Trade Planning

Planning trades before execution improves discipline and results. TradeLogist provides a dedicated trade planning page to document and track your trade plans.

Why Plan Trades?

Benefits of Planning

• Clarity: Know exactly what you're looking for
• Discipline: Removes emotional decisions
• Consistency: Apply your rules uniformly
• Review: Compare plans to results
• Learning: See where plans succeed or fail

The Planning Mindset

Planning shifts you from:

• Reactive → Proactive
• Emotional → Systematic
• Guessing → Executing

Creating a Trade Plan

Accessing Trade Planning

Navigate to the dedicated planning page:

1. Go to Dashboard > Trades > Plan Trade
2. Or use the sidebar: Trades > Plan Trade

The planning page opens as a full form (not a modal) giving you space to document your complete trade thesis.

Multiple Plans

You can create multiple trade plans:

• Each plan is saved separately
• Plans appear in your trades list with "PLANNED" status
• Filter trades by status to see all your active plans

Plan Components

Entry Criteria

Defining Entry Zones

Set specific entry parameters:

Entry Zone: $195.00 - $196.00

Entry Triggers:
- Price bounces off VWAP
- Volume increases on bounce
- RSI turns up from oversold
- Market (SPY) holds green

Entry Conditions

List all conditions that must be met:

1. Price at your level
2. Volume confirmation
3. Market conditions
4. Indicator readings
5. Time of day

Exit Planning

Stop Loss

Define your stop before entering:

Stop Loss: $193.50

Placement Logic:
- Below VWAP
- Below morning low
- Represents $150 risk (1% of account)

Profit Targets

Plan your exits:

Target 1: $198.00 (1:1 R)
- Take 50% off
- Move stop to breakeven

Target 2: $200.00 (2:1 R)
- Take remaining 50%
- Or trail stop at $197.50

The Trade Thesis

Writing a Thesis

Explain why this trade makes sense:

THESIS:

AAPL showing strong relative strength today.
Pulled back to VWAP after opening drive.
Similar setup worked 3 of last 4 times.
Risk/reward is favorable at 2:1.
Market conditions supportive (SPY trending up).

Thesis Components

• What pattern do you see?
• Why does it work?
• What's your edge?
• What confirms the setup?

Connecting Plans to Strategies & Playbooks

Strategy Connection

Link your plan to a trading strategy:

1. Select from your existing strategies in the dropdown
2. When executed, the trade inherits the strategy assignment
3. Enables strategy-specific performance tracking

Playbook Connection

Playbooks are predefined trade templates:

1. Select a playbook to apply default settings
2. Playbook provides default stop loss, take profit, and R:R
3. Customize values as needed for this specific trade

Trade Plan Status

Plans progress through different states:

Converting to Live Trade

When your plan triggers:

1. Find the planned trade in your trades list
2. Click to open trade details
3. Click Execute to convert to live trade
4. Enter actual fill price and time
5. Status changes from PLANNED to OPEN

Comparing Plans to Results

Plan Review

After trade closes:

• Did you follow the plan?
• Was entry at planned level?
• Did you honor the stop?
• Did you take planned targets?

Plan vs. Actual

Pre-Market Planning

Daily Planning Routine

Each morning:

1. Review market conditions
2. Identify key levels
3. Create 2-3 trade plans
4. Set alerts for levels
5. Wait for setups

Watchlist Integration

Your plans become your watchlist:

• Symbols you're tracking
• Levels to watch
• Potential trades

End of Day Review

Reviewing Unfilled Plans

For plans that didn't trigger:

• Why didn't it trigger?
• Was the level wrong?
• Did conditions not develop?
• Save for another day?

Expired Plans

Handle old plans:

• Archive if no longer relevant
• Adjust and reuse if still valid
• Delete if obsolete

Planning Templates

Create Your Own Template

Build a consistent format:

TRADE PLAN TEMPLATE

Date: ___________
Symbol: ___________
Direction: Long / Short

SETUP:
Pattern: ___________
Market Context: ___________

ENTRY:
Entry Zone: ___________
Triggers: ___________

EXIT:
Stop Loss: ___________
Target 1: ___________
Target 2: ___________

RISK:
Position Size: ___________
Dollar Risk: ___________
Account Risk %: ___________

THESIS:
___________
___________

Best Practices

Quality Over Quantity

• Plan only A-grade setups
• 2-3 good plans beats 10 mediocre ones
• If you can't articulate it, don't trade it

Be Specific

• Exact price levels, not ranges
• Clear conditions, not vague ideas
• Defined rules, not guidelines

Stay Flexible

• Plans can be cancelled
• Conditions change
• It's okay to not trade

Learn from Plans

• Review cancelled plans
• Analyze plan accuracy
• Improve planning process

Next Steps

• Manual Trade Entry - Entering trades
• Creating Strategies - Build strategies
• Journaling Best Practices - Document effectively