What is Setup?
A setup is the specific pattern, level, and confirmation rule that must be present before entry.
Formula
No valid setup = no trade. Period.
Indian market context (NSE)
Reference levels: Nifty 50 at 24,300, Reliance Industries at ₹1,300, Bank Nifty futures at 55,000 (lot size 30). Examples below show how Setup shows up on Indian index, equity, and futures books — update to live quotes in your journal.
Nifty 50 perspective
Trade Setup on Nifty (24,300): backtest includes 9:15 liquidity and expiry-day behaviour; edge on index may vanish outside 10:00–14:30 window.
Reliance Industries perspective
Trade Setup on Reliance (₹1,300): liquidity is deep but event gaps dominate — strategy rules need explicit earnings blackout weeks.
Bank Nifty futures perspective
Trade Setup on Bank Nifty futures (55,000): high beta suits shorter holds; overnight trade setup must state NRML risk and gap plan in writing.
How to validate
- Validate Setup only after costs — gross win rate can hide negative expectancy.
- Use walk-forward windows (e.g. last 60 / prior 60 trades) for stability.
- Retire or refactor the tag if Setup expectancy turns negative with 50+ trades.
- Ensure no overlapping tags duplicate the same trades.
How to track in TradeLyser
- Define Setup in Strategy Board with entry/exit/skip criteria.
- Enforce single-tag discipline — no secondary discretionary entries.
- Review expectancy, win rate, and avg R monthly on the tag only.
- Archive tag version when rules change; do not blend old and new trades.
Best practices
- One playbook page per Setup strategy with non-negotiable rules.
- Paper trade rule changes for two weeks before live size.
- Track costs explicitly on high-frequency Setup variants.
- Compare versioned tags after each rule amendment.
Common pitfalls
- Adding discretionary trades under the Setup tag.
- Scaling up after one lucky week of Setup results.
- Ignoring brokerage drag on high-frequency variants.
- Retiring a tag without exporting final statistics.
How to use this in TradeLyser
Name setups in Strategy Board; refuse entries that fail checklist — tag violations.
Related terms
A breakout occurs when price closes beyond a boundary — range high, triangle, or prior day level — that traders were watching.
Confluence occurs when level, pattern, indicator, and session context agree on same trade idea.
Discipline is repeatable adherence to entries, exits, size, and pause rules — especially after wins and losses.
A trading plan is a written contract with yourself: what you trade, when you trade, how much you risk, and how you review. It turns discretion into measurable rules.
FAQ
How many setups to run live?
Start with one to three mastered tags — add only after review.
Similar setups different names?
Merge or split deliberately — analytics need stable vocabulary.
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