Pipsgrowth EX15017 SMC-OrderBlock

Pipsgrowth EX15017 is a liquidity-trap scalper that hunts for stop-runs beneath swing lows and above swing highs on XAUUSD. Where most SMC-flavored EAs wrap their entries in five or six stacked confirmations, this one trims everything to a single mandatory check (price surge) and three optional ones (volume surge, higher-timeframe trend, engulfing pattern) — all three of which ship turned OFF by default. The result is a deliberately conservative bar to clear: only setups with a real displacement through a freshly-printed swing high or low qualify, and the trader decides whether to layer additional filtering on top.

The zone detection routine runs once per new bar. It pulls the last MathMax(20, SwingBarCount*2+5) bars — at the default SwingBarCount=1 that is 20 bars — and asks FindSwingHigh() / FindSwingLow() to find the first bar whose high (or low) strictly exceeds both neighbors within the bar count. Each confirmed swing is registered as a LiquidityZone struct stored in a global array, drawn on the chart as a dashed horizontal line (crimson for upper, dodger blue for lower) when DrawZonesOnChart=true, and tagged with a 24-hour expiry through MaxZoneAgeHours=24. New zones within 0.3% of an existing zone of the same side are silently dropped, which keeps the chart from stacking redundant levels when a swing retests the same price.

Entry checks fire from EvaluateSignalsAndTrade() after the zone list has been refreshed. For every active lower zone, the EA asks whether the current Ask price sits inside the 1% band above the zone level — that is, ask >= z AND ask <= z * 1.01. For upper zones the band is mirrored: bid <= z AND bid >= z * 0.99. The 1% band is intentionally generous because liquidity sweeps frequently spike through the level before reversing; a tight band would filter most legitimate traps out. When price is in band, four confirmations run in sequence: CheckPriceSurge() measures the move of the current price away from the midpoint of the most recent three-bar range, divided by the range itself, and demands it be at least PriceSurgeFraction=0.001 (0.1%). IsVolumeSurge() compares current tick volume to a 5-bar average and demands VolumeSurgeMultiplier=1.1 (1.1× average) — but only when RequireVolumeSurge=true, which is OFF by default. HTFTrendConfirms() reads the MA(20) vs MA(50) relationship on the higher timeframe (H4 by default) and aligns direction with the zone — also OFF by default via UseHigherTFConfirmation=false. IsBullishEngulfing() / IsBearishEngulfing() scan up to EngulfingLookback=3 candles for an engulfing body, OFF by default via UseEngulfingPattern=false. With the stock configuration, only the price-surge gate actually filters — the other three return true immediately, so a trade triggers whenever Ask is in the 1% band and the price has displaced at least 0.1% of its 3-bar range from the midpoint.

Stop loss is placed at zone * 0.995 for buys (0.5% below the lower zone) and zone * 1.005 for sells (0.5% above the upper zone). Take profit is computed from the live Ask/Bid minus the stop distance, scaled by the ratio DefaultTPPoints / DefaultSLPoints = 600 / 300 = 2.0, so TP is exactly 2:1 against the zone-anchored stop. ValidateStops() then pushes the SL/TP outward if the broker's SYMBOL_TRADE_STOPS_LEVEL minimum would otherwise be violated, which prevents rejects on tight-spread gold setups. After a fill, the zone is deactivated (g_zones[i].active = false) so the same level can only fire one trade per detection cycle.

Position sizing follows a two-mode RiskMode enum. In RISK_FIXED_LOT (default), every order is FixedLot=0.10. In RISK_PERCENT, CalcLotsByRisk() computes the lot size that risks exactly RiskPerTradePercent=1.0% of the account balance at the configured SL distance, using g_tickValue and the broker-declared tick size to convert the stop distance into account currency. The result is clamped to the symbol's SYMBOL_VOLUME_MIN / MAX / STEP via NormalizeLots(). The fixed-lot default is unusually large for a $100 minimum-deposit account; traders should plan to drop FixedLot to 0.01 or switch to RISK_PERCENT before any live deployment.

