How to Follow Your Own Plan

Six lines on one card

A plan that can actually be followed is a short one. Six lines on one card, with these as example rules: the instrument, the euro against the dollar on fifteen-minute bars; the picture, a close above the morning's range; the size, 0.40 lot, one percent at the stop; the stop 25 pips under and the target 25 over; one trade a day, then the screen shut. On 17 December 2025 the card was followed line by line: the close at 1.17166 at 10:15, the size and the two prices typed from the card, the target reached at 16:45, the day ended. Every line is a number or a picture. Nothing on the card needs interpreting at 13:30, which is the hour interpreting goes wrong.

A sat-nav route

Picture a sat-nav with a route on it. The route was chosen at the kerb, on the map, with the engine off and the whole city visible; at each junction the screen says turn, and the driver turns. Nobody re-plans the route at every junction with the traffic behind them, and a driver who did would never arrive. A plan followed is a route driven. The choosing was done parked, on the morning of the plan, and the driving is only turning where it says, which is a smaller and calmer thing than choosing, and is all the afternoon is asked to do.

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