Our Journey 🛤️
How ClearLevels evolved from a simple breakout system to the refined signal service we are today.
Our Philosophy
Every change we made involved a tradeoff. We gave up something to gain something else. We believe transparency builds trust—and informed traders make better decisions.
This timeline shows exactly what we changed, why we changed it, and what it cost us (and gained us) at every step.
Directional Bias Filter
Where we are today
We added a pre-market directional assessment that determines which side of the market has favorable conditions. When alignment is poor, we skip the trade entirely.
âś“ What We Gained
- •23-25% smaller drawdowns
- •Consecutive losses drop from 5 to 3
- •Apex account safety: $10 → $643 margin
— What We Gave Up
- •27% fewer trade signals
- •~40% of days have no trades (up from 25%)
- •15% lower total PnL (but higher per-trade quality)
Tight-Lock Runner
Securing profits faster
When the banker target hits, we immediately ratchet the runner stop to just below the banker level. This locks in most of our profit while still allowing the runner to capture strong moves.
âś“ What We Gained
- •+$494 additional PnL on MES
- •+$430 additional PnL on MNQ
- •Captures more runner continuation
- •Reduced giveback on extended moves
— What We Gave Up
- •Occasional early stop-outs on choppy days
- •More frequent stop adjustments
Quality-Based Filtering
Skipping the marginal setups
We started skipping lower-quality setups entirely. When our assessment identifies a weak setup, we sit out rather than take a marginal trade.
âś“ What We Gained
- •~30 low-quality trades removed
- •Win rate jumps ~8 percentage points
- •Profit factor nearly doubles
- •MNQ goes from blown account to surviving
— What We Gave Up
- •Fewer total trades
- •Occasionally skip trades that would have won
Adaptive Position Sizing
Sizing to match conviction
We began varying target sizes based on our confidence assessment. High-confidence setups get larger targets; standard setups get standard targets.
âś“ What We Gained
- •Better risk/reward on high-conviction trades
- •More selective capital deployment
— What We Gave Up
- •Complexity in position management
- •Smaller targets on some setups
Signal Grading
Transparency for subscribers
We introduced a grading system (A+, A, B, C) to communicate our confidence in each setup. This helps subscribers understand which trades have higher probability.
âś“ What We Gained
- •Clear communication of trade quality
- •Subscriber confidence in the process
- •Alignment between our assessment and subscriber expectations
— What We Gave Up
- •No direct PnL impact—this is about communication
- •Requires consistent grading criteria
Confirmation Candle
Waiting for confirmation
Instead of entering immediately on breakout, we wait for the next 5-minute candle to close in the breakout direction. This filters out false breakouts.
âś“ What We Gained
- •Fewer false breakouts
- •Higher quality entry confirmation
- •Better win rates on taken trades
— What We Gave Up
- •Occasional missed entries that run immediately
- •Slightly later entries on valid setups
The Foundation
Where it all started
Raw breakout trading: identify levels, set alerts, enter on the breakout. Simple, direct, and a solid baseline—but we knew we could do better.
âś“ What We Gained
- •Clean, simple entry rules
- •Clear stop and target levels
- •Workable base system
— What Came Before
- •Manual emotional decision-making
- •No rules—just gut feelings
- •Inconsistent results, high stress
Ready to Trade With Us?
Join ClearLevels and get signals from a system that has been refined through 7 major iterations—each one improving risk-adjusted returns.