Strategy, Plan, Execute

Traders4Traders

Think of just about any project or goal you have taken on in your life. Have you ever achieved success without a strategy, plan,
and proper execution of that plan? Also think about all the times in your life you strategized about something, came up with a
plan from that strategy, and then executed the plan. Didn’t it feel great to be so prepared? 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, is only filled with essential information, and works for you. Make sure 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.

Here are a few key questions I encourage students to think about and answer with regard to a trading plan. Once they answer
these correctly and objectively, they have the best chance at creating a robust and thorough trading plan that is capable of
producing consistent short term income and long term wealth. I thought I would share them here for your benefit:

1) Why Do You Want To Trade? The obvious answer is to “make money” but the successful trader takes this much deeper. Are
you trying to get to a profit threshold that will allow you to leave your day job and trade from home? Are you retired and want
to stop digging into savings to live your life so you want to trade to make up for that? Are you trying to create wealth with long
term positions while enjoying your career outside of the markets? When students answer this question properly, it is easy for
me to guide them into the right markets, time frames, and strategy.

2) What Is Your Strategy? This one is by far most important. I tell students to be as detailed as they can. In other words: When
exactly do you buy and sell? How exactly do you handle stops, manage risk, targets, and so on? From my experience, the more
you can make market speculating 100% rule based, the better you will do. Even though I tell students to be very detailed here, I
always end up adding rules they didn’t consider. The strategy must be able to determine where market price is going to turn
and where it’s going to go. This means accurately quantifying supply and demand in a market.

3) What Markets Will You Be Trading? This one is again very important as everybody is different. There are a few major asset

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 classes and many markets within them. They all have pro’s and con’s but the beauty is that a set of markets like the Futures
may be perfect for one person and the Stock markets may be appropriate for someone else. By knowing someone’s goals, life
style, account size, personality, and so on, it is easy to steer them in the direction of a set of markets that helps them achieve
their goals in the safest and most efficient way possible. Also, within each asset class, the markets are very different. Maybe you
trade the stock market and are more conservative and looking for a slower moving market, you would be well served trading
the QQQ but if you traded GOOG, this would not work for you at all. In futures, the person that trades the DAX futures is going
to be bored trading the 5 Year Note. The point is, there is a set of markets out there for each and every person but every set of
markets is certainly not for each and every person.

4) How Much Capital Do You Have? I meet students all the time that are trading markets with price points that are much
larger than they should be trading with their account sizes. Furthermore, some people take on too much risk and use too much
leverage. This is a recipe for disaster. Having position sizing parameters and account sizes set in stone in a trading plan helps
give you the best chance with the lowest risk.

5) How Much Time Do You Have? This again is an important question. This will determine whether you should be a day trader,
swing trader, longer term position trader, or maybe all of the above… Neither is right or wrong, better or worse. The key is to
make sure you put yourself in the best position to succeed and depending on when you can watch the markets or do your
analysis, there is a quality low risk market moving 24 hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week. This question goes deeper as well… For
example, if you have plenty of time and want to be an active trader, I would still never recommend that someone sit in front of
the screen all day. The best active day traders make their money in the early morning and there is a very specific market reason
for this that we go over in class. Make sure when you answer the time issue question, you are not only thinking about today but
also 5 and 10 years from now. I thought like this and it has guided me to quite a great life but all from proper planning.

While I go over these questions with students, we don’t spend much time answering them in class. I have them do this work at
home because EVERYBODY is very different. Each person’s goals, life styles, account sizes, personalities, and so on are very
very different. Once you get your trading plan completed however and you have a successful track record of six months of solid
trading results, lock that plan up and never share it with anyone. Use it to build an incredible life for you and your family. Hold
on to the edge you have worked so hard to attain. Be happy to share your knowledge but that does not have to mean giving
away your strategy and edge.

OTA Odds Enhancer Scoring

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 Think of your completed trading plan as a business plan. In business, your business plan may guide your overall business but it
is not going to be reviewed or even thought of day – to – day. The same holds true for you trading plan. It should guide your
overall trading business, but day – to – day you’re simply executing your strategy. What is needed to guide the execution of
your strategy each day is more of an execution document like the one above, our OTA Odds Enhancer Grid. Quickly, you enter
the demand and supply zone, score out the opportunity, and the grid really calculates the rest. If the short or long term trading
opportunity scores out high enough to warrant a trade, you simply put the entire trade into the market and let it play out.

The goal of this piece was to help you start asking the right questions. These simple ideas can sometimes be clouded by all the
misleading marketing and useless education this industry can sometimes spit out. If you have any questions, let us know.

Hope this was helpful, have a great day.

Learn to Trade Now

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