Today we turn everything you have learned into a system you can repeat. Your trade plan is the rulebook you decide on before the market opens. Your journal is the record that tells you the truth about how you are actually trading. Then we take a live trade on Tradovate and NinjaTrader and connect them to TradingView.
Why this class matters
Strategies get you in and out of trades. A plan and a journal are what turn a good week into a consistent career. The plan removes in-the-moment guessing, the journal shows you what to fix. This is the boring part that separates the traders who make it from the ones who do not.
Not financial advice
Educational material only. Trading futures involves substantial risk of loss. Platform menus, features, and subscription prices change, so if a button is not where these steps say, check that platform's own help center.
The rulebook you decide on before the market opens, so you are not making it up while money is on the line.
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What a Trade Plan Is
A trade plan is a short, written set of rules that answers, in advance, when you trade, what you trade, how much you risk, and what makes you stop. It is decided when you are calm, so that when the market is fast and your emotions are loud, you already know exactly what you are allowed to do.
The point is not to predict the market. The point is to remove decisions from the heat of the moment. A trader without a plan makes it up every session, and making it up is where revenge trades, oversized positions, and blown accounts come from.
The one-line version
Your plan is a promise you make to yourself before the open, so the version of you that is tired, tilted, or greedy cannot break the rules the calm version set.
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The Parts of Your Plan
A good plan is short enough to read in thirty seconds. These are the pieces that belong in it.
When I trade
Your days, your session window (for example the London or New York open), your max trades per day, and your daily loss limit. When you hit the limit, you are done, win or lose.
What I trade
Your instruments (MNQ, NQ, gold) and the specific strategies you are allowed to take: Scalping or Day Trading Supply and Demand, BPB, London X, New York X.
My entry criteria
What has to be true before you click. Higher-timeframe agreement, a fresh zone, the rejection or confirmation, inside your window, no red-folder news. If the checklist is not complete, there is no trade.
My risk
How much you risk per trade (a fixed dollar amount or a percent), where the stop goes, and your target or R multiple. Plus the hard rules: never widen a stop, be flat before red-folder news.
What makes me stop
Your circuit breaker. Two losses in a row, the daily loss limit, or trading outside your window all mean you close the platform.
What a good trade looks like
A trade that followed every rule, win or lose. A winner that broke your rules is still a bad trade. This is the mindset shift that makes you consistent.
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Generate Yours With the Builder
You do not have to write this from scratch. Open the Trade Plan Builder tool, fill in each field, and it generates a clean, printable plan you can save as a PDF and keep next to your charts.
Open the Trade Plan Builder (Tool_TradePlanBuilder in your library).
Fill in every field: your name, instruments, account, session window, max trades, loss limit, strategies, entry checklist, risk, and your stop rules.
Print or save as PDF. Keep it visible while you trade. Read it before every session.
Revisit it monthly. As your journal shows you what works, tighten the plan.
✅ Check your understanding
Your plan says max two trades a day, and you just took your second, a loss. A perfect third setup appears. Do you take it?
No. The plan exists exactly for this moment. The third setup might win, but breaking your own rule is the habit that eventually costs you the account. Follow the plan, log the setup, take it tomorrow.
Part Two
The Trade Journal
The honest record of how you actually trade, which is the only thing that tells you what to fix.
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What to Log on Every Trade
Your memory lies. The journal does not. Log every trade, winners and losers, the same way, so patterns become impossible to ignore.
The basics
Date, instrument, session, direction (buy or sell), and the strategy or setup you took.
The trade
Your entry, your stop, your target, the outcome (win, loss, or break-even), and your R multiple.
The picture
A screenshot of the chart at entry. This is the single most valuable thing in your journal. You cannot argue with the chart.
The truth
Did you follow your plan, yes or no? How did you feel: calm, rushed, revenge, fear? What did you do well, and what would you change?
