What is trading readiness?
Trading readiness is how prepared a trader is to trade on a given day — their state (sleep, emotions) and their discipline (a plan, a loss limit, a trade limit, no urge to win back yesterday). A readiness index turns those answers into one number from 1 to 10 before the first trade.
Key points
- Measured once, at the start of the day, before any trade.
- Half state, half discipline.
- A low score doesn’t forbid trading; it says trade smaller or less.
How the readiness index is calculated
In StatWidget the day checklist has seven built-in questions. State is the average of two 1–10 scales: wellbeing and sleep, and emotional state. Discipline is the share of four conditions met: the plan for today is ready, a daily loss limit is set, a trade limit is set, and there is no urge to win back yesterday’s loss.
The index is the average of state and discipline, minus one point for external stress and one for the urge to win back, rounded to a whole number from 1 to 10.
How to use it
- 7–10: ready to trade — follow the plan as written.
- 5–6: trade carefully — halve your risk per trade and stick to the plan.
- 1–4: better not to trade; if you do, minimum size and no more than one trade.
Why measure the trader
A strategy’s statistics assume it is executed as written. Readiness is the part of the result the strategy can’t see: the same setup traded on a 4/10 morning and on a 9/10 morning is not the same trade. Comparing results by readiness band shows what your weak days cost.
Example
Wellbeing 6 and emotional state 8 give a state of 7. The plan is ready, both limits are set, no urge to win back — discipline 10. Readiness = (7 + 10) ÷ 2 = 8.5, rounded to 9. The same morning with an urge to win back yesterday: discipline 7.5, readiness (7 + 7.5) ÷ 2 − 1 = 6.25, rounded to 6.
Numbers are illustrative.
Questions
Does a low readiness score block trading?
No. It is advice recorded with the day; the dashboard later shows how trades on low-readiness days ended.
Can I change the questions?
Yes. Built-in questions can be switched off and you can add your own, up to 10 in total. Your own questions are recorded with the day but don’t change the index.
Sources
- StatWidget methodology: the day readiness index (same formula in the widget and the dashboard).