Pre-Trade Checklist

Is This Trade Real? The 5-Check Pre-Entry Chart Audit

The scanner flags a candidate. This checklist makes sure you read the chart right before you trust it.

The scanner just flagged a stock. The grade looks good. Your finger is on the buy button.

Stop.

A grade is the scanner's opinion. Before you risk a single dollar, you confirm it with your own eyes — the same five checks, in the same order, every single time.

This is that checklist. By the end you will be able to audit any flagged setup in about two minutes.

One note before we start: this post is about getting in. Exits — stops, targets, and what "sell into strength" means — are their own post. Do not mix them up.

First — the scanner hands you two things

Before you even open your chart, the scanner gives you two pieces of information.

1. The grade

Grade	What it means
A+	The cleanest setups. Strong structure, often paired with a stop-hunt reversal.
A	Clean setup. Nothing alarming on the chart.
B	Watchlist only. Something is forming, but it is not confirmed yet.

No grade is a buy signal by itself. It is a starting point.

2. The 🎯 HUNT flag

Sometimes you will see a purple HUNT badge. In plain English: big institutions pushed the price down to trigger everyone's stop-losses, scooped up the cheap shares, then let it bounce back. It is a footprint that smart money was buying. When you see it, your stop goes just below that low — tighter, with better risk.

Got both? Good. Now you verify.

Step 0 — Set up your chart (one time)

You cannot read a chart that is set up wrong. Do this once and never touch it again.

Timeframe: Daily candles. Not 15-minute.

This is swing trading — you hold for days to weeks. Fast candles (5-min, 15-min) are for day traders, and they will just make you panic and overtrade.

Optional Once the daily chart says go, you can drop to the 1-hour to time your exact entry. Never to make the decision.

Add these four — nothing else

Indicator	Settings	Powers
Moving Averages	MA20 / MA50 / MA200	Trend
Volume	with 20-period average line	Volume
MACD	12, 26, 9	Momentum
RSI	14 (bands 70 / 30)	Momentum

Why not more? Every extra indicator is one more thing to second-guess. These four cover everything you need. A fifth does not make you smarter — it makes you slower.

Exact steps in Webull

Search the ticker and open its chart.
Set the timeframe to 1D in the row of timeframes above the chart.
Click the Indicators button on the chart toolbar (top of the chart).
Under the main chart, add MA (Moving Average). Edit the lines to 20, 50, 200 — delete any extras Webull adds by default.
Add VOL (Volume). In its settings, turn on the average line and set it to 20.
Add MACD and confirm the settings read 12, 26, 9.
Add RSI and set the length to 14, with bands at 70 / 30.
Open chart Settings (the gear) and turn OFF extended / pre- and after-hours.
Drag the chart out until you can see about 6 months of candles.

On mobile: rotate to landscape, long-press the chart, then use the indicators panel for the same steps. Menu names vary slightly by app version.

Two settings beginners forget

Turn after-hours OFF so your candles stay clean. Set your lookback to 6 months minimum so you can see the bigger picture, not just this week.

Same chart, same settings, every time. That is not boring. That is the discipline.

The 5 checks

Now the audit. Five things, same order. If you cannot get a clear "good" on a step, that is information — do not ignore it.

CHECK 01

Trend — which way is this actually going?

What the chart shows: three moving-average lines (MA20, MA50, MA200) sliding across your candles.

Good looks like Price above the MA20, and the lines stacked in order — MA20 above MA50 above MA200. That stack means the trend is healthy at every timeframe.

The trap One big green day is not an uptrend. Beginners see a single pop and call it a trend. Read the stack, not the last candle.

Moving Average (MA) The average closing price over the last X days, drawn as a smooth line. MA20 = last 20 days. It cuts the noise so you can see direction.

CHECK 02

Structure — can you name the pattern?

What the chart shows: the shape price has carved out over the last few months.

Good looks like A pattern you can name out loud — a pullback to the MA20, a flag, a breakout from a base, a cup and handle. Smart money building a position leaves a recognizable shape.

