How to Measure Trading Plan Adherence
Product research based on TDLab workflows, hands-on testing and cited source material.
Trading plan adherence measures how consistently your reviewed decisions follow rules that existed before the result was known. At trade level, the simplest calculation is followed-plan trades divided by reviewed trades marked followed or violated.
The percentage alone is incomplete. You also need review coverage, clear applicability and the violations behind the average. Otherwise, missing reviews and vague rules can make the number look stronger than the process really is.
The formula
Plan adherence = followed plan / (followed plan + violated plan) x 100. Report review coverage beside it, and exclude unknown or not-applicable decisions rather than silently counting them as compliant.Use the free trading plan adherence calculator to check the formula on your current sample, including coverage, unknown trades and, optionally, one specific rule.
Define what following the plan means
A trade can only be graded against criteria that were observable at the time. Separate the main decision layers:
- Setup: did the opportunity meet the written entry conditions?
- Risk: did size, stop and total exposure remain inside the plan?
- Execution: were entry and order handling performed as intended?
- Management: did stop changes, partials and exit follow the defined logic?
- Session rules: was the trade allowed for that account, time window and current state?
If the criteria are still statements such as "take good setups" or "be patient", tighten the plan before measuring it. The trading plan versus playbook guide shows how to turn broad boundaries into auditable rules.
Track three states, not two
- Respected: the rule applied and the decision complied.
- Violated: the rule applied and the decision broke it.
- Not applicable: the rule was not relevant to that trade.
A cooldown after a loss does not apply to a trade that followed a win. Counting that trade as respected would inflate adherence. A missing review is different again: it is unknown, so show it through review coverage instead of assigning a favorable state.
Calculate trade-level adherence and coverage
Imagine a sample of 50 trades. Forty-four were reviewed: 36 followed the plan and 8 violated it. The calculations are:
- Plan adherence: 36 / (36 + 8) = 81.8%.
- Review coverage: 44 / 50 = 88%.
- Unreviewed trades: 6, kept visible rather than treated as compliant.
Read the two percentages together. An adherence rate based on a small, selectively reviewed subset is not comparable with one based on nearly complete coverage.
Measure active rules separately
Overall followed-plan status answers a broad question. Rule-level adherence tells you which instruction is difficult to execute. For each rule, use:
Rule adherence = respected / (respected + violated) x 100
If a post-loss rule applied to 20 trades and was respected 17 times, adherence is 85%. Trades where the previous result was not a loss are not applicable and stay outside the denominator. Inside TDLab, the Playbook uses these three states and can recompute adherence when a rule is clarified.
There is no universal passing score
A fixed target such as 80% can hide the difference between a minor checklist preference and a hard account-risk boundary. Establish a baseline, inspect the specific violations and treat safety-critical rules according to their severity.Review adherence by segment
A single account-wide average can hide the condition that changes behavior. Segment adherence by variables that existed before the decision:
- setup or playbook entry;
- account and platform;
- session and time block;
- trade number within the day;
- previous trade result;
- planned risk band.
If adherence falls after a loss, compare timing, size and setup quality using the revenge trading workflow. If it falls late in the session, investigate whether the pattern is overtrading or a poorly defined time boundary.
Do not let P&L grade compliance
Decide whether the plan was followed before using the outcome to evaluate the strategy. A profitable violation still lowers adherence. A losing trade that met every relevant rule still counts as respected. This preserves two separate questions:
- Can the plan produce acceptable results over a valid sample?
- Can the trader execute the plan consistently enough to measure it?
When violations repeat, use the trading mistake ranking workflow to inspect frequency, observed impact and severity without rewarding lucky off-plan wins.
A weekly adherence review
- Confirm that all trades are present and review coverage is known.
- Calculate overall followed-plan adherence.
- Review each active rule using only applicable trades.
- Open every profitable violation and every severe risk breach.
- Compare the current period with the same rule definition.
- Choose whether to keep, clarify, pause or test one rule.
Use the Discipline Score for a broader view that includes review coverage, execution quality, mistake control and journal consistency. Use the free adherence calculator when you want to reproduce the coverage and adherence math manually.
Common questions
What is a good trading plan adherence rate?
There is no universal threshold. Compare the rate with its review coverage, the severity of violated rules and your own stable baseline. A high average can still contain one unacceptable risk violation.
Should not-applicable trades count as followed?
No. Exclude them from that rule's denominator. Otherwise, a narrowly applicable rule appears artificially easy to follow.
How often should adherence be reviewed?
Review it weekly for operational feedback, while keeping rule definitions stable enough to compare periods. Change a definition when it is ambiguous or no longer useful, not merely because one trade lost.
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