Going deeper
PublicReading the Signals
A BUY signal is a candidate, not a trade. Here's why most signals never turn into a position — and why that's the point.
A signal is just a candidate
When a strategy's entry rule matches a stock or ETF, the system records a signal— a note that says "this one is worth a look." That is all a signal is. It is the very start of the process, not a decision to buy. Far more signals are raised than ever become trades, and that gap is the discipline working as designed.
Why the numbers look big
The funnel: from signal to trade
Every candidate has to pass through a series of checks before it can become a trade. A "no" at any stage stops it cold:
- ·1. Signal— a strategy's entry rule matches. The candidate enters the funnel.
- ·2. Confidence— the system scores the candidate on quality and conviction. It must clear a minimum bar (a score of at least 40) to go further. Many candidates don't.
- ·3. Risk gates— even a confident candidate has to fit inside the risk rules: how much can be risked on one trade, how many positions are already open, how much of the account is exposed, and whether the market backdrop is safe. If it doesn't fit, it's skipped.
- ·4. Execution — only what survives all of the above becomes an actual trade, and even then it is placed with its protective plan attached from the first moment.
The doctrine
Reading a decision
On the Insights page you can browse the decision log and see, for any candidate, the score it earned, what the system decided, and why. Most entries are a decision to hold or skip — that's normal. When you want to understand why something did or didn't trade, that's the place to look.