In my post Day Trading Lesson: The Roadmap I present to list of steps to learn to Day Trade.  Here are the details of Step 11:

Create a Trading Plan

A Trading Plan is a business plan for your trading business.  It essentially defines everything that you will do in order to earn money trading.  It puts into a formal statement a lot of the thinking that hopefully you've already done if you've your way through this roadmap to this point.

The problem that many traders have is they have not carefully thought out a method that is likely to be profitable over the long term, and they don't consistently practice of profitable method day after day.  Your Trading Plan is a good tool to avoid this problem.  So if you want to stand a chance of making any money in the markets, he damn well better have a good trading plan and the discipline to follow it.

There are 4  "Rules"  to creating your Trading Plan.  Other than these, a  "good" Trade Plan can vary quite a bit depending on your personality and style.  

1.  It must be carefully thought out over a period of time

2.  It must be in writing

3.  It must include Risk Management

4.  It must include your Edge

Here's an example of a Trade Plan to get your started:
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Miracletech’s Superior Trade Plan

Date ____________

Plan was modified on this date ________

Edge
The purpose of this plan is to define my “edge”, ie a system that has better than chance odds of creating profits.  A good edge in general will either produce more winners than losers, bigger winners than losers, or both.  A good edge is much more than just a setup.  All parts of this plan should contribute to my edge.

Discipline
Without the discipline to follow this plan, it is useless

Markets
Example 1.  I trade emini futures on an intraday time frame. I trade only YM & ES, to allow max concentration.  Since I only trade these two,  I have been able to watch them long enough to have a pretty good idea of their “personality”.

Example 2. I trade NASDAQ stocks on an intraday time frame. I trade these 8 stocks _______ only, because my research shows me that they have good volume, trend well & prices vary enough to make a profit

Example 3.  I trade NYSE stocks on an intraday time frame. I trade any NYSE stock that meets my criteria that day.  I use a scanning software called _________ to help me find stocks that meet my criteria that day.

Recording
• I will enter every trade I make (Sim or cash) in a spreadsheet
• I will make a diary entry every day I trade or work on trading

Daily Trade Routine
I follow a written “Daily Trade Routine” (a separate document), which includes the most important tasks I need to do every day.  This facilitates good habits, discipline & consistency.

Need for consistency
I need to follow the same procedures day after day.  This allows me to evaluate if my techniques give me a long term edge in the market.  After a period of time I can make a specific changes to my Trading Plan, try it for a while, & see if it improves my profitability

Healthy Balanced Lifestyle
Living a balanced lifestyle is important because not only will it make me a happier person, but will make me a better trader. 
The main reason I choose trading for a living, is to give me the lifestyle I want, including freedom from corporate BS & unlimited earnings potential. But trading itself tends to create an imbalanced lifestyle (since it involves sitting alone for hours in front of the computer), so I must work to create balance.  Elements of healthy balanced lifestyle are:
• Good sleep habits
• Exercise
• Proper diet
• Limit alcohol & caffeine
• Spending time away from trading w/o thinking about trading
• Spending time outdoors
• Spending time with friends & family
• Having fun

Risk Management
If I want to do this full-time & be successful, I must be make my initial investment last as long as possible during the learning curve.
At this point in my development I will only trade 1 contract at  a time.  To be re-evaluated later as I become a more experienced trader.

Maximum risk per trade is $55.  This is assured by having a 10 tick stop automatically entered each time I enter a trade.  Allows for 1 tick slippage.

The max I will ever lose in any one day is 2.5% of my total acct.  Since my starting acct is $____, that’s $____.  If I ever lose this much in a day, I will stop trading for the day.

The max I will ever lose in any one week is 5% of my total account.  Since my starting acct is $_____, that’s $_____.  If I ever lose this much in a week, I will stop trading for the week.

More specifically, I will not enter a trade that could potentially cause me to lose more than my daily or weekly max.  eg, if I were down $205 on the day, and my max daily loss was $250,  I could not make any more trades because a Stop Out of $55 would cause me to go over the $250 /day max loss

As my acct size changes, I will re-calculate the dollar amounts of my max daily loss & my max weekly loss.  I will always know what these amounts are before I begin trading for the day. 

Setups
I play 2 & only 2 setups. These setups are specifically defines in a separate document.  I never enter trades that do not match my setups.  However there may be times that a proper setup forms, but I decide not to enter a trade

The Charting package I use, which is _________, has been configured to view these setups properly.

Trade Entry & Exit
I use a DOM (ladder) to enter & exit all trades,  The name of the DOM is use is _______.  I use a _______ order (fill in Market, Limit, etc) to enter trades. I use a _______ order (fill in Market, Limit, etc) to exit trades,

Trade Management
Once I have entered a trade, I use the following criteria to decide when to exit the trade.
1. ________
2. ________
3. ________

This criteria has been carefully thought out to produce the largest winners and the smallest losers in the long run.

Scheduled Announcements
Prior to making any trades, check to see what announcements are scheduled to be made during the trading day.  Do not trade during & just prior to a “big”  announcement.  This is because prices often bounce wildly and unpredictably during Announcements

Note: Any numbers or dollar amounts in the above of course are examples only.

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OK, so hopefully you think my example Trade plan has some merit, and gives you some good ideas to help you create your own. Or maybe you think it sucks!  Feel free to flame me.  The point is not to use the Miracletech Trade Plan, but to create your own trade plan.

Still thinking about trading WITHOUT a Trade Plan? I have a better idea.  Why not take the money you were going to put into your trading account, and donate it to  MAKE A WISH .  The money will be gone anyway, but you'll feel a lot better giving it to a worthy charity than to another trader who has a Trading Plan (and a clue).