summary: a complete guide to building a data-backed trading plan — from understanding the core reports to a repeatable daily routine you can use every morning.

most traders build a strategy around indicators, chart patterns, or something they saw on YouTube. the problem isn't the strategy itself — it's that there's no way to measure whether it actually works before putting money on the line.

a data-backed strategy is different. instead of "I think price will bounce here," you're working with "historically, price has bounced from this level 72% of the time on NQ in the NY session over the last 6 months."

that's what edgeful gives you — the historical numbers behind the setups you're already trading (or want to trade). you're not replacing your strategy. you're adding a layer of data that tells you how often it's actually worked.

the fastest way to see how this works in practice is the free ultimate reversal setup (URS) course. it walks through a complete, testable trading strategy built on edgeful's data — step by step.

the URS combines 3 data points that are easy to read and show up every single day: where price opened relative to the prior day's range, whether the gap filled, and what the initial balance did. the course shows you how to stack those together into a directional bias with real numbers behind it.

even if you don't end up trading the URS, the course teaches you how to think about combining edgeful reports — which is the skill that matters most on the platform.

edgeful has 150+ reports. you don't need all of them. start with these 4 — they cover the setups that most traders encounter every single session:

opening candle continuation — after the first candle of the session closes, how often does price continue in that direction? this gives you a quick read on whether today's opening move has follow-through or tends to reverse.

initial balance (IB) — the range of the first 30-60 minutes sets up the rest of the day. the IB report shows how often price breaks above or below that range, how far it extends, and whether the first break tends to hold or reverse.

gap fill — when price opens above or below the prior session's close, how often does it come back to fill that gap? filtered by gap size, direction, and session. one of the most traded setups in futures — and edgeful shows you the actual fill rates.

previous day's range (PDR) — did price open inside or outside yesterday's range? that single condition changes the character of the entire day. the PDR report shows what's happened historically based on where the open lands relative to the prior day's high and low.

spend time on each of these individually before trying to combine them. click into the report, change the ticker, change the session, adjust the lookback period. see how the numbers shift. that's the foundation.

once you're comfortable with the core 4, the next step is narrowing down to the reports that match how you actually trade. the biggest mistake new members make is trying to use every report on the platform. 150+ reports is a strength — but only if you focus on the ones that matter for your setup.

ask yourself 2 questions:

1) what time of day do I trade?
2) what kind of setups do I take?

your answers determine which reports you should focus on. here's how it maps out:

if you trade the open (9:30–10:30 am ET):

if you trade midday or the afternoon:

if you trade overnight or pre-market:

you've got your core reports. now let's turn that into a 10-minute pre-market routine you can run every morning before the bell.

the goal here isn't to predict the day. it's to walk into the session with a data-backed bias — so you're reacting to levels, not guessing.

step 1 — check the screener

open the screener and look at the daily bias bar. this aggregates 4 reports (opening candle continuation, IB, IB by rejection, and previous day's range) across your selected tickers.

you're looking for alignment. when NQ, ES, and the mag 7 stocks are all pointing the same direction — that's confluence. that's a strong read on the day.

when they're mixed? that's useful too. it tells you to be more selective and wait for cleaner setups.

step 2 — check what's in play (WIP)

WIP shows you the real-time conditions for a single ticker based on your reports. this is where you get specific.

ask yourself 3 questions as you look at WIP:

the answers tell you which reports are active today. if there's a gap, your gap fill report matters. if you're inside yesterday's range, previous day's range and IB are your focus. if you're outside — that's a different playbook entirely.

step 3 — identify your levels

once you know which reports are in play, pull the key levels onto your chart. edgeful's TradingView indicators make this fast — IB high/low, previous day's range, gap fill level, ORB levels.

you're not drawing these by hand. you're letting the data give you the levels, then building your plan around them.

this entire routine should take you about 10 minutes once you've done it a few times. the first week might be 20 — that's fine. the point is it becomes automatic.

your pre-market routine gives you a bias and levels. now the session starts — and your job is to follow the plan.

here's where most traders fall apart. they have a great morning read, then abandon it the second price moves against them.

so what does this mean for your trading?

it means your in-session process is simple:

