What has to be in it
Which pairs, and which sessions. What a setup looks like, described so precisely that somebody else could point at your chart and say yes or no. Where the stop goes and where the target goes. What percentage of the account each trade risks. How many trades in a day, and when you stop. Six items. A plan that fits on one page is a plan you will read; a twelve-page document is a document.
Specific enough to be broken
The test of every line is whether it can be violated. "Trade with the trend" cannot — you will always find a trend somewhere that agrees with the position you want. "Only long when price is above the 50 EMA on the four-hour" can. Vague rules feel wise and permit everything, which is why people write them.
The journal is the part that improves it
Record entry, exit, size, the reason, and one line on what you were feeling. Then, weekly, count only two things: how many trades followed the plan, and how the plan-following trades did compared to the rest. That comparison is the entire value of a journal. Most traders discover that their off-plan trades are where the money went, and no amount of being told that in advance substitutes for seeing it in your own numbers.
Changing the plan, without changing it constantly
A plan changed after a losing trade is not a plan. Set a review date — the end of the month, or after thirty trades — and change nothing in between. At the review, change one thing, with a reason drawn from the journal, and give it another thirty trades. This is slow, and the slowness is the feature: a plan that changes weekly has never been tested, so nothing you believe about it can be true.
Written on paper, not in your head
A plan in your head is edited silently, at the exact moment it is inconvenient, and afterwards you will remember it as having always said what you did. Written down and dated, it can be checked against what you actually did, and that check is the only mechanism by which anyone gets better at this. Cubie FX’s journal exists for this and nothing else.
In short
| Length | One page |
|---|---|
| Every rule must be | Specific enough to break |
| Journal records | Entry, exit, size, reason, feeling |
| Weekly count | On-plan trades versus off-plan ones |
| Review | On a date, not after a loss |
Common questions
How long before a plan can be judged?
Roughly thirty trades, and even that is thin. Fewer than that is mostly luck in either direction, and judging a plan on five trades is how a good method gets thrown away and a bad one gets trusted.
What if I keep breaking my own rules?
That is data, not a character failing. Look at which rule breaks most often and ask whether it is unrealistic for your life — a rule requiring you to watch the London open when you are at work will be broken every time, and the fix is a different rule.
Do I need a journal if I only trade a little?
Especially then. With few trades, memory is the only other record, and memory keeps the wins.
Trading forex and CFDs on margin carries a high level of risk. Most retail accounts lose money. Nothing on this page is financial advice or a recommendation to trade.