Entry Grading: Measure Process Without Predicting Outcomes

P&L is a noisy way to grade one decision. A trade can make money after a poor entry, and a carefully planned trade can lose. A process scorecard asks a narrower question: which predefined conditions were present when the entry was recorded?

A grade is evidence about rule fit, not evidence about the next price move.

The current seven conditions

TradeRegimen's current long/short stock grader evaluates seven conditions when sufficient data is available:

1. Relative strength: directional performance relative to SPY.
2. Relative volume: current volume relative to recent volume.
3. Trend: price and moving-average alignment for the direction.
4. Entry location: proximity to selected moving-average support or a recent undercut-and-rally/rejection pattern.
5. Extension: whether the entry is beyond the current multi-anchor extension threshold.
6. Size: whether supplied shares fit the grader's current risk and notional assumptions.
7. Stop placement: whether the supplied stop fits the grader's direction-aware placement rule.

These are implementation-specific conditions. They are not a complete definition of entry quality and should not be presented as a universal trading standard.

How the letter band is assigned

• A+: all seven conditions pass.
• A: four to six conditions pass.
• B: three conditions pass.
• C: two conditions pass.
• F: fewer than two conditions pass.

The current stock grader does not emit a D band. The count is intentionally simple, so a user should read the condition details instead of treating the letter as a complete verdict.

One implementation caveat matters: when optional position size or stop inputs are omitted, the current grader marks those rows as passing while labeling them as pending or not provided. An A+ can therefore include an unresolved size or stop assessment. Check all seven details rather than assuming the letter means every input was verified.

A hypothetical scorecard

Imagine a fictional long entry where relative strength, trend, entry location, extension, and stop placement pass, while relative volume and the grader's size condition do not. Five of seven conditions pass, so the current mapping returns an A.

That A does not resolve the size conflict. It also does not say that the trade has positive expectancy. The trader should inspect the failed size row and the separate Constitution checklist before deciding what to do.

Why the Constitution check is separate

The entry grader's sizing row uses its own current assumptions. The Constitution checklist uses the user's saved risk percentage, maximum position value, portfolio risk, position slots, and Market Context response. Treat the Constitution sizing result as the relevant saved-rule comparison in the manual position-entry workflow.

The Constitution also checks daily and weekly loss state and the narrow Leveraged Sector Limit. Those facts are not part of the seven-condition entry letter.

Data and freshness limitations

• The grader needs enough daily bars; short histories can return no grade.
• Quotes, volume, fundamentals, or benchmark data can be delayed or unavailable.
• Leveraged products may use the resolved underlying for technical context.
• An incorrect entry, stop, share count, direction, or underlying changes the result.
• Market conditions can change after the grade is calculated.

How to use grades in a review

Use the condition rows to compare like with like. After enough of your own recorded trades, examine results by grade and by failed condition. Include sample size, costs, changing market conditions, and any changes to the grading logic. Do not infer a reliable performance difference from a few observations.

• Which conditions fail most often?
• Are failures concentrated in one setup or market state?
• Did the trader acknowledge a separate Constitution conflict?
• Did later exits follow the recorded plan?

The signal-versus-discretionary guide explains another useful label for later comparison. The trading-rules checklist covers the separate risk workflow.

Sources and review context

• The seven conditions, grade bands, data resolution, and sizing separation were reviewed against the current entry-grading and Constitution implementations on September 14, 2026.
• No performance claim is made for any grade band. Examples are hypothetical and educational.