1) wait for price to reach one of your levels
2) check if the data supports the move — is the fill rate or breakout rate strong enough for you?
3) if yes, take the trade. if no, sit on your hands

that third part is the hardest — and the most important. the data doesn't always say "go." some days, the numbers are mixed and nothing lines up cleanly. those are days where doing nothing is the right trade.

and by the way, this is where the screener pays off again. if your individual report says bullish, but the screener shows the broader market is bearish and diverging — that's a reason to be cautious. confluence matters during the session, not just before it.

your trading plan isn't just pre-market and in-session. the 5 minutes you spend after the close might be the most valuable part of the whole process.

here's what to review:

1) did your bias play out? check if the screener's read and your WIP analysis were correct. you're not grading yourself — you're calibrating your process

2) did price reach your levels? if your IB extension target was in play but never got hit, that's still useful data. it tells you the setup was valid — the market just didn't get there today

3) did you follow the plan? this one's between you and you. if you took a trade that wasn't in your plan, figure out why. if you skipped a valid setup, figure out why

the goal of the review isn't to feel good or bad about the day. it's to find the patterns in your own behavior — and the data makes that possible because you have something concrete to compare against.

over time, this review is what turns a collection of reports into a real edge. you start noticing which setups work best for you, which sessions you trade well in, and where you tend to make mistakes.

that's customization. and it's the part that takes effort — but it's also the part that separates members who use edgeful as a tool from those who treat it like a magic button.

every report on edgeful lets you customize the lookback period — 1 year, 6 months, 3 months, or a custom range. this matters more than most people realize.

a stat that shows 70%+ across all 3 timeframes is more reliable than one that only looks good on the 1-year view but has dropped off recently.

so when you're building your plan, don't just look at one timeframe. check the consistency. if a report's numbers are strong across 6 months and 3 months, that's a setup you can lean into with confidence. if the 3-month data has fallen off, that's the market telling you conditions have shifted — and your plan should shift with it.

sessions matter just as much. a stat on ES in the NY session is a completely different data point than ES in the overnight session. always check that your session matches when you actually trade.

and once your screener or WIP setup is dialled in, save it as a template. one click restores your entire configuration the next morning. for the full template walkthrough, see templates — reports, what's in play, and screener.

once you've got a morning routine and you're comfortable reading reports, there are 2 directions you can grow into:

edgeful AI — ask questions in plain English and get answers that pull from the platform's report data. useful when you want to combine multiple data points and understand what the numbers mean together — for example, "ES gapped up 0.3% after a bearish outside day. what does the data say?"

algo automation — if you're on the all access plan, you can automate strategies (ORB, IB, gap fill, engulfing) through TradingView alerts connected to a supported broker. this is the next level — but it requires understanding the data first. the algo runs on the same reports you've been reading manually, so the foundation you build now is exactly what makes algo automation work later.

trying to use every report on day one. start with 3-4. learn what each one measures and how the numbers change across tickers and sessions. depth beats breadth early on.

ignoring the session filter. a stat on ES in the NY session is a completely different data point than ES in the overnight session. always check that your session matches when you actually trade.

treating one data point as a trade signal. a single report showing 65% doesn't mean "go long." combine it with other reports. when 3 or 4 reports align in the same direction — that's confluence, and that's where the edge gets interesting.

not saving your setup. once you've built a screener or WIP configuration that works, save it as a template immediately. rebuilding it from scratch every morning is time you could be spending reading the data.

here's a screenshot-friendly version of the pre-market routine you can use every day:

1) open the screener → check the daily bias bar across your tickers
2) note alignment: are indices + mag 7 stocks pointing the same direction?
3) open WIP for your primary ticker
4) check: inside or outside yesterday's range?
5) check: above or below yesterday's close?
6) check: is there a gap?
7) identify which of your core reports are in play today
8) pull up the relevant edgeful TradingView indicators
9) mark your key levels on the chart
10) write down your bias and the levels you're watching — that's your plan

if 3+ of your core reports align in the same direction, you've got confluence. trade with conviction.

if they're mixed, reduce size or wait for a cleaner setup.

if nothing lines up — sit on your hands. the data will be there tomorrow.