Setup grading

A+ A B
Every setup graded, and every grade explained.

Two squeezes can look identical on a chart and behave nothing alike. The grade scores the setup factors that separated winners from coin flips across our 22-year, 5,852-trade backtest, and it always shows its work.

4
Setup factors per grade
5,852
Trades behind the scoring
22yr
Of evidence, every era
Setup grading · factor breakdownLive
A graded setup with each factor scored and the reasons for the grade spelled out
The factors

Four factors, one verdict.

Each factor earned its place by moving the numbers in our backtests. Together they decide the grade. The symbol's own history never does.

Trend stack

How long the stack has held

Setups graded best in our sample when the trend stack had held roughly 21 to 80 days: established, but not exhausted.

Extension

Distance from the mean

The favorable window in our backtests sat around 1.0 to 2.5 ATR from the mean. Too close and there is no spring, too far and the move is spent.

Tier

Which league the stock plays in

Liquidity and capitalization tier changed how these setups resolved in our sample, so the grade accounts for it.

Momentum

Which way the energy leans

Momentum direction and quality during the compression rounded out the grade in our research.

Why factors, and not the stock's history?

Because we tested the obvious alternative and it failed. A symbol's own past win rate did not persist; it told you almost nothing about its next trade. The setup factors, measured across the whole 22-year sample, did carry signal.

So the grade is built only from the factors. The per-symbol backtest stays on the page as the receipts, clearly labeled as context, never as the verdict.

The per-symbol record shown as receipts alongside the factor-based grade
Setups across the board with grades and upgrade conditions visible

Every grade shows what would upgrade it.

A grade you cannot interrogate is just another black box. Every graded setup spells out its scoring, so you always know where it stands.

  • Factor by factor, you see which ones passed and which held the grade back.
  • Upgrade conditions, like a B that becomes an A if extension reaches the favorable window.
  • Descriptive language, always. The grade describes the setup as it is, it does not predict the outcome.

Grades turn a scan into a decision.

A list of squeezes asks you 200 questions. A graded board answers most of them before you arrive, and shows the work for the rest.

Comparable setups

An A+ on one stock means the same thing as an A+ on another, because both come from the same factors.

Faster triage

Start at the top of the grades and work down. The board has already ordered the homework.

No black box

Every grade traces to factors, and every factor traces to a study you can open.

Stop guessing which squeeze is which.

Every setup graded, every grade explained, every factor backed by 22 years of evidence.