Reading the trade plan: zone, stop, targets and size

Every stock page has a Trade plan card. It doesn’t tell you to buy or sell anything. It does the arithmetic you would do on paper: if the idea is “buyers stay in control” (or sellers), where is it proven wrong, where are the next levels, and is the possible move worth the possible loss?

The card shows the same idea two ways, because when you act changes the numbers.

Plan 1: if you wait for the zone

This plan only exists when there is an active order block on the side of the move: a bullish zone for a rising stock, a bearish one for a falling stock. (The order blocks guide explains what makes a zone.)

Line	What it means
Z · zone	The zone’s near edge: the price you’d plan to enter at if price comes back
Stop · wrong past	Just beyond the zone’s far edge, and never closer to Z than one average 5-minute candle
T1, T2	The next untaken levels ahead, at least one average candle apart
Risk per share	The distance from Z to the stop
Reward : risk	How far the target is from Z (T2 when both targets are real levels), divided by the risk

Why at least one average candle? A stop tucked a few paise behind the zone sits inside ordinary 5-minute noise, so a normal wiggle would decide the trade rather than the idea being wrong.

The badge next to the heading shows the zone’s state: fresh, first retest, retested or broken. Fresh zones and first retests have the most unfilled interest left; each later visit uses more of it up. When price is already back inside the zone, the plan says so.

Plan 2: if you act now

The second plan starts from the last price. The idea is wrong past the nearest support (for a rising stock; the nearest resistance for a falling one), and the target is the second level beyond it. Acting now usually means a wider stop than waiting for the zone, which is why the two ratios differ. They use different entries and stops, so compare them as two situations, not two scores.

Targets are real levels, or nothing

Targets are only placed at levels price hasn’t taken yet and that sit ahead of both the zone and today’s price:

• a recent swing high or low
• the day’s high or low so far
• yesterday’s high or low, and the first 15 minutes’ high or low
• equal highs or lows, where stop orders tend to cluster
• an opposing order block

If there is no such level ahead, a level is projected (two average candles beyond), marked as projected, and no reward:risk is shown: “no real target ahead”. A projected target always makes the ratio look good, because it is placed wherever the arithmetic needs it. When only T2 is projected, the ratio is measured to T1. Ratios of five or more are shown as 1 : 5+; beyond that the number says more about a tight stop than about the trade.

Reading reward:risk

• Above 1 : 2: the possible move to the target is at least twice the possible loss to the stop.
• Around 1 : 1: you’d risk about as much as you could make.
• Below 1 : 1: the room left is smaller than the risk.

A good ratio is not a prediction. It only says what the trade would pay if it works; how often it works depends on everything else on the page: the trend against VWAP, the sector, volume, open interest and order flow.

When the plan is withheld: event risk

Some days aren’t about structure. When a stock has moved several times its usual daily range, opened with a large gap, or sits near its price band, MoneyHQ shows an event risk warning and withholds the zone levels. News-driven moves tend to run through levels that would matter on a normal day.

Sizing a position by your risk

Under the plans, the Position size helper turns a stop distance into a share count. Enter your capital once and pick a risk per trade, 0.5%, 1% or 2%:

shares = (capital × risk %) ÷ risk per share

With ₹5,00,000 and 1% risk you are willing to lose about ₹5,000 if the stop is hit. With ₹20 of risk per share, that is 250 shares. With a tight ₹2.50 stop the same rule would ask for 2,000 shares, more than the capital buys, so the helper caps the size at what your capital buys without borrowing and says so (“capped by capital”).

Sizing like this keeps every idea’s loss roughly the same, whatever the stock’s price or volatility. The numbers are for shares in the cash market; F&O contracts trade in fixed lots. Your capital is kept in your own browser and never sent to MoneyHQ.

The time of day matters

The band at the top of the board shows where the session is:

• Opening noise (09:15–09:20): overnight orders swing prices; many traders let the opening range form first.
• Prime time (09:20–11:30): the busiest, cleanest stretch; moves tend to follow through.
• Midday slowdown (11:30–13:30): volume thins out, breakouts fail more often and ranges chop.
• Afternoon trend (13:30–15:00): volume returns and the day’s trend often resumes or reverses.
• Late session (15:00–15:30): little time left for a new position to work.
• Closing auction (from 15:15, F&O stocks): continuous trading in F&O stocks stops at 15:15 for the auction that sets the official close, so their zones and levels stop updating there.

The same plan can read very differently at 10:00 and at 14:55.

Things to keep in mind

1. The plan is a map, not advice. It shows where an idea is wrong and what it could pay; the decision and its risks are yours.
2. Wait for the zone, or don’t. Plan 1 only applies if price comes back. If it never does, there is no trade.
3. Write down why. Shortlist the stock with your reason, then check after the close whether the plan played out. That’s how you learn which setups work for you.

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For learning only, not investment advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any security.

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