Crypto trading plan template

In one line: a plan answers, in advance, what you trade, when you enter, where the stop goes, how much you risk, how you manage the trade, and when you stop. If a decision is not in the plan, it gets made under pressure.

The sections

1. Markets and timeframes. Which coins or stocks, and which charts you decide on. Fewer is better.
2. Setups. Each setup you take, described so someone else could spot it: the trigger, where the entry goes, where the stop goes.
3. Risk per trade. A fixed percent of the account, sized from the stop. See how much to risk per trade.
4. Daily and weekly limits. The loss, or the number of losing trades, after which you stop for the day.
5. Targets and management. Where profit is taken, whether you take partials, when the stop moves to breakeven, and that it never moves further away.
6. When not to trade. Around big news, when tired or angry, after a limit is hit.
7. Review. When you read the journal, and what you look for.

A filled-in example

Markets BTC and ETH, plus up to three coins leading BTC Timeframes 4-hour for direction, 1-hour for entries Setup 1 Breakout: close above a level tested three times; entry on the retest; stop below the retest low Setup 2 Pullback: in an uptrend, entry at the 0.5 to 0.618 retracement of the last swing; stop below the swing low Risk 1% of the account per trade, sized from the stop Daily limit Three losses in a day and I am done for the day Max open Three positions at once, no more than 3% at risk Targets Half off at 2R, stop to breakeven, rest at the next level Never Move a stop further away; trade without a stop on the order No trading Thirty minutes either side of major US data releases Review Sundays: stats, setups, the three worst trades

Turn it into numbers

A plan is only as good as the edge behind it. Once you have thirty or more trades logged, put the win rate and the average win and loss into the expectancy calculator to see whether the setups pay, and into the risk of ruin simulator to check the risk survives your losing streaks. Log the trades in the free journal template.

Keep it short

A plan you can read in a minute gets followed. Write it in plain words, keep it beside the chart, and change it on Sunday, not in the middle of a trade.

How the desk plans

Every call in The Print Room is the plan made public: the setup, the entry, the stop and the risk, posted before the trade fills. Members' Plan page starts with the same rules this example uses, ready to edit.