Six scored passes to run before you take a level trade — identify, assess, confirm, risk, target, final — plus what the score means and the two lists nobody fills in after the trade is over.
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<a href="https://www.sharpnel-trading.com/learn/support-resistance-trading-checklist"><img src="https://www.sharpnel-trading.com/images/learn/support-resistance-trading-checklist-w1600.png" alt="The support and resistance trading checklist: six scored steps — identify the level, assess level strength, wait for confirmation, define the risk, identify the target, final pass — with a verdict scale of take it, wait, or skip it, plus during-trade and after-trade lists." width="100%"></a><p>Via <a href="https://www.sharpnel-trading.com/learn/support-resistance-trading-checklist">Sharpnel Trading</a></p>
Why it is scored
A checklist you tick without counting is a ritual. The scores are what make it bite: each pass has a threshold, and if the level does not clear the threshold the trade does not happen, regardless of how good the chart looks. That is the entire mechanism. “It looked good” has to become a number before you are allowed to act on it.
Run honestly, this will talk you out of far more trades than it talks you into. That is the return on filling it in.
The six passes
Step 1 — Identify the level
- Is there a clear support or resistance level?
- Has price tested this level more than twice?
- Does the level hold on the daily or weekly chart?
- Is there historical context — a 52-week high or low?
- Was there heavy volume here the last time?
Score: ___ / 5 — 3 of 5 to carry on.
Step 2 — Assess level strength
- Horizontal level from prior highs or lows
- A moving average sitting on it (50 or 200)
- A trendline arriving at the same place
- A high-volume node on the volume profile
- A candlestick pattern forming into it
- Prior 52-week or all-time extreme
Score: ___ / 6 — 4+ factors is a strong level.
Step 3 — Wait for confirmation
- Price reaches the level
- Volume picks up
- A candle forms in your direction — bullish at support, bearish at resistance
- Momentum turns with you off the level
- Price closes back on your side of it
Score: ___ / 5 — 3 of 5 before entering.
Step 4 — Define the risk
- Entry price written down
- Stop placed beyond the level, not at it
- Risk per share calculated
- Position size set from that risk (the 1–2% rule)
- Reward at least twice the risk
Score: ___ / 5 — all five — no partial credit.
Step 5 — Identify the target
- Next resistance located (for a long)
- Next support located (for a short)
- Profit target set before entry
- Decided whether a trailing stop applies
- Exit plan is written, not remembered
Score: ___ / 5 — 3 of 5 to carry on.
Step 6 — Final pass
- Level strength ≥ 4 of 6
- Confirmation ≥ 3 of 5
- Risk management 5 of 5
- Target identified ≥ 3 of 5
- You are calm — answer this one honestly
- Broad conditions suit the trade
- No scheduled news inside the holding period
Score: ___ / 7 — 6+ of 7 to take it.
What the score means
| Final score | Verdict | Why |
|---|
| 6–7 of 7 | Take it | Everything that can be checked, checks. |
| 5 of 7 | Wait | One key factor is missing. The level will still be there. |
| 4 or fewer | Skip it | Not enough agreement. This is the common outcome, and it is supposed to be. |
What “confluence” actually means
Step 2 is the one that separates a level from a line you drew. Confluence is simply the number of independent reasons the same price matters. A horizontal level that also has the 200-day moving average on it, a rising trendline arriving, and a high-volume node from the volume profile is not four times as good as a bare line — it is a price that four different groups of participants are watching for four different reasons.
The reason the threshold sits at four of six rather than six of six is that waiting for perfect confluence means never trading. Four is where the edge in this framework starts and the frequency is still workable.
The factor most level checklists leave out
Every item in step 2 is derived from price and volume history — where the market has been. None of them says anything about where dealers are structurally forced to buy or sell today.
Dealer gamma is that missing input. A call wall or put wall from the options book is a level with a mechanical reason behind it: market makers hedging their positions transact at those strikes whether they like the chart or not. When one lands on a level that already has four factors, you have technical confluence and a flow reason. I publish today’s /ES and /NQ walls before the open and grade them against the real session at 4:15 the same day, with the misses kept on the record. No account needed to read them.
Step 4 is the one with no partial credit
Every other pass has a threshold below its maximum. Risk does not, and that asymmetry is deliberate. A level can be mediocre and the trade still survives. A position sized without knowing the risk per share does not, because the loss is unbounded by anything except how wrong you turn out to be.
The specific item people skip is the second one: stop placed beyond the level, not at it. A stop sitting exactly on the level you are trading is the stop most likely to be filled on the wick that then reverses in your direction.
During the trade, and after it
The checklist does not end at entry. Two shorter lists cover the parts where discipline actually leaks.
While the trade is on
- Stop is where you put it
- Size is what you calculated
- Watching price, not the P&L
- Stop has not been moved
- Nothing added to a loser
- Ready to be wrong at the stop
After the close — the part people skip
- Trade closed, either way
- Went back over what happened
- Wrote down what worked
- Wrote down what did not
- Journal updated the same day
- One thing to change next time
Same day matters. A journal entry written on the weekend is a reconstruction, and it will quietly edit out whatever you would rather not have done.
What it will not do
- It does not predict the outcome. A 7 of 7 setup loses regularly. The checklist filters for process quality, and process quality is not the same thing as a winning trade.
- It does not replace a strategy. It assumes you already trade levels and are deciding whether this one qualifies.
- It is slow on purpose. If your setup lives for four seconds this is the wrong tool, and you need the checks built into the platform rather than written on paper.
Common questions
- What should you check before entering a support or resistance trade?
- Six things, in order. First, that the level is real: clear, tested more than twice, visible on the daily or weekly, with historical context and heavy prior volume. Second, its strength — how many independent factors agree on that price. Third, confirmation that price has actually reacted there. Fourth, defined risk: entry, stop beyond the level, risk per share, position size and at least a 2:1 reward. Fifth, a target and a written exit. Sixth, a final pass over all of it plus your own state and the news calendar.
- What is confluence in trading?
- Confluence is the number of independent reasons the same price matters. A horizontal level that also carries a major moving average, an arriving trendline and a high-volume node is being watched by several different groups of participants for several different reasons. Four or more agreeing factors is generally treated as a strong level; waiting for all six means rarely trading at all.
- Where should the stop go on a support or resistance trade?
- Beyond the level, not on it. A stop placed exactly at the level you are trading is the one most likely to be taken out by a wick that then reverses in your direction. The distance from entry to that stop is what determines position size, using a fixed 1–2% of account risk per trade.
- How many times does price need to test a level for it to count?
- More than twice. Two touches define a line; a third and subsequent touches are evidence that participants are actually transacting there. Each additional test also consumes resting liquidity, so a level tested many times is well established and simultaneously closer to breaking.
- What score means you should skip the trade?
- Four or fewer out of seven on the final pass. Five means wait — one key factor is missing and the level will still be there. Six or seven means take it. Skipping is the most common outcome of running the checklist honestly, and that is the intended behaviour rather than a sign it is set too strictly.
- Does a checklist like this guarantee better results?
- No. It filters for process quality, not outcomes, and a setup that scores 7 of 7 still loses regularly. What it does is force a decision to be written down and counted before money is committed, which removes most impulse entries. It also cannot help with setups that appear and disappear in seconds — that needs checks built into the platform rather than written on paper.
Published August 14, 2026 · Educational reference only. Nothing here is investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Fund names and tickers are given to identify what tracks a sector, not to endorse one.
