Most traders collect tips, indicators, and setups they saw someone else trade — but never write down, in precise detail, the handful of situations they can trade profitably. A playbook fixes that. It's your personal, written library of specific, tested "plays," each one spelling out exactly what you're looking for, why it works, how you enter and exit, and how big you bet. This course shows you how to build one from scratch — the required components, how to grade and size each play, how to prove it has a real edge, and how to keep it alive as a living document.
It's deliberately universal: the framework works whether you swing-trade stocks, scalp futures, or trade crypto. Where it helps, we point to a real example from the strategy library so you can see a finished play.
★ Before you start
Who this is for
You'll get the most from this once you understand basic risk & position sizing and expected value — a playbook is how those ideas become concrete. If you're brand new, work the Masterclass's risk and psychology phases first; a playbook organizes an edge, it doesn't create one.
Five lessons, one finished playbook
Work them in order. By the end you'll have at least one complete, tested play written in a repeatable template.
1 · What a Playbook Is
Play vs. strategy vs. indicator — and why every professional keeps one.
Start lesson →2 · Anatomy of a Play
The ten components every setup must spell out — with a fill-in template.
Start lesson →3 · Grading & Sizing
Score each play A+/A/B and bet proportionally to the edge.
Start lesson →4 · Testing for an Edge
Prove a play actually works — sample size, expectancy, and honest stats.
Start lesson →5 · Build, Review & Examples
Build it from your own trades, review on a loop — plus two worked examples.
Start lesson →→ Outcomes
What you'll walk away with
- ✓A written template you can copy to document any setup in a consistent, comparable format.
- ✓At least one finished, graded play with defined entry, invalidation, sizing, and exits.
- ✓A way to test it honestly — the stats that separate a real edge from a good-looking chart.
- ✓A review routine that promotes, demotes, and retires plays as the evidence comes in.
How this fits the rest of the site
This course is the how-to-build-it layer. The finished plays live in the strategy library; the supporting ideas — grading & sizing, expected value, the daily report card — live in concepts. For the intraday, desk-trading version of the same skill, see The Professional Desk.
Sources (free / verified)
Method anchored by Mike Bellafiore's PlayBook approach (SMB Capital), Brett Steenbarger on review and deliberate practice, Van Tharp on R-multiples and expectancy, and Adam Grimes on categorizing setups. Each lesson cites the specific ideas it uses.