Creating a Trading Plan You Can Actually Follow
By Abdelhak K. on May 27, 2025
Updated 31 August 2026. The old title of this URL said “profitable.” That word does not belong in a plan. A plan is the set of actions you will take when you are wrong, bored, or greedy. Profit is an outcome after a large sample. Abdelhak’s template is short enough to screenshot and tape to a monitor.
1. Why you are here (honest)
Skill-building and process, or income replacement? If you need this month’s rent from EURUSD, the plan is already broken — size will creep. Write the real constraint: hours you can watch, capital you can lose, whether you will stay on demo until the journal is boring.
2. Markets and session
We mostly teach G10 majors in London/New York overlap because that is when our analysis stream runs (Dubai afternoon). Pick a session you can actually attend. Scalping the 1-minute while at a day job is a different sport. Name the pairs; “I’ll trade everything that moves” is not a universe.
3. Invalidation and size
Copy the risk rules: stop at the price that kills the idea, 1% (or 0.5%) of equity, no widening, correlated USD counted as one theme. Paste the calculator inputs you will use. Minimum 1:2 only if structure offers it — pass otherwise.
4. Entry language that a stranger could audit
Bad: “buy when it looks bullish.” Better: “long only if price holds above [level] on [timeframe] after [event], stop below [level].” If you cannot write it, you will improvise live. Include “no trade 15 minutes before high-impact USD data unless flat” if that matches how you use the calendar.
5. Daily stop and journal
Two full 1% losers or one broken rule: platform closed. Journal: screenshot, reason, emotion, followed yes/no. Review weekly, not mid-trade. Change the plan on Sunday, not at 1R underwater.
Style labels (scalp, day, swing) only matter after the above exists. This document will not make you profitable. It will make your mistakes visible. That is the point.
A one-page example you can steal and rewrite
Hypothetical template, not a live system and not a performance claim:
- Universe: EURUSD, GBPUSD, USDJPY only.
- Session: London open through first two hours of New York. No tickets after that unless a planned swing is already on with a stop in the book.
- Bias: daily structure plus the next high-impact USD event on the calendar. If the event is inside 30 minutes, flat unless the plan explicitly accepts gap risk.
- Invalidation: last clear swing that kills the idea on the 1-hour. Stop there before entry. Size from the calculator at 1% (0.5% if a related USD ticket is already on).
- Target: next obvious structure, at least 2R if it is there. If it is not there, pass. No “let it run” without a trail rule written in advance.
- Daily stop: two full 1% losers or one rule-break. Platform closed. No exceptions for “the next one is obvious.”
- Journal: screenshot, one-sentence thesis, emotion word, followed yes/no.
If your page is longer than this and you do not follow it, shorten it. A 12-page plan you ignore is decoration. The risk rules and the psychology note are the two chapters this page is allowed to point at. Everything else is optional flavor (indicators, session names, “ICT” vocabulary). Flavor that contradicts the stop rule loses.
When you are allowed to change the plan
Sunday, platform closed, journal open. Not Wednesday at −1.4R. A change looks like: “I keep breaking the no-trade-before-NFP rule, so the rule becomes flatten 45 minutes prior, not 15.” That is a revision. “I’ll just this once” is not a revision. If you change the plan every week, you do not have a plan. You have a mood. Stay on demo until the same page survives a month of sessions, including the boring ones.
Style labels — scalp, day, swing — only describe hold time. They do not replace the page. A swing trader still needs a stop that fits 1%. A scalper still needs a daily loss cap. We do not rank styles. We rank whether a stranger could audit your last ten tickets against the page and say yes.
What this URL used to promise
The slug still says “profitable.” That is a leftover. We will not bait a monthly percent in the title. This document will not make you profitable. It will make violations visible. That is the only honest job of a plan. Educational only. Not financial advice. Hypothetical rules above are a teaching skeleton, not Prototraders P&L.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not financial advice. Trading Forex and cryptocurrencies involves substantial risk of loss.