20 Questions For Help Building a Trading Plan

20 Questions For Help Building a Trading Plan

System

  1. What type of trader will I be? Swing, trend trader, trend follower, day trader, Elliot Wave, Fibonacci, CAN SLIM, option trader, another, or a combination?
  2. What time frame will I be trading on?
  3. What are my trading rules?
  4. What signals my entry?
  5. What will signal my exit?
  6. Do I use a trailing stop or a price target to lock in profits?
  7. What will I be trading?
  8. Will I trade long or short or both?
  9. What is the probability of my trade working out based on historical data?
  10. What has to happen to invalidate my trading system and make me look for flaws in my thinking?

Psychology

  1. How big of a position size can I mentally and emotionally handle trading?
  2. Does my chosen trading method fit my personality for activity and risk tolerance?
  3. Do I truly believe that my method will work and be profitable?
  4. Do I enjoy trading?
  5. Do I have the mental strength to persevere until successful in trading?

Risk

  1. How much of my trading capital will I risk per trade?
  2. How many losses in a row with this level of risk will lead to blowing up my trading account?
  3. How much will I lose at one time if all my open positions go against me at the same time?
  4. How correlated with each other are all your open positions and your potential trading vehicles that are on your watch list?
  5. Do you fully understand the potential risk in what you are trading?