the day's working capital. Twenty percent of that slice is the day's profit target, and forty percent is the most the day may lose.

On $8,000, the slice is $800. The profit target is $160 and the daily loss cap is $320. Every figure comes from the balance at the start of the day. A winning morning never enlarges the afternoon's risk.

Each trade must pay at least twice what it risks. At two to one, you break even winning one trade in three. That's 33 percent, because one win of 2 covers two losses of 1.

Those are the only numbers the plan needs on money. Write them down, recalculate the night your balance changes, and never resize mid-session.

Deciding not to trade is a decision, and the plan should name the cases in advance. Then you aren't arguing with yourself at 10am.

Central bank announcement days are the obvious entry. A cautious version sits them out entirely. A less cautious one trades them with one or two contracts at most. Pick one and write it in.

Add the days that end early. When the day's loss cap is hit, you close the platform. When a big win lands, stopping for the day protects it from a careless afternoon. A string of losses also argues for a pause. Trades taken to win the money back tend to skip the plan.

Finally, list the conditions you trade badly. Your journal will tell you what they are after a month or two. Each one you find goes on this list.

Fill in each line once, then reread the page every Sunday. If a line needs to change, change it in writing before Monday's open. Never edit it during a session, when a trade is pulling at you.

A plan without a review date drifts. Put three reviews on the calendar now, while nothing is wrong.

Daily, write a few lines after the close. Did you stay inside the window and the budget? Weekly, check your win rate and your average winner against your average loser. Monthly, look for the conditions where your results sag, and add them to the no-trade list.

Two patterns are worth watching for. A high win rate with deep drawdowns usually means losers aren't being cut at the level. A low win rate with shallow drawdowns usually means winners aren't being allowed to reach the target. Each one points at a different line in your plan.

Change the plan only at a review, in writing. Then next month's numbers tell you whether the change worked.