Start with your edge
An edge is a repeatable reason you expect to make money — a specific setup, condition or pattern you can describe in a sentence. If you can’t name it, you don’t have one yet; you’re guessing.
Your plan’s job is to make that edge executable: define exactly what the setup looks like, so you take it consistently and skip everything else.
Write the rules that protect you
Risk rules matter more than entry rules because they keep you in the game. At a minimum, decide:
- Risk per trade: a fixed small percentage of your account (often 0.5–2%).
- Maximum exposure: a cap on how much risk is open at once across correlated positions.
- Stop placement: where the idea is proven wrong — set before entry, not improvised after.
- A circuit breaker: a daily or weekly loss limit that stops you trading when you’re cold.
Define entries, exits, and the review loop
Spell out the trigger that puts you in, the target and stop that get you out, and how you’ll manage a trade that goes your way. Ambiguity here is where discipline leaks.
Then close the loop: journal every trade and review on a schedule, not after a bad day. An AI coach can grade your adherence to the plan and flag the one habit costing you the most — turning the plan from a document into a feedback system.