How scoring works

Every number Stock Sleuth shows comes from one formula. Here’s the full picture.

The two scores

Score	What it measures	Range
Conviction	All five pillars combined — the complete view of a trade opportunity	0 – 100
Technical	The four market-structure pillars only (no insider data), rescaled to 100. Used in the first-pass scan to decide which names to enrich with insider data.	0 – 100

Formula
Conviction = P1 + P2 + P3 + P4 + P5
Technical = (P1 + P2 + P3 + P5) ÷ 80 × 100

Is the stock in a healthy uptrend with low choppiness?

Signal	Points
Price above the 200-day moving average	+5
200 DMA is rising	+5
50 DMA is rising	+4
Both higher-highs and higher-lows present	+3
Either higher-highs or higher-lows	+1.5
Efficiency ratio (trend vs chop) — linear ramp 0 → 3	0 – 3

Is institutional money flowing in and holding pullbacks?

Signal	Points
On-balance-volume slope vs average dollar volume — linear ramp 0 → 7	0 – 7
No OBV divergence (OBV confirming price)	+7
OBV holding during pullbacks	+6

If OBV is unreliable the slope term is halved.

Are pullbacks shallow, and is volatility contracting?

Signal	Points
Pullback depth (shallower = higher) — linear ramp 0 → 7	0 – 7
Zero wide downside bars	+7
1 – 2 wide downside bars	+3.5
ATR contracting (volatility compressing)	+6
ATR not contracting	+2

Is there meaningful, clustered CFO or C-suite buying?

Signal	Points
Cluster breadth: 4 or more insiders buying	+8
Cluster breadth: 3 insiders	+6.5
Cluster breadth: 2 insiders	+4
Single buyer	+0
Net purchase ratio (NPR) — linear ramp 0 → 5	0 – 5
CFO purchase size vs market cap — linear ramp 0 → 4	0 – 4
CFO recency (fresher = higher) — linear ramp 0 → 3	0 – 3

Non-CFO buyers do not earn the size or recency points. Pillar capped at 20.

Is the sector ETF strong, and is the stock leading its sector?

Signal	Points
Sector ETF above its rising 200 DMA	+7
Sector ETF above its flat 200 DMA	+4
ETF relative strength vs SPY (6m) — linear ramp 0 → 7	0 – 7
Stock relative strength vs its ETF (avg 3m & 6m) — linear ramp 0 → 6	0 – 6

Missing ETF data scores 0 for the whole pillar.

These do not lower the score — they override position sizing to $0 regardless of conviction.

Gate
Stock is below its 200 DMA
200 DMA is not rising
50 DMA is not rising
Net purchase ratio ≤ −0.30
Market regime is “overlapping / choppy” (efficiency ratio below threshold)
Sector ETF is both below its 200 DMA and not rising
Market cap below $300 M, average dollar volume below $1 M, or price below $5

Any gated name is sized at $0 regardless of conviction.

Compute technical score (P1+P2+P3+P5) for every constituent of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq-100.
Keep names with no hard gates and technical score ≥ 45 — these are enriched with insider data.
Re-score enriched names with the full conviction score (all five pillars).
Apply hard gates; surviving names receive a position-size recommendation.