What is an entry score?
An entry score is a 1–10 rating of how closely a trade follows the trader’s own plan, calculated from pre-trade checklist answers before the order is placed. It does not predict the market; it measures the decision. Over time, comparing results by score shows what off-plan entries cost.
Key points
- Rates the decision, not the outcome.
- Calculated before the click and stored with the trade.
- A critical item answered against the plan costs a full point.
How it is calculated
Each checklist question can have a “per plan” answer: yes or no, a set of allowed options, or a minimum on a 1–10 scale. The score is the share of answers that match the plan, times 10. If the checklist has a confidence scale with no minimum, it counts for 30% of the score. Each critical question answered against the plan subtracts one point, and the result is rounded to a whole number from 1 to 10.
What it does not do
- It never blocks the trade: a low score is recorded as “against plan”.
- It doesn’t grade the setup’s quality or predict the result.
- Unanswered critical questions must still be answered before sending.
How to use it
Once you have a few dozen trades, compare results by score band — entries at 8–10 against entries at 1–6. If the low-score entries lose more, the cheapest improvement is not a new strategy; it is skipping those entries.
Example
A checklist has five questions with plan answers. Four match the plan and one non-critical doesn’t: 4 ÷ 5 × 10 = 8. If the miss is a critical question, the score is 8 − 1 = 7. With a confidence of 9 on the scale: 8 × 0.7 + 9 × 0.3 = 8.3, rounded to 8.
Numbers are illustrative.
Questions
Is a 10/10 entry guaranteed to win?
No. A 10 means the trade followed your plan; whether it wins depends on the market and on the edge of the plan itself.
Why a score instead of a yes/no checklist?
A score keeps the trade possible while recording how far it was from the plan — and that distance is what the dashboard later prices in R.
Sources
- StatWidget methodology: the entry score (same formula in the widget and the dashboard).