As a trader and educator, I have come across thousands of traders during the past 15 years. I can honestly say that I have never met or seen one trader be able to sit down in front of a screen each morning without a trading plan, look at a few charts, start trading, and make money consistently year after year. I am not saying it’s not possible, I have just never seen it. The people you see do well have a trading plan. Of that group that does well, it is typically the people with the short, simple trading plans that do the best. The key is making sure your trading plan is yours and works for you. Make sure it ensures that almost everything that can be a rule, is a rule. These don’t have to be the best rules, the fact that they are rules is what is key as rules take human emotion and thinking out of trading.
In trading courses, here are a few questions I encourage students to think about and answer. Once they answer these objectively, I help make them robust through a back and forth...
