A trading plan turns good intentions into rules you can follow under pressure. Here is a complete example for a $100K 2-Step challenge. Copy it, then change every line to match how you actually trade.
Goal and constraints
- Phase 1: +10% within 30 days, minimum 5 trading days.
- Daily loss limit 4%, maximum loss 8%; best day under 50% of total profit.
- Personal targets: +1% per good day, ~2.5% per week.
Markets and hours
- EURUSD and gold only.
- Sessions: London open (07:00–10:00 UTC) and US open (13:30–15:30 UTC in summer).
- No new trades 30 minutes around high-impact news; flat before the weekend.
Setups
- A: pullback to the 20 EMA in the direction of the 4-hour trend, with a rejection candle on 15 minutes.
- B: break and retest of the Asian range high/low after the London open.
- Anything else: no trade.
Risk
- 0.5% per trade ($500), position size from the stop distance.
- Maximum 3 trades per day; maximum total open risk 1%.
- Daily stop: two losses or -1.5% ($1,500), whichever comes first.
- After a -3% drawdown from peak: risk drops to 0.25% until half is recovered.
Exits
- Target 2R; close half at 1R and move the stop to break-even.
- Close any trade still open 30 minutes before a high-impact release.
Review
- After each session: journal and screenshots.
- Every Sunday: stats by setup, rule breaks, plan for the coming week.