Education
Building a Trading Plan That Survives Contact with the Market
A template for a written plan you will actually use — entries, exits, risk, and the rules you break under pressure.
Most "trading plans" are aspirational documents that live in a Notion page no one opens. A real plan is short, specific, and used every session. It answers five questions in writing: what you trade, when you trade, why you enter, how you exit, and what stops you from trading.
What you trade. Pick a small universe. Three to five instruments is enough for ninety percent of profitable traders. Day traders might pick ES, NQ, and CL. Equities traders might pick a sector ETF and the top two or three names inside it. The point is repetition. You cannot build pattern recognition across forty tickers.
When you trade. Define your session in writing. "First ninety minutes after the open" is a real session. "Whenever I am at my desk" is not. Most retail traders are unprofitable because they trade through chop and overnight ranges where their edge does not exist. Cutting screen time often improves results.
Why you enter. Each setup needs a name, a trigger, a context filter, and an invalidation. "Opening drive long" with trigger "break of opening range high after a positive overnight session" and invalidation "trade back below VWAP within five minutes" is a real setup. "Looks good" is not. If you cannot describe a setup to another trader in two sentences, you cannot consistently execute it.
How you exit. Define stop loss, profit targets, and trail rules before entry. Decide in advance how partials are taken — for example, half off at one R, move stop to breakeven, trail the rest behind a swing low. A plan without exit rules is a plan to freeze when price is moving against you.
What stops you from trading. List your hard rules: daily loss limit, max trades per day, max trades per setup, mandatory break after two consecutive losses. These are not suggestions. They are the guardrails that keep one bad hour from becoming a blown account.
Review weekly. Pull your trade log and tag each trade as "in plan" or "out of plan." Profitability of "in plan" trades is your real edge. "Out of plan" trades — even winning ones — are the leak. Most traders discover the leak is bigger than the edge.
Popular firms
Apex Trader Funding
Austin, USA
- Model
- Evaluation-Based Funding
- Split
- 100%
- Payouts
- Bi-weekly (up to 2 per month, every 8 days)
- Max
- $300,000
Topstep
Chicago, USA
- Model
- Evaluation-Based Funding
- Split
- 90%
- Payouts
- Weekly (after 5 profitable days)
- Max
- $150,000
FTMO
Prague, Czech Republic
- Model
- Evaluation-Based Funding
- Split
- 90%
- Payouts
- On-demand (default 14 days, weekly available)
- Max
- $200,000
My Funded Futures
Charlotte, USA
- Model
- Evaluation-Based Funding
- Split
- 90%
- Payouts
- Bi-weekly (every 14 days)
- Max
- $150,000
FundedNext
Dubai, UAE
- Model
- Evaluation-Based Funding
- Split
- 95%
- Payouts
- Weekly (Stellar) / on-demand
- Max
- $400,000
Jane Street
New York, USA
- Model
- Firm Capital Model
- Split
- 50%
- Payouts
- Salary + discretionary bonus
- Max
- Internal capital only — no external trader accounts
Compare these side-by-side in the firm comparison tool or browse the full directory.
Frequently asked
Background reading that complements this story.
- What is a proprietary trading firm?
- A proprietary (or 'prop') trading firm uses its own capital to trade financial markets, and many modern firms let outside traders access that capital after passing an evaluation. Profits are split between the trader and the firm based on a published payout schedule.
- Are prop firms regulated?
- Regulation depends on the firm's structure and jurisdiction. Traditional bank or institutional prop desks fall under broker-dealer or securities rules. Most retail-facing evaluation programs are not registered broker-dealers — they sell access to a simulated or firm-funded account rather than handling retail brokerage activity, which is why the rules can differ widely by country.
- How do payouts work at a prop firm?
- After hitting profit targets and respecting risk rules, traders request a payout. The firm pays the trader's share (commonly 70–90%) on a published schedule — bi-weekly, monthly, or on-demand — through methods like ACH, wire, or crypto. Cadence and minimum thresholds vary by program.
More background: the glossary, our education library, and our transparency policy.
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