Pipsgrowth EX18011 TrendFollow

Pipsgrowth EX18011 TrendStackingEA is a 4-vote trend consensus engine that fires only when enough independent momentum indicators point the same way on a closed bar. The default voting threshold is 3 out of 4 possible bullish or bearish votes (InpSignalVotes = 3). The four votes come from: (1) a triple-EMA stack (EMA-21 above EMA-50 above EMA-200 for a buy vote, inverted for sell), (2) MACD histogram direction (histogram above zero and rising, or below zero and falling), (3) RSI-14 sitting on the bullish side of the InpRSIBullZone / InpRSIBearZone thresholds (52/48 by default), and (4) ADX-14 with DI+ above DI- (or the reverse). All four sub-signals look at the last completed bar, never the live one, so the EA never re-paints.

The signal is then filtered by a 6-state market regime classifier. DetectRegime() reads ADX, a 100-bar ATR percentile rank, and a 50-bar Bollinger Bands width ratio. Strong trend triggers above ADX 30, weak trend above ADX 20, compress when ATR percentile is below 30% and BB width is below 0.75x its 50-bar mean, expand when ATR percentile is above 70% or BB width exceeds 1.30x its mean, and breakout when a single bar moves more than 10% relative to the prior close. Entries are blocked in REG_RANGE and REG_COMPRESS; they are allowed in the other four states. This is the gate that prevents the EA from buying flat chop and from chasing quiet markets.

Confirmation requires three things beyond the trend vote. First, the H1 EMA-50 must agree with the trade direction (price must close above it for buys, below it for sells) when InpRequireHTF = true. Second, the bar timestamp must fall inside the 07:00 to 20:00 server-time window and outside weekends. Third, the live spread must be below InpMaxSpreadPts = 50 points relative to a 100-tick rolling average, with a 3x ceiling relative to the recent average. There is also a hard news window block at 12:30 server time ±30 minutes that pauses entries around the US session open.

Risk is sized off g_effCapital, which is min(InpCapitalCapAmount, equity) if a capital cap is set, otherwise full equity, minus today's realized PnL. The 0.5% risk-per-trade default (InpRiskPercent = 0.5) is applied to that effective capital and divided by per-lot risk at the stop distance. A InpCapitalCapFloor = 50 floor blocks any new entries below $50 effective capital. Daily loss is capped at 3% of effective capital and weekly loss at 6%. After 3 consecutive losses the EA goes into a cooldown for InpCooldownLosses bars. Maximum concurrent positions on the same symbol-magic pair is 1 by default, which keeps the strategy single-exposure per symbol.

Position management has three ratchets, all of them opt-in via the EXIT/MANAGE group. Once profit reaches 1R, the break-even function moves the stop to entry plus 5 pips (DEF_BE_OFFSET_PIPS = 5.0) on a one-shot basis. At the same 1R trigger, a partial close of 50% of the position volume fires once per ticket. After that, an ATR trailing stop kicks in at 2.5x ATR (DEF_TRAIL_ATR_MULT = 2.5) and only ratchets forward in 5-pip steps, so the broker's stop-level constraints are not violated. Take profit is set at 2.0R from entry (DEF_TP_RR = 2.0) and is never moved. A minimum R/R of 1.2 (DEF_MIN_RR = 1.2) is enforced in the signal layer so that the EA only takes trades where the projected reward at the ATR stop exceeds the minimum ratio.

Pyramiding is wired in but disabled by default (InpPyramidOn = false). When enabled, the EA may add up to 3 positions (DEF_PYRAMID_MAX = 3) on the same symbol-magic pair, but only if every existing position is in profit and price has moved at least 1.5x ATR beyond the most recent entry. A per-bar duplicate-entry guard in CanEnterNewBar() plus MarkEntered() ensures only one new position opens per signal bar.

Operational defaults match the rest of the family. InpDryRun = true makes the EA log intended orders to the journal instead of sending them; this is the safest way to verify the configuration on a new symbol. The InpKillSwitch master switch short-circuits all entries if flipped on. Order sends go through OpenTrade() with a 2-attempt loop and 500ms backoff on requote/price-changed/time-out. Modifications and partials go through TryModify_EX18011, TryClosePartial_EX18011, and TryClose_EX18011, each of which retries up to 3 times with 200ms or 100ms backoff depending on the retcode.

Backtesting in the MT5 Strategy Tester is biased by a custom OnTester() fitness function. It returns (netProfit * profitFactor) / (1 + relativeDrawdownPercent), floored at 30 trades so that short sample periods do not produce optimisable scores. The expected behaviour in a walk-forward: a 6-state regime filter that cuts about 40% of trend signals during flat periods, a 4-vote consensus that further cuts the false-positive rate, and a 1:2 risk-reward with a 50% partial and a trailing stop that lets runners run when the regime stays trending.

In live deployment the EA shows the same behaviour as the source: conservative entry frequency (often only 1-2 trades per session on a 5-minute chart on XAUUSD), strict risk caps, and visible regime transitions in the journal. The minimum recommended balance is $100, but the effective capital model means that a $50 floor and a 0.5% risk per trade keep drawdown bounded even on small accounts. Run the EA on a 5-minute or 30-minute chart (default InpSignalTF = 4 is M30), with an ECN or low-spread broker, and disable InpDryRun only after the live configuration has been verified in the Strategy Tester.