Your personal risk plan & trading journal
A plan you wrote while calm is the best adviser you will ever have when the market is not.
Builder · 9 min · Updated 2026-11-08
💡 A household budget
A family budget decides in advance how much goes to rent, food, savings and fun — so a tempting sale does not empty the account. A risk plan does the same for your money in markets: how much is invested, how much is risked per trade, and when to stop.
Your one-page risk plan (template)
| Section | Example answer |
|---|---|
| Foundation | 6 months of expenses saved; no credit-card debt |
| Total crypto allocation | Up to 5–10% of investable savings (your choice — many advisers suggest keeping it small) |
| Split | 80% long-term holdings (DCA), 20% active trading account |
| Risk per trade | 0.5–1% of the trading account; never above 2% |
| Leverage cap | Maximum 3×, small size, one leveraged position at a time — or none |
| Max open positions | 3, and no more than 2 in highly correlated coins |
| Loss limits | Daily −2% · weekly −5% · monthly −10% → stop and review |
| Coins I will not trade | New listings < 3 months, tiny market caps, anything I can't explain in two sentences |
| Security | Authenticator 2FA, withdrawal allow-list, hardware wallet for long-term, seed phrase offline |
| Review | Every Sunday: journal review; every quarter: plan review |
Drawdown maths: why limits matter
| Loss | Gain needed to recover |
|---|---|
| −10% | +11% |
| −20% | +25% |
| −33% | +50% |
| −50% | +100% |
| −75% | +300% |
| −90% | +900% |
Small losses are easy to recover; big ones are not. That asymmetry is the reason for loss limits and low leverage.
What to record in the journal
- Date, coin, timeframe, setup name and screenshot.
- Planned entry, stop, target, size, leverage and R:R — before the trade.
- Actual result in R and money, fees included.
- Did I follow the plan? (yes/no) — the most important column.
- Emotion before and after (calm, FOMO, angry, bored).
- One lesson.
Weekly review questions
- What % of trades followed the plan? Target: 90%+.
- Which setup has the best expectancy? Which the worst?
- Where did rule-breaking trades lose money?
- Did I hit any loss limit? Did I respect it?
🧮 Practical example: what a journal revealed
Key takeaways
- A one-page plan covers allocation, risk, leverage, limits and security.
- Max 3× leverage, one leveraged position, small size.
- Loss limits keep drawdowns recoverable.
- Journal "did I follow the plan?" on every trade.
- Review weekly; adjust rules quarterly, not mid-streak.
Education only — not financial advice.