If it is not written down, you do not have a plan
Most traders believe they have a system. Ask them to write it so that a stranger could execute it identically, and the belief usually does not survive.
That test is the point of this lesson. A rule you cannot state precisely cannot be tested, and something that cannot be tested cannot be known to work.
The seven components
A complete plan answers seven questions. Anything missing is a decision you will make under pressure.
1. Market and timeframe. Which instruments, which timeframe for direction, which for entry. Not "the majors" — name them. Testing requires a fixed universe.
2. Setup conditions. The exact circumstances under which you take a trade. Every condition must be objectively checkable: *"4-hour structure is an uptrend (last swing low not broken) AND price has returned to a marked 4-hour zone AND the 1-hour prints a rejection candle closing back above the zone."*
Three conditions, all verifiable by someone else looking at the same chart. Compare with *"price shows strength at support"* — which cannot be checked, cannot be tested, and will mean whatever you need it to mean at the time.