The trap If you cannot name it, you do not trade it. "It looks like it's going up" is not a pattern. And a stock that already ran 15%+ in a week with no rest is not structure — it is extended. You missed it. Let it base.

CHECK 03

Momentum — fuel, or running on empty?

What the chart shows: two panels under your chart — MACD and RSI.

Good looks like RSI roughly between 45 and 65 — strong but not exhausted. MACD histogram bars green and growing — momentum building.

The trap Buying when RSI is above 70. That is "overbought" — the move is stretched and due for a rest. It feels like strength; it is usually the top of a short-term move.

RSI (Relative Strength Index) A 0–100 gauge of how fast price has moved. Above 70 = overbought (stretched). Below 30 = oversold.

MACD Measures whether momentum is speeding up or slowing down. A growing green histogram = building strength.

CHECK 04

Volume — the one beginners read backwards

Volume is the truth serum of the chart. Price can lie. Volume is who actually showed up. You will see bars at the bottom with an average line through them — a bar above the line means heavier-than-normal trading.

Good — picture A Pullback on LOW volume. Price dips on quiet, below-average bars. Sellers are drying up. Healthy.

Good — picture B Breakout on HIGH volume. Price breaks out on big bars, 1.5–2x the average. Real buyers are piling in. Confirmed.

The trap Pullback on HIGH volume. Price dips on heavy bars. That is not a rest — that is the door. Real selling, people getting out. Skip it.

The takeaway: it is not "high volume good, low volume bad." It is about matching volume to the move. Quiet pullback = good. Loud breakout = good. Loud pullback = run.

Volume average line The average volume over the last 20 days. Compare today's bar to this line to know if today's activity is unusual.

CHECK 05

Key Levels — where is your exit before you get in?

What the chart shows: a support level below (a floor buyers have defended) and a resistance level above (a ceiling sellers have defended).

Good looks like A clear support just below your entry — that is where your stop lives, a real level, not a random percentage. And your first target sits far enough above that you stand to make at least 2x what you are risking. That is a 2:1 reward-to-risk.

The trap Entering without a stop. If you cannot point to a price that says "I'm wrong, get out," you do not have a trade — you have a hope. And if the math does not give you 2:1, the setup is not worth the risk no matter how pretty it looks.

We go deep on stops and targets in the exit post. For now: no defined exit = no entry.

The verdict

Add it up.

ENTER All 5 checks pass. Clean setup. Size your position and take it.

WATCHLIST Mixed results. Something is forming, but not yet. Watch it.

SKIP Two or more fail. Move on. There is always another setup.

The scanner runs this math for you and shows the verdict. But now you understand why it says what it says — and you can catch the times your own eyes see something the grade alone missed.

Now place the order — which type to use

The verdict says ENTER. Don't just hit the green buy button blind — the type of order you place decides what price you actually get. There are four, and they are named the same in Robinhood and Webull.

Order type	What it does	Robinhood	Webull
Market	Buys right now at the going price	Market	Market
Limit	Buys only at your price or better	Limit	Limit
Stop (buy stop)	Auto-buys only if price rises through a trigger	Stop order	Stop Order
Stop Limit	Buy stop that won't chase past a price cap	Stop Limit	Stop Limit

Match the order to your setup

Your entry	Order to use
Pullback to support / MA20	Limit at your level (or Market if you're already there)
Stop-hunt reversal	Market or Limit once the reversal confirms
Breakout above resistance	Buy Stop triggered just above the level — or Stop Limit to cap your price

Default to Limit A Limit order is the disciplined choice. You name the price, you control the fill, and you never overpay chasing a candle.

The Market-order trap On a thin or fast-moving stock, a Market order can fill well above where you saw it — you take whatever price is there. Use Limit and you set the ceiling.

Your protective sell stop is a separate step — that lives in the exit guide, where it's close-based and checked once a day.

That's the whole audit

Trend, structure, momentum, volume, levels. Same five, same order, every time.

Here is the part nobody wants to hear: the edge is not a secret indicator. It is running this exact checklist when you are excited and want to skip it.

You don't get signals. You get a process.

Next up How to get out — stops, targets, and what "sell into strength" actually means. Getting in is only half the trade.