The rule that makes the journal work
Grade every trade on whether you followed your plan, not on whether it won. A disciplined loss is an A. A rule-breaking winner is an F. Track that and your consistency takes care of itself.
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Your Review Routine
A journal you never read is just data entry. The value is in the review.
After each session: log your trades while they are fresh, screenshots and all. Two minutes per trade.
Every week: read the week back. Which setups made money? Which lost? Were your losses inside plan, or were they mistakes?
Every month: look for the patterns. Maybe London X is carrying you and one setup is bleeding you. Cut what does not work, do more of what does, and update your trade plan.
✦
Coming Soon: the BPB Journal
Included with your cohort access
The Becoming Pretty Profitable Journal
A dedicated Becoming Pretty Profitable journal is in development right now. As a Cohort VII student, you get complimentary access included with your cohort access, no extra charge.
It goes through beta testing first, so you will not get it the moment it launches. You will be among the very first invited when it opens for beta, hopefully in the coming weeks, and you will get a coupon code at launch.
Until it is ready, use the Trade Plan Builder and journal every trade in your current template or spreadsheet. The habit matters more than the tool.
✅ Check your understanding
You had a losing trade, but you waited for your zone, took the right size, and honored your stop. How should the journal grade it?
A good trade. You cannot control whether a single trade wins. You can control whether you followed your plan. Grade the process, and profits follow the discipline over time.
Part Three
Taking a Trade
How to actually place, manage, and close a trade on the two platforms most of you will use.
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Tradovate and NinjaTrader
Both platforms do the same job: pick your instrument, choose a side, set your order, and manage the trade. The buttons live in slightly different places. Here is each one.
Tradovate
Place a trade
Open the Chart, the DOM (Depth of Market), or the order ticket for your instrument, for example MNQ.
Pick your side, Buy or Sell.
Choose the order type: Market to fill now, Limit to set a price, or Stop.
Set your quantity (number of contracts).
Submit. Use a bracket so your stop loss and target attach automatically.
Manage or close from the Positions panel or right on the chart. Exit or Flatten closes everything.
NinjaTrader
Place a trade
Open your order window: the SuperDOM, Chart Trader on the chart, or the Order Entry window.
Select the instrument and your quantity.
Choose the order type: Market, Limit, or Stop.
Click Buy (at the ask) or Sell (at the bid).
Use an ATM strategy to attach your stop and target automatically.
Close or Flatten from the Positions tab or the chart.
Same trade, either platform
Whichever you use, the discipline is identical: only enter when your plan's checklist is complete, always attach a stop, and size to your fixed risk. The platform is just the tool.
Part Four
Connecting to TradingView
Do your analysis on TradingView's charts, then place the trade through your broker, all from one screen.
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Trade From Your TradingView Charts
Both Tradovate and NinjaTrader connect directly to TradingView, so you can mark your zones and ranges on TradingView and execute without switching windows.
Tradovate + TradingView
Connect it
In TradingView, open the Trading Panel at the bottom and open the broker menu.
Choose Tradovate from the broker list.
Pick Live or Demo, then click Connect.
Log in with your Tradovate or prop firm username and password.
Heads up: Tradovate requires the Add-on Tools subscription (about 9.99 a month) for the TradingView connection.
NinjaTrader + TradingView
Connect it
In TradingView, open the Trading Panel and find NinjaTrader in the broker list.
Click Connect and log in with your NinjaTrader account.
Funded NinjaTrader accounts include complimentary TradingView access.
Once connected, your account shows up inside TradingView.
Once either one is connected, click the Trade button below the chart, an order panel opens on the right, you fill it out, and hit Buy or Sell. Analysis on TradingView, execution through your broker, one screen.
✅ Check your understanding
What is the point of connecting your broker to TradingView?
One screen, two jobs. You get TradingView's charting to find and mark your setup, and your broker's fast order routing to execute it. It changes nothing about your risk rules, you still only take trades that pass your plan.