A prop firm trading plan template gives you one place to write down, before the evaluation starts, every decision that is hard to make well in the middle of a session: what you trade, when, how much you risk, when you stop and how you review. The firm publishes its rules; the plan is where you set your own, tighter ones.
Below is the template section by section, each filled in for a QATS $50K Crypto evaluation. The QATS rules come from the published plan; the personal limits are an example to adapt, not a recommendation for your account.
What a prop firm trading plan template should cover
- Account and rules: the firm’s limits in dollars and your working limits inside them.
- Markets and sessions: what you trade and when.
- Setups: the only trades you are allowed to take, written precisely.
- Risk: risk per trade, position sizing, a daily stop, a maximum number of trades and a drawdown response.
- News, weekends and automation: what changes around events and how a bot follows the plan.
- Review routine and if-then rules: how you check compliance and what you do when a trigger fires.
1. Account and rules
Copy the firm’s figures in dollars, not percentages, and add the limit you will actually trade to. In the example, the QATS $50K Crypto plan sets a 10% profit target, a 4% daily loss limit, a 6% end-of-day trailing maximum loss that stops trailing at the starting balance, a 40% consistency rule and 2 minimum trading days.
| Rule | Firm limit | My working limit |
|---|---|---|
| Profit target | $5,000 (10%), net of fees and funding, all positions closed | About $125 a day on average; budget 40 trading days |
| Daily loss limit | $2,000 (4%); touching it ends the evaluation; counts open positions, fees and funding | Personal daily stop of $1,000 |
| Maximum loss | $3,000 (6%), end-of-day trailing, stops trailing at the starting balance | Halve risk per trade after a $1,500 drawdown |
| Consistency | Best day at most 40% of total profit | Stop for the day at $1,500 profit |
| Minimum trading days | 2 | Not a constraint at this pace |
| Leverage | Up to 20× on BTC and ETH, 10× on large caps, 5× on other coins | Size from the stop distance, never from leverage |
2. Markets and sessions
Keep the plan to a few markets you know well. More symbols mean more correlated positions and more news to track.
- Markets: BTCUSDT and ETHUSDT, plus at most one other coin from the 17 crypto perpetuals on the plan.
- Sessions: two fixed windows, for example 07:00–10:00 and 13:00–16:00 UTC, with no new entries outside them.
- Correlation: long BTC and long ETH at the same time count as one trade for sizing.
- Day boundary: QATS Crypto risk days run on UTC, so plan around the UTC day rather than your local one.
3. Setups
List the only setups you may trade, with a trigger, a stop and an exit precise enough that two people would take the same trade. The rows below are placeholders; replace them with setups you have tested.
| Setup | Trigger | Stop | Exit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trend pullback | Price above the 1-hour 50 EMA; a 15-minute candle closes back in the trend direction after touching the 20 EMA | Beyond the pullback low or high | Half at 1.5R, the rest on a close through the 20 EMA |
| Range breakout | A 15-minute close outside a range that has held for at least four hours | Back inside the range | 2R target or the end of the session |
| No-trade list | The first minutes after a major data release, after two losses in a row, or outside the session windows | Not applicable | Not applicable |
4. Risk per trade, daily stop and maximum trades
This section keeps the account open. Every number is derived from the firm’s limits, so an ordinary losing streak stops you before the firm’s limits do.
Position size = risk per trade ÷ stop distance. With $250 at risk and a stop 1% from entry, the position is $25,000 notional. Leverage decides whether that position is allowed, not how much it risks. At this size the firm’s daily limit allows 8 losing trades and the maximum loss 12, so the personal stop comes first.
| Item | Rule | In dollars |
|---|---|---|
| Risk per trade | 0.5% of the starting balance | $250 |
| Personal daily stop | Half the firm’s daily limit | $1,000 |
| Maximum trades per day | As many losing trades as fit inside the personal stop | 4 |
| Maximum open risk | All open stops together never exceed the personal daily stop | $1,000 |
| Weekly stop | Pause for the rest of the week after losing a third of the maximum loss | $1,000 |
| Drawdown response | Halve risk per trade once half the room to the floor is used | $125 per trade after a $1,500 drawdown |
5. News, weekends and automation
The current published QATS plans set no news blackout (Rules & objectives shows whether your account has one), so any restriction around releases is yours to set. The loss limits apply through every release and every weekend.
- News: no new entries from 15 minutes before to 15 minutes after CPI, FOMC and US payrolls; check the Market calendar each morning.
- Event days: half the usual risk per trade.
- Weekends: crypto perpetuals trade around the clock, so hold at most one position over a weekend, at half size, with a protective stop attached.
- Automation: a bot follows the same risk numbers as manual trading, and on QATS automated orders pass the same server-side risk checks as manual ones.
- Testing: run any new setup or bot on the free sandbox, which has virtual funds and the same server-side risk checks. QATS Script backtests include a prop-rules check against the daily loss, maximum loss and target.
6. Review routine
- After every session, for ten minutes: mark each trade as plan-followed or not before looking at the P&L.
- Record how much of the personal daily stop the worst point of the day used.
- Note the current maximum-loss floor from Risk center or Rules & objectives.
- Weekly: compare results by setup, check fees and funding against gross profit, and check your best day against the consistency share.
- Change at most one rule a week, and write down why.
7. If-then rules
Write the responses to predictable situations in advance, so that you follow a rule rather than a feeling.
| If | Then |
|---|---|
| Two losing trades in a row | Stop for at least an hour |
| The personal daily stop of $1,000 is reached | Stop for the day; exits only |
| A day reaches $1,500 profit | Stop for the day; normal size tomorrow |
| The account is $1,500 below its high | Risk $125 per trade until it recovers |
| A rule in this plan is broken | Log it, finish the day flat and review before the next session |
| The account breaches | No new purchase or reset until the review names the cause |
Frequently asked questions
01What should a prop firm trading plan include?
The firm’s rules in dollars, the markets and sessions you trade, a precise setup list, risk per trade, a daily stop, a maximum number of trades, news and weekend rules, and a review routine. Keep it to one page so you read it before every session.
02How much should I risk per trade in a prop firm trading plan?
Figures of 0.25%–1% of the starting balance are commonly used, sized so a normal losing streak stays well inside the daily and maximum loss limits. The example uses 0.5%.
03Should my plan change once I am funded?
Keep the structure and recheck the numbers. On the current QATS plans the Funded daily limit is half the account’s maximum loss, $1,500 on a $50K Crypto account; confirm it in Rules & objectives and set the personal daily stop against it.
04Can I enforce my trading plan automatically?
Partly. On QATS a personal stop, if you configure one, is an extra limit on top of the plan rules, and bots pass the same server-side risk checks as manual orders. Setup selection and review still depend on you.
Educational content, not investment advice. QATS evaluations and initial funded accounts are simulated; payouts depend on eligibility, verification and the applicable agreement.