Write Entry Rules So Specific a Stranger Could Follow Them

[Fairman]

Here's a useful test for whether your entry criteria are actually specific enough to be useful: could a complete stranger, armed only with your written description, execute your strategy correctly without ever needing to ask you a clarifying question?

"I enter when it looks bullish" fails this test immediately and completely. It's not a rule — it's a vague impression that depends entirely on your in-the-moment mood, intuition, and whatever subconscious biases happen to be active that day. Two different days, looking at the exact same chart pattern, might produce two completely different decisions under this "rule," and you'd have no way to even notice the inconsistency.

Compare that to something like: "I enter when price closes above the 20 EMA on the 5-minute chart, with RSI above 50, and current volume above the 20-period average volume." This is specific. It's mechanical. A stranger reading this description, looking at the same chart, would make the same decision you would.

Go through your current mental "criteria" and rewrite each one in this level of specificity. You'll likely discover that some of what you thought were solid rules are actually vague impressions you've never fully articulated, even to yourself. That discovery alone is valuable — it's very hard to be consistent about a rule you've never actually pinned down in concrete terms.