Pipsgrowth EX16044 Trend

Pipsgrowth EX16044 Trend is a single-indicator trend-following EA that trades in the direction of one Linear Weighted Moving Average. Everything else in the source — the risk manager, the trailing stop, the close-opposite switch, the only-one-position lock — is a wrapper around the central question this EA asks on every fresh bar: is the current Ask above or below the value of the LWMA one bar ago? When Ask > ma[1], the EA sets m_need_open_buy = true; when Bid < ma[1], m_need_open_sell = true. The MA is read from a single iMA handle (handle_iMA) built once in OnInit, configured by Inp_MA_period, Inp_MA_ma_period (default 12), Inp_MA_ma_shift (default 3), Inp_MA_ma_method = MODE_LWMA, and Inp_MA_applied_price mapped to PRICE_WEIGHTED through the MapAppliedPriceInt helper. The MA is built on a separately configurable timeframe (Inp_MA_period is the trader-facing code 0–7, decoded by MapTimeframeInt to M1, M5, M15, M30, H1, H4, or D1, with code 0 defaulting to H1), so the chart timeframe the EA runs on and the timeframe the MA evaluates can be decoupled — an M5 chart can take its signal from an H1 LWMA, which is the entire point of the design.

The signal evaluation is locked to a new-bar tick only. OnTick starts with the transaction state machine (m_waiting_transaction + m_waiting_order_ticket + m_transaction_confirmed), processes any pending open leg with the OnlyOne/CloseOpposite logic, and only then checks the time_0 == PrevBars guard. When a new bar opens, RefreshRates() is called, FreezeStopsLevels computes a 1.1×-of-broker-freeze/stops buffer, Trailing() runs, iGetArray pulls three values from the iMA buffer (ma[0], ma[1], ma[2]), and the comparison fires. ma[1] is the value the LWMA had at the close of the just-completed bar — using ma[1] rather than ma[0] means the signal is based on the previous bar's MA, not the value still being painted during the in-progress bar. That single decision is what makes the EA's entries a closed-bar system rather than a live-tick system.

Risk and trade construction is delegated to OpenPosition, OpenBuy, and OpenSell. When IntLotOrRisk == risk, the source instantiates a CMoneyFixedMargin object in OnInit, calls m_money.Percent(InpVolumeLorOrRisk) — default 3.0% of free margin — and then asks m_money.CheckOpenLong / CheckOpenShort to compute a position size that risks exactly that fraction on the InpStopLoss distance. When IntLotOrRisk == lot, the EA sends a flat InpVolumeLorOrRisk lots regardless of stop distance. The size is checked against the symbol's LotsLimit (a hard broker cap), validated through FreeMarginCheck > MarginCheck, and only then sent through m_trade.Buy / m_trade.Sell with the SL and TP prices computed in OpenPosition. The freeze-and-stops level guard in FreezeStopsLevels bumps the SL inward to price±level and the TP outward to price±level if the configured InpStopLoss / InpTakeProfit would violate the broker's minimum distance — a real safety feature on symbols with non-zero SYMBOL_TRADE_STOPS_LEVEL.

Trailing runs on every tick after the new-bar pass, not on bar close. The Trailing() loop walks all positions on the symbol with the EA's magic and, for each BUY, only ratchets the SL up (never down) when the current price has moved more than ExtTrailingStop + ExtTrailingStep past entry and the existing SL is still below the new target. For each SELL, the same ratchet runs in the mirror direction. ExtTrailingStop is the InpTrailingStop input scaled by m_adjusted_point (which is point × 10 on 3- and 5-digit symbols, point × 1 on 2- and 4-digit symbols), and ExtTrailingStep is the same scaling applied to InpTrailingStep. The actual broker-side modification is done by TryModify_EX16044, a 3-attempt retry helper that re-fires on TRADE_RETCODE_REQUOTE, TRADE_RETCODE_TIMEOUT, TRADE_RETCODE_PRICE_OFF, or TRADE_RETCODE_PRICE_CHANGED with a 100 ms sleep between attempts. Two near-twin helpers, TryClose_EX16044 and TryClosePartial_EX16044, wrap the same retry discipline around position-close calls (200 ms sleep) but are only invoked from the ClosePositions path when InpCloseOpposite is enabled. All three helpers are defined at the end of the file; in the live open path, the bare m_trade.Buy / m_trade.Sell is used directly because the order-confirmation logic lives in OnTradeTransaction instead.

Three operating-mode switches are exposed under the Trading Options group. InpTypeTraiding selects buy-only, sell-only, or both directions. InpOnlyOne = true turns the EA into a one-position-at-a-time system: when m_need_open_buy fires and an opposite position exists, the EA opens a buy only if count_buys+count_sells == 0; if anything is open, m_need_open_buy is reset and no new order is sent. InpCloseOpposite = true, when combined with the open signal, calls ClosePositions on the opposite side before opening the new one. InpReverse flips the signal — buy when price is below the MA, sell when above — turning the trend follower into a contrarian. None of these flags are visible in the live comparison unless they are turned on; the default InpTypeTraiding = buy_sell, InpOnlyOne = false, InpCloseOpposite = false, InpReverse = false is a pure two-direction trend follower that will pyramid in the direction of the LWMA.

OnTester is not present in the source — there is no custom OnTester function, so the strategy tester will use the standard trade-statistics generator. There is no global drawdown cap, no equity-curve stop, no daily-loss limiter, and no news filter; the only money-management boundary is the CMoneyFixedMargin percent-per-trade sizing and the broker's LotsLimit. The order confirmation flow is the closest thing to a capital guard: m_need_open_buy / m_need_open_sell are gated by m_waiting_transaction, which is set to true the moment an OrderSend is acknowledged by the trade server (ResultRetcode == 10009), and only released when OnTradeTransaction receives a DEAL_ADD transaction matching the expected m_waiting_order_ticket. That handshake prevents the EA from firing a second open-order call before the first one has been confirmed as a deal.

What the backtest looks like in practice: the EA will produce long, slow trending runs in the direction of the LWMA and choppy, mean-reverting losses in ranging conditions. The default 50/140 SL/TP pair on H1 is roughly 5/14 pips on a 5-digit gold quote (5-point and 14-point if m_adjusted_point is point×10), which gives a 1:2.8 reward-to-risk ratio per trade. With the trailing stop disabled (InpTrailingStop = 0), exits are entirely SL/TP-driven. With trailing on at 15/5, the EA will lock profits on the first move past 20 pips in the favorable direction and continue ratcheting every 5 additional pips. A session filter is not present — the EA will open on the open of any timeframe bar regardless of the broker's local time, so traders who want London- or New-York-only behavior need to schedule the chart accordingly or add an external session guard. Pair is set by the chart symbol; the EA's logic is pair-agnostic and works on FX majors, gold, and other instruments provided the symbol's minimum lot, lot step, freeze, and stops levels are broker-defined.