Tracking Rule Adherence: How to Measure Whether You Follow Your Trading Rules
Reviewed by Leon Moyer - Published October 9, 2026 - Last reviewed October 9, 2026
In this lesson
Record a rules check after each closed trade, calculate an adherence rate overall and rule by rule, and judge a strategy's rules only on the trades that followed them.
Rule adherence is the share of your trades that followed every one of your written rules. It is the number that tells you whether you are actually trading your strategy, or a looser version of it that only exists in the moment.
It matters because a strategy's results only describe the strategy if you followed it. A losing month on rule-following trades says something about the rules. A losing month on rule-breaking trades says something about the trader, and changing the rules will not fix it.
Why track rule adherence separately from profit and loss?
Profit and loss mixes two questions together: were the rules good, and did you follow them? Adherence pulls them apart.
- High adherence, poor results: the rules themselves may need work. This is useful to know, and it is the only situation in which changing a rule is clearly justified.
- Low adherence, any results: you do not yet know whether the rules work, because you have not really traded them. Good results here can be luck; bad results may not be the rules' fault.
Course 1's How to Keep an Options Trading Journal You Will Actually Use records for each trade whether you followed the plan, a simple yes or no. This lesson goes one step further: checking each rule separately, counting the results, and using them to decide what to change.
How do you record a rules check after each trade?
Do it when the trade closes, in the same place every time, and in the same order as the rules. Using the rules from How to Write Testable Trading Rules You Can Backtest, the check has five questions:
- Entry: were the entry rules met when you opened the trade?
- Size: was it the size the sizing rule allowed?
- Profit exit: if the trade closed for a profit, did it close at the rule's price?
- Loss exit: if it closed for a loss, did it close at the rule's price?
- Time exit: if neither price exit was hit, did it close at the rule's time?
Write the answers as one line in the trade's notes, such as "Rules: E yes, S yes, P no (closed early at $2.50), L n/a, T n/a." A line like that can be counted at the end of the month; a paragraph has to be reread.
The rules check after every closed trade
Entry
Were the entry rules met?
Size
Was it the rule's size?
Exit
Closed at a rule's level or time?
Note it
One line: rules broken, and which
How do you calculate your adherence rate?
Two numbers, both from the same notes:
- Overall adherence = trades that followed every rule / total trades.
- Adherence by rule = trades that followed that rule / trades where the rule applied.
The overall number tells you how often you traded the strategy as written. The rule-by-rule numbers tell you which rule to work on.
Worked example
Example: a month of 20 trades of the XYZ spread strategy
The strategy is the XYZ 50/55 bull call spread from How to Write Testable Trading Rules You Can Backtest: buy the 50 call, sell the 55 call, for a $1.20 debit. Its maximum loss is $120 per spread, its maximum profit is $380 per spread, and it breaks even at expiration at $51.20. The rules size it at 3 spreads and exit at $3.10, at $0.60 or with 21 days left.
Over a month of 20 trades, 5 trades broke one rule each:
Entry and size apply to every trade. Each trade needs only one exit rule, so the exit rows count only the trades where that rule applied: 10 closed for a profit, 6 for a loss and 4 by time. An "n/a" is left out rather than counted as followed. Overall adherence is 15 / 20 = 75%: one trade in four was not the strategy as written.
The rule broken most often was the profit exit. In one of those trades, the spread was sold at $2.50 instead of the $3.10 the rule called for. That made ($2.50 - $1.20) x 100 x 3 = $390, where the rule's exit would have made ($3.10 - $1.20) x 100 x 3 = $570, because the spread did go on to reach $3.10. Taking profits early felt safe, and gave up $180.
The broken loss exit cost just as much. Held to an expiration below $50 instead of closed at $0.60, the 3 spreads lost the full $360 instead of $180.
Illustrative and hypothetical. The ticker and prices are invented for teaching, and the figures exclude commissions, fees, margin interest and taxes, which reduce real results. Past or hypothetical outcomes do not indicate future results.
What one skipped loss exit costs
Loss on 3 spreads
All figures are before fees. Early exits do not always cost money: sometimes the spread would have fallen back instead. That is the point of counting. One early exit that worked out proves nothing, but a profit exit you override on two of the ten trades where it applied is a rule you are not really trading.
How do you judge your rules fairly?
Judge the rules on the trades that followed them, and judge yourself on the adherence rate. Mixing the two leads to the classic mistake: changing a rule because of losses that came from breaking it.
When you do review the rule-following trades, look at more than how many won. Look at the average result per trade, the largest single loss and the worst run of losses. A rule set that wins often but occasionally loses far more than its sizing rule intended has a problem a high win count can hide.
Course 3's module Finding Your Edge from Your Journal covers that kind of review in depth.
What should you do with a rule you keep breaking?
Ask why, using the notes:
- The rule is vague. If you were unsure whether it applied, rewrite it with a number in it.
- The rule is clear but uncomfortable. If you knew and overrode it, the rule is not the problem. A smaller size, or exits entered as orders when you open the trade, can make it easier to follow.
- You think the rule is wrong. Then test the alternative, on paper or in a backtest, before changing the live rules. Change one rule at a time, and note the date you changed it.
Check your understanding
Out of 25 trades, 20 followed every rule. What is the overall adherence rate?
Show answer
80%. 20 / 25 = 0.8.
Your month lost money, and adherence was 60%. Should you change the rules?
Show answer
Not yet. With 40% of trades off the rules, the losses may come from breaking them. Look at the rule-following trades on their own, and work on the rules you broke most.
Why write the rules check as one short line in the same order every time?
Show answer
So a month of trades can be counted quickly and compared, rule by rule, instead of reread and interpreted.
Key takeaways
- Rule adherence is the share of trades that followed every written rule; track each rule separately too.
- Record a one-line rules check in each trade's notes when it closes, in the same order every time.
- Judge the rules on the trades that followed them, and judge your discipline on the adherence rate.
- Fix a vague rule by adding a number; test a rule you disagree with before changing it.
Common questions
What is rule adherence in trading?
Rule adherence is how consistently you follow your own written trading rules. It is usually measured as the share of trades that followed every rule, along with the share that followed each individual rule.
How do you measure trading discipline?
Write a short rules check in each trade's notes when you close it: was the entry rule met, was the size correct, and did you exit by a rule? Count the trades that passed every check and divide by the number of trades.
How do you stick to your trading rules?
Make the rules precise enough to check, decide size and exits before entry, and review your adherence on a fixed schedule. Seeing a number for each rule shows which one you break most, which is the one to work on.
Should you change a trading rule you keep breaking?
Not in the middle of a trade. First check whether the rule is vague or whether you are simply overriding it. If it is vague, make it precise. If you keep overriding it, test the change on paper before changing the live rules.