A strategy tells you how to trade a setup. A trading plan tells you how to run your trading: when you work, how you prepare, how you review and when you stop.

What goes in the plan

1. Goals. Process goals you control: "follow my rules on every trade", "journal every trade". Not "make 10% this month".

2. Schedule. The hours you trade and the hours you do not. Include a pre-market routine (calendar, levels, bias) and a post-session review.

3. Instruments and strategy. A short summary of your strategy rules, or a link to them.

4. Risk rules. Risk per trade, maximum open risk, personal daily stop, weekly drawdown at which you reduce size.

5. Personal rules. "No trading after two consecutive losses until I take a 30-minute break." "No trading when tired or upset."

6. Review. When and how you review: daily journal, weekly statistics, monthly strategy check.

Keep it to one page

A plan you do not read is useless. Print it or pin it next to your screen. Read it before each session until the rules are automatic.

Update it deliberately

Change the plan during your weekly review, never in the middle of a trading day. Rules changed in the heat of the moment are usually excuses.