The One-Page Trading Plan: My Template

Ask a struggling trader for their plan and watch what happens.

They open a folder. There are documents in the folder. There might be a spreadsheet with six tabs. By the time they finish explaining the plan, the market has opened, moved, and closed, and the plan never once touched a real decision. Complicated plans are not plans. They are decorations.

My entire trading plan fits on one page. It has to, because at 9:45 in the morning, mid-move, with money on the line, one page is all I will ever actually read. Here is the template. Copy it, fill it in, and keep it where you trade.

Section 1: The market I trade

Three lines, maximum.

Instruments: $SPY and $QQQ 0DTE options. Nothing else. If it is not on this line, I do not trade it, no matter how good it looks on someone else's screen.

Sessions I trade: the morning window, and power hour when the setup earns it. Midday is analysis time, not trading time.

What I do not trade: no earnings coin flips, no holding index options into binary events, no chasing. The negative space of a plan matters as much as the plan.

Section 2: My setups

Name them, define them, cap the list.

Setup 1, the PSS reversal: liquidity sweep of a marked level, directional shift, structure break, entry on the pullback into the high value zone. Stop beyond the sweep extreme.

Setup 2, the breaker retest: decisive break of a respected level, retest from the other side, rejection confirms.

Two setups is a menu. Ten setups is a buffet, and buffets are where discipline goes to die. Each setup gets one line defining its invalidation, because a setup without a written kill level is a hope with a ticker symbol.

Section 3: The risk block

This is the part of the page that protects everything else.

Position size: the same dollar risk on every trade, written as a formula from my stop distance, not a feeling.

Daily loss limit: a hard number. Two stopped A+ setups or my max loss, whichever comes first, and the platform closes. Not reduced. Closed.

Enough number: the daily profit level where I may choose to stop while ahead. My quit while ahead rule lives here, because green days are lost in the afternoon more often than in the morning.

Slump protocol: three red days in a row means half size. Five means a scheduled break. Written now, while calm, because mid-slump me cannot be trusted to volunteer.

Section 4: The routine

Premarket (15 minutes): mark levels, overnight liquidity, premium and discount zones, economic calendar, write the day's bias and the levels that would change it.

Post-session (10 minutes): log every trade with entry, exit, R multiple, and one honest line about execution. Screenshot the charts. Close the book.

Weekly: the review. Top setup by expectancy, top mistake by frequency, one rule adjustment maximum, and only after 30 trades say so.

Want feedback on your plan? Members post their one-pagers and get them torn down and rebuilt inside the free Bulls Corner Discord. Get in free here, just drop your email and you're inside.

And when you are ready to trade the plan alongside live alerts and the full course, the 7-day free trial gets you inside Premium free for a week.

Why one page works when binders fail

A plan is not information. It is a leash for the version of you who shows up emotional, tired, or overconfident at 11am. That version will not read a binder. He will read one page taped to the monitor, if the page tells him exactly what he trades, how big, when he stops, and what he never does.

Write it once. Laminate it if you have to. Then spend your energy on the only trading work that compounds: following it, logging the results, and adjusting it once a month with data instead of daily with feelings.

FAQ

What should a trading plan include?

A one-page trading plan should cover four blocks: the instruments and sessions you trade, your named setups with their invalidation levels, your risk rules including position size and daily loss limit, and your daily and weekly routines. Anything that does not fit on one page is probably a distraction from execution.

Why does a trading plan need to be short?

Because you will only consult it under stress, mid-session, with money at risk. Long plans get ignored exactly when they are needed most. A one-page plan works as a decision leash: it states what you trade, how big, when you stop, and what you never do, in language your emotional self can follow.

How often should I update my trading plan?

Review it monthly using your logged trade data, and change one thing at a time. Daily or weekly plan rewrites are usually emotion disguised as improvement. If fewer than 30 trades support the change, the sample is too small and the plan stays as written.

Risk note: everything on this blog is educational content from my own trading experience, not financial advice. Trading options involves substantial risk of loss.