Composite Score

Every technical indicator has failure modes that appear repeatedly in live markets. Volume alone can spike on news that turns out to be a rumor. RSI overbought conditions persist for weeks in strong trending markets. Gap-up stocks fade immediately when gaps are caused by low-conviction overnight news. A composite score is resilient to these individual failure modes because it requires multiple independent signals to align simultaneously. A stock showing high relative volume, a clean gap above resistance, RSI in the 55 to 65 zone (trending but not overbought), and sector outperformance is a far higher-quality candidate than a stock with only one of these characteristics. The composite score converts this multi-factor alignment into a single number that reflects the overall quality of the setup across all dimensions.

The weights assigned to each composite score component reflect their historical predictive value for intraday follow-through. Technical signal quality — the strength and quality of the breakout, VWAP relationship, and momentum indicators — receives the highest weight (30 to 40%) because it most directly captures the price action thesis. Volume confirmation (20 to 25%) validates that institutional participation is present, not just retail activity. Gap magnitude (5 to 10%) provides a directional head start that momentum strategies can exploit. Relative strength versus the sector ETF (10 to 15%) confirms the stock is a leader within its sector context rather than a laggard being pushed by broad market moves. The AI conviction multiplier (15 to 20%) adjusts all scores based on the model's assessment of the qualitative narrative context surrounding the setup.

The composite score's technical and volume components can be computed from quantitative data alone. The AI conviction multiplier is the final adjustment that incorporates context that indicators cannot capture: the quality of the news catalyst, the clarity of the narrative, the strength of the technical setup relative to the current market regime, and historical performance of similar setups. A conviction score of 80 out of 100 applied to a composite score of 75 produces a final rank of 60 (75 × 0.80), while the same raw score with a conviction of 40 produces a rank of 30. This ensures that technically strong setups with poor or unclear catalysts are ranked below slightly weaker setups with strong, clear catalysts — reflecting the reality that catalyst quality is as important as technical quality in day trading.

Composite scoring includes a structural bias toward user watchlist tickers. Stocks that a user has explicitly added to their watchlist receive a 15-point score boost before final ranking. This prioritization reflects a key advantage: a trader who has been monitoring a specific stock, understands its recent price history, and has conviction about its setup is better positioned to manage that trade than an algorithmically selected stranger. The watchlist boost ensures these pre-researched candidates are not crowded out by marginally higher-scoring candidates the system discovered through its scan universe. Users can further customize the boost amount or disable it entirely through their Tradewink preferences.