The management layer is where EX15017 differs most from its EX15 cousins. The DLP (Dynamic Lock Profit) system is the headline feature and is enabled by default. ApplyDynamicLockProfitToPosition() runs on every tick for every open position. It computes the favorable move in points (Bid - entry for buys, entry - Ask for sells), floors that to a step count via (int)MathFloor(movedPts / InpLockProfitEveryXPoints), and only acts when the count is ≥ 1. The new stop is then entry + steps * 150 - 20 points for buys, with InpLockProfitEveryXPoints=150 and InpLockMinusYPointsBuffer=20 being the defaults. The buffer means the lock fires 20 points shy of the level, not at the level itself — useful for keeping the order from getting stopped by spread noise on gold. The ratchet is strictly one-directional: for buys, the new SL is applied only if it is greater than the current SL, and for sells only if it is less. The level is also pushed back to respect SYMBOL_TRADE_STOPS_LEVEL, and ModifySL() has its own 2-attempt retry with linear backoff.

The second distinctive design choice is the initial-vs-additional trade tagging. TryEnter() checks CountOpenPositions(dir) to decide whether the new order is the first in its direction (tagged Initial BUY / Initial SELL in the comment) or an addition (tagged Add#1, Add#2, etc., with separate counters per direction tracked in g_nextAddIndexBuy and g_nextAddIndexSell). When AllowOnlyProfitableAdditions=true (the default), additions are blocked unless every existing same-direction trade is sitting on at least MinProfitPerTradeToAdd=5.0 points of profit. This means the EA will not pyramid into a losing position — it requires the existing trade to be working before it adds to it. MaxOpenTrades=5 caps the total per magic across both directions.

The third distinguishing feature is a pair of pause guards wired through OnTradeTransaction(). PauseOnConsecutiveLosses (OFF by default) tracks every closed-out loss for this magic in g_lossStreakCount, and when the count reaches PauseConsecutiveLossesCount=3, the EA sets g_tradePauseUntil to now + 60 minutes and refuses all entries until the timer expires. PauseOnLossAmount (OFF by default) accumulates the loss in dollars in g_lossStreakAmt and triggers the same 60-minute pause when the running total reaches PauseLossAmount=100. Either trigger resets on the next profitable (or breakeven) close. These two pause modes are unique to EX15017 in the EX15 family — none of the swing cousins (EX15011/12/13/15/16) implement the loss-amount path at all.

A few code-level notes worth knowing. The file has a code-quality issue: MapTimeframeInt() is declared 5 separate times in the source, all with the same switch on tf 1–7, which the MQL5 compiler accepts as long as no conflicts arise. Three retry helpers — TryClose_EX15017, TryClosePartial_EX15017, TryModify_EX15017 — are defined at the bottom of the file but are not called from the live OnTick / ModifySL / SendOrder path; the actual close and modify operations use the inline retry loops inside ModifySL() and SendOrder() instead. The header advertises Version: 2.00 but the OnInit log string reads LiquidityTrap_DLP_Additions_Pause_v3.1 — a version-label mismatch inherited from upstream. The native iMA handles (g_ma20Main, g_ma50Main, g_ma20HTF, g_ma50HTF) are the only indicator allocations; g_ma20HTF and g_ma50HTF are only created when UseHigherTFConfirmation=true is set.

A realistic backtest expectation: with all four confirmation gates off, the EA fires on any 1% zone retest with at least 0.1% displacement. On XAUUSD M30 that means a handful of trades per London session and another handful through New York. Hit rate will be modest because there is no pattern filter, but the 2:1 RR and the DLP ratchet should keep the equity curve positive on trending weeks. The pause guards, once enabled, will be the single most effective safety switch: 3 losses in a row or $100 of cumulative loss both stop the EA cold for an hour, which is enough time for a wild session to settle without permanently disabling the strategy.