Hi excalibur
great idea for a thread.
I found "Trading With A Plan" by Compton and Kendall to be a really good and helpful read on how to put together a trading and/or investment plan.
Some of the topics it says should be included in a trading plan are:
1) Why do you want to trade
2) What timeframe are you going to trade
3) What are your profit objectives
4) The tools you are going to use to trade (software, sources for research etc)
5) Risk and money management
6) The type of securities you are going to trade (shares, options, derivatives etc)
7) The minimum conditions that have to be met before entering a trade (technical and/or fundamental)
8) How you will determine your position sizes
9) The markets and sectors you will trade
10) Exit criteria for a trade
The above are just food for thought and I believe they are just as applicable whether putting together a trading or investment plan.
cheers
bullmarket