Who this is for — Traders who want to prevent regulatory, operational, or procedural errors from destroying hard-won results.
Compliance in trading covers respect for legal rules, broker constraints, personal policies, and internal plan protocols. It is the foundation that makes results reliable, replicable, and defensible over time.
In plain terms — Good trades are not enough: you must be able to show they were done the right way.
Prerequisites — Complete first silver-path (min.: weekly-review, playbook, trading-plan, checklist). Foundation: bronze-path.
Areas to monitor continuously
Effective compliance comes from clear, monitorable procedures.
- Instrument rules: permitted markets, hours, leverage, and broker limits.
- Documentation rules: data archiving, decision tracking, audit trail.
- Behavioural rules: plan adherence and exception handling.
Example — A strategy looks profitable, but an audit reveals frequent use of instruments outside the plan's authorised universe. Correcting immediately avoids false conclusions on performance and real risk.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Treating compliance as bureaucracy with no operational impact.
- Applying rules only during negative periods.
- Failing to record exceptions and their rationale.
Card
- What it is: set of rules and controls on operating behaviour.
- What changes: reduces legal, procedural, and reputational risk.
- Quick check: verify compliance checklist and exception log.
Gold path — Module: Professionalisation. Part of gold-path.