Pipsgrowth EX12032 MultiIndicatorConfluence

EX12032 is a Gaussian-bands breakout EA built around a single-pole Gaussian approximation, not the more common Ehlers 4-pole implementation that runs elsewhere in the corpus. The midline is a Length=10 EMA on the chart timeframe, then two parallel bands are drawn at a DistanceMultiplier=0.85×ATR(14) above and below it. That produces wider bands than a Bollinger setting at the same length because ATR(14) is wider than a 14-period standard deviation, which is what gives the EA room to filter false breakouts. Every band value is shifted by GaussianShift (default 0) and ATRShift (default 0), so the user can pull the entire channel backward or forward in time to match a slightly lagging regime classifier.

The signal function, CheckBreakoutSignal, demands a specific price geometry before it fires. For a buy, the current bar's close must trade above the upper band while the two previous closes traded below it. That "2 prior closes inside" requirement is the structural integrity test: a single-bar poke above the band is rejected. On top of that, the slope test requires gaussNow > gaussPrev, the distance test requires (price − gaussNow) > MinBreakDistance × ATR (default 0.3 ATR), the higher-timeframe trend filter requires price > emaHTF where emaHTF is a Length=50 EMA on TrendFilterTF (default H4), and a candle-strength test requires the body to be at least 60% of the full candle range. The last filter is the one most EAs in this family skip — it discards doji-shaped breakouts where the close is above the band but the candle has long wicks indicating indecision. A sell is the exact mirror.

The two optional class-based filters, CheckHeikenAshiDirection and GetSuperTrendDirection, are wired but disabled by default. When the user turns UseHeikenAshiFilter on, a buy is rejected if the current Heiken Ashi candle is bearish (HA close ≤ HA open). When UseSuperTrendFilter is on, a buy is rejected if the SuperTrend (default ATR period 22, multiplier 3.0, median price) is bearish. Both filters short-circuit the entry in CheckBreakoutSignal via the buyFiltersPass / sellFiltersPass checks. With both off, the EA trades purely on the breakout geometry plus the HTF filter, which is the configuration 90%+ of live runs will use.

AutoTuneFilters is the regime adaptation layer. When UseAutoFilter=true, the function recomputes minATR, breakDistance, and bandMult from the live spread every cycle. AUTO_NORMAL sets them to 0.0003 (or 0.03 for 2-digit pairs), 0.3, and 1.0 respectively. AUTO_AGGRESSIVE tightens the band to 0.85× and the breakout requirement to 0.25× ATR, then boosts the ATR floor to 1.5× when the spread exceeds 10 points. The intent is to keep the trade count roughly constant across volatility regimes — wide ATR widens the bands naturally, so the multiplier is dropped to compensate, and vice versa.

Position management runs in ManageTradeLogic on every tick. The first test is IsWithinTradingSession, which is hard-disabled by default (UseSessionFilter=false), but if the user enables it the function supports four named windows — London 08:00–16:00 server-local, New York 13:00–21:00, Tokyo 00:00–08:00, Sydney 22:00–06:00 — with a GMT_Offset=2 plus a March–November +1h DST bump when UseDaylightSaving=true. Outside the session window, the EA only manages existing positions (trailing, breakeven, profit lock) and never opens new ones. Inside the window, CheckBreakoutSignal runs.

Exits are stacked. CheckMeanReversionExit is the cleanup pass — if a long has price < gaussNow, or a short has price > gaussNow, the position is closed at market via TryClose_EX12032. That function retries three times at 200ms intervals on the four transient retcodes (REQUOTE, TIMEOUT, PRICE_OFF, PRICE_CHANGED). If the position is still healthy, ApplyTrailingStop ratchets the stop to currentPrice ± ATR_MultiplierSL × ATR (1.2×ATR) whenever that would tighten the stop. ApplyBreakeven moves the stop to the entry once price has moved more than 1.2×ATR in favor. ApplyDynamicProfitLock then locks profit in dollars — when unrealized P/L crosses $2, $4, $6, etc., the stop is moved to entry + (stepCount × 2 − 1) / tickValue × tickSize, i.e. one dollar below each $2 milestone. That is the unusual piece of the architecture: profit-locking is denominated in account currency, not in price points, so the spacing on the chart changes with your lot size and the symbol's tick value.

The drawdown cap is CheckMaxDrawdown — if (balance − equity) / balance × 100 > MaxDrawdownPercent (default 10%), the EA refuses to open new trades. The lot size is computed by CalculateLotSize from the ATR-derived SL distance when UseAutoLotSize=true, otherwise fixed at Lots=0.1. The scaling cap is MaxOpenTrades=5 with OneTradeOnly=true, but AllowOnlyProfitableAdditions=true lets a second position join only if every existing position on the symbol is in profit by at least MinProfitPerTradeToAdd=5.0 in account currency — a strong anti-martingale feature that filters scaling into losing positions.

The TryModify_EX12032 retry policy is asymmetric to the close: it loops three times at 100ms on REQUOTE and TIMEOUT only, and bails out on PRICE_OFF and PRICE_CHANGED rather than retrying. The reasoning is that a close that races a price change can still be filled at a slightly worse price, but a modify that races a price change should not silently reissue at a worse stop. MaxSlippage=10 is the cap the EA passes into trade.SetDeviationInPoints.

In backtest, expect a signal rate of roughly 1–4 trades per day on XAUUSD M5 with the default profile — band touches happen frequently but the 2-prior-closes-inside rule and the body-strength check reject most of them. The dollar-based profit lock is what holds the equity curve together when trades run into the 1.2×ATR trailing band: instead of waiting for the ATR trail to catch up, the stop gets walked to breakeven minus one dollar at the first $2 of profit, which means most winners exit at a small gain rather than reverting all the way to the mean. Disable EnableDynamicProfitLock if you want runners; leave it on if you want the equity curve to grind higher with shallow pullbacks. Disable UseHeikenAshiFilter and UseSuperTrendFilter unless you specifically want fewer trades; both off matches the default config that the .mq5 ships with.