# A trading checklist you can score (free template)

- Published: 2026-10-26
- Author: JouView
- Canonical: https://blog.jouview.com/posts/trading-checklist-template/
- Product: https://jouview.com/

A checklist only helps if you can see later whether you followed it. Here is a simple scored template, a CSV you can download, and how to read the results.

Most traders have rules. Fewer can say how often they follow them. A scored checklist fixes that. Answer a few yes-or-no questions for every trade, add up the yes answers, and over a few weeks you can see whether following your rules pays.

Template (CSV): https://blog.jouview.com/assets/files/trading-checklist-template.csv

## Why score a checklist

A trade can follow every rule and lose, or break three rules and win. If you only look at profit, you end up rewarding the lucky rule-breaks and doubting the good losses. A score keeps process and outcome in separate columns, so you can judge each on its own.

## Pick rules you can answer at the time

Choose three to six rules. Each one has to be a yes or a no you can answer when you take the trade, not something you can only judge afterwards. For example:

- Plan: was the trade planned before entry?
- Setup: does it match a setup in your playbook?
- Risk: was the stop set before entry, and was the risk within your limit?
- Timing: did you wait for your trigger, for example a candle close?

"Was it a good trade?" is not a rule; it's a verdict. "Did I wait for the candle to close?" is a rule.

## The template

One row per trade, with these columns:

- Date, symbol, setup and direction.
- One column per rule, answered Y or N.
- Score: the number of Y answers.
- Risk in money, result in money, and result in R (result ÷ risk).
- Notes.

The download includes a score formula, `=COUNTIF(E2:I2,"Y")`, and an R formula, `=L2/K2`. Copy both down as you add rows.

## Score each trade

Fill in the rules when you enter the trade or straight after, while you still remember why you took it. The score is just the count of Y answers: 5/5 means every rule was followed. Don't change answers after you see the result; that's the bias the checklist is there to catch.

## Read the results

Example data
 Eight made-up trades, scored on the five rules above.

| Trade | Plan | Setup | Stop | Risk | Waited | Score | Result (R) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | 5 | +2.0 |
| 2 | Y | N | Y | Y | N | 3 | −1.0 |
| 3 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | 5 | −1.0 |
| 4 | Y | Y | Y | Y | N | 4 | +1.2 |
| 5 | N | N | Y | Y | N | 2 | −1.0 |
| 6 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | 5 | +1.8 |
| 7 | Y | Y | Y | N | N | 3 | +0.5 |
| 8 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | 5 | +1.0 |

Three questions to ask of a table like this:

- How often do I follow every rule? Here, 4 trades out of 8 scored 5/5: a 50% compliance rate. Track it week by week. It often improves faster than profit does.
- Does following the rules pay? The four 5/5 trades averaged +0.95R. The other four averaged −0.08R. Eight trades prove nothing, but over a few months this comparison is the most useful one in your journal.
- Which rule do I break most? "Waited" was skipped on 4 of 8 trades. That's the rule to work on first, or to rewrite if it doesn't fit how you trade.

Trade 3 followed every rule and lost. Trade 7 broke two and won. Both are normal. Judge trade 3 as a good trade with a bad outcome, and trade 7 as the opposite.

## Common mistakes

- Too many rules. Past six or so, people stop filling them in. Start with three.
- Rules you can't check in the moment. "Market was trending" is judged with hindsight. "Price was above the 200 EMA" can be checked.
- Scoring only the losers. Score every trade, or the comparison between full and partial scores is meaningless.
- Changing the checklist every week. Keep it fixed for at least a month before you judge it.

## Building it in JouView

In JouView, the checklist can live on the journal row under your TradingView chart. Make each rule a yes/no or star-rating column, pack them into a group so they open as one popup, and add a score formula such as:

    ([Planned] === "true" ? 1 : 0) + ([Setup] === "true" ? 1 : 0) + ([Waited] === "true" ? 1 : 0)

A style rule can then color each row by its score. Groups and custom columns are part of the Explorer and Trader plans; see checklists in JouView (https://jouview.com/features/#checklists).

## FAQ

### How many rules should a trading checklist have?

Three to six. Fewer than three says little; more than six tends to get skipped. Each rule should be a yes or no you can answer when you take the trade.

### Should I give some rules more weight?

Start without weights. Once you have a few months of scored trades, check which rules separate good results from bad ones, and weight or drop rules based on that evidence.

### Yes/no or star ratings?

Yes/no is faster and easier to keep consistent. Ratings, such as one to five stars, suit rules about quality, like how clean the setup was. You can mix both.

### What if I break a rule and the trade wins?

Record it honestly. A win that broke the rules still counts against your compliance rate, and over time those trades usually show up in the comparison between full and partial scores.