Pipsgrowth EX18029 TrendFollow

Pipsgrowth EX18029 is a multi-layer trend-following EA for XAUUSD on the M30 working timeframe (its InpTimeframe input defaults to 4, which the embedded MapTimeframeInt() switch maps to PERIOD_M30). It does not rely on the M5 entries that several sibling TrendFollow variants use, so its decisions are made on closed 30-minute candles, with the H1 chart acting as the higher-timeframe confirmation channel through a 50-period EMA. The source opens with a description of the 12-layer architecture: REGIME, SIGNAL, ENTRY, CONFIRM, NO-TRADE, CAPITAL CAP, RISK, SIZING, MANAGE, EXIT, SCALING, OnTester. Magic number 22218029 is hard-coded, and the trade comment string is fixed to Psgrowth.com Expert_18029.

The signal layer is built from four fully inlined primitives, none of which are pulled from MetaTrader's standard indicator set. The first primitive is a hand-rolled Heikin-Ashi color function (HeikinAshiColor) that walks four bars from oldest to newest, recomputing haC = (O+H+L+C)/4 and haO = (prev_haO + prev_haC)/2, and returns +1 when the latest closed bar's haC > haO and -1 when it is below. The second is an inline SuperTrend (SuperTrendSide) over InpStAtrPeriod = 22 bars of ATR with InpStMultiplier = 3.0, computing upper and lower bands, flipping the trend state when Close crosses them, and returning +1 for an uptrend or -1 for a downtrend. The third is a reconstructed Hull Moving Average slope (HullSlope) operating on InpHullPeriod = 20 — it builds WMA_full(period) and WMA_half(period/2) from price, takes 2*WMA_half - WMA_full to form the HMA series, smooths the result with a WMA(sqrt(period)) of period 5, and returns +1/-1 depending on whether the latest HMA value is above or below its previous reading. The fourth vote is a simple EMA-trend agreement: close[1] above or below the entry-timeframe EMA(InpEmaPeriod = 50). The four binary votes are summed, and a trade is allowed only when three or more align.

A higher-timeframe confirmation step is layered on top of the 3-of-4 consensus. The EA maintains a separate iMA handle for the H1 50-period EMA (h_emaH) and demands that the H1 close at shift=1 sit on the correct side of that EMA before either a long or a short can fire. The vote counters and confirmation flags are exposed in the log line that the order-placement routine prints, so the operator can audit every decision: BUY ha=1 st=1 hull=1 ema=1 htf=1 reg=4 votes=4. The same string format applies to short entries, and the integer value at the end of the log line is the regime enum.

Regime classification is performed in ClassifyRegime() and works on the most recent closed bar's ATR, ADX, Bollinger Band width, and a 50-bar ATR percentile (computed inside ATRPercentile by counting how many of the last 50 ATR samples are greater than the current value). The output is one of seven states: R_STRONG_TREND when ADX >= 27 and ATR > 1.10 * ATR_percentile, R_WEAK_TREND when ADX >= InpAdxMinTrend = 20, R_EXPAND when ATR > 1.30 * ATR_percentile, R_BREAKOUT when Bollinger width exceeds 1.10 * ATR_percentile, R_RANGE otherwise, R_COMPRESS when ADX < 15 and Bollinger width is below 0.6 * ATR_percentile, and R_CHOPPY when ADX < 15 and the width is not in the compress band. Entries are only allowed in the four trend-or-expansion regimes — R_STRONG_TREND, R_WEAK_TREND, R_BREAKOUT, and R_EXPAND. The other three regimes are not only filtered out at entry but actively force-closed: when the regime is R_CHOPPY or R_COMPRESS, CloseSide() runs in both directions with the reason REGIME_LEAVE.

Risk control revolves around a capital cap. On every tick the EA recomputes g_effective_capital as MathMin(InpCapitalCapAmount, equity) when the cap is positive and otherwise uses raw equity. With InpCapitalCapAmount = 0.0 the cap is effectively off, but InpCapitalCapFloor = 50.0 still blocks trading if equity drops below $50. Per-trade risk is InpRiskPercent = 0.5% of the effective capital, and CalcLot() derives the lot size from the SL distance in price, the tick value, and the tick size. A daily realized P&L check is enforced by RealizedPnLToday(), which sums the profit, swap, and commission of every deal in the current server-day history with the matching magic and symbol; if that figure falls to or below -3.0% of the effective capital, no new entries fire until the next server day. InpCooldownAfterLosses = 3 puts a per-EA cooldown gate in g_cooldown_until after a streak of three losing trades, and InpMaxConcurrent = 5 limits the open-position count per direction. A spread filter (SpreadOK) compares the current spread in points against 4 * (ATR(14)/4 in points), with a 30-point floor, and refuses entries when the spread is wider than four times the recent ATR-implied baseline.

Stop-loss and take-profit are distance-based and built from the same ATR(14) reading at the moment of entry. InpAtrSlMult = 1.5 and InpAtrTpMult = 2.5 give an asymmetric 1:1.67 R:R — wider targets than the 1:1.5 or 1:1.5 variants used elsewhere in the family. The minimum stop distance is enforced against the broker's SYMBOL_TRADE_STOPS_LEVEL and SYMBOL_FREEZE_LEVEL, whichever is larger, so positions never open closer to price than the exchange permits. Once a position is open, ManagePositions() runs on every tick: when the trade reaches 1R of profit, the stop is moved to open ± StopsLevelPts() to break even; afterwards the stop is ratcheted forward at InpAtrTrailMult = 2.5 of ATR, but only when the new stop is on the profitable side of the entry price. The EA does not implement a partial close — the only header-bullet feature it does not wire up is the partial TP — so exits happen either at the initial TP, at the ATR trailing stop, at the break-even ratchet, on an opposite-side vote, or on a regime change to CHOPPY or COMPRESS.

The order-sending routine is wrapped to cope with requotes and price changes. PlaceOrder() checks the margin requirement through OrderCalcMargin() before sending and refuses to send if the lot is too large for the free margin. The trade object is configured with SetDeviationInPoints(30) so the broker is allowed up to 30 points of slippage. On TRADE_RETCODE_REQUOTE, TRADE_RETCODE_TIMEOUT, or TRADE_RETCODE_PRICE_OFF, the routine refreshes the symbol rates and re-sends the order once before giving up. Position-level helpers TryClose_EX18029, TryClosePartial_EX18029, and TryModify_EX18029 each loop up to three attempts, sleeping 200 ms for closes and 100 ms for modifications between attempts, so transient requotes do not abort a critical break-even or trail modification.

The OnTester pass/fail formula is (netProfit * profitFactor) / (1 + maxRelativeDrawdown) with a hard floor of 30 trades — fewer than 30 trades returns zero, so the optimizer refuses to credit a back-test whose sample size is too small. The InpDryRun input is set to true by default, which makes the EA print DRYRUN log lines instead of submitting real orders; the user must explicitly turn this off before live use. InpKillSwitch is an additional safety valve: when set to true it short-circuits CanTrade() with the reason KILL_SWITCH and no orders are placed until the input is reset. Together with the regime-forced exits, the daily loss limit, the loss-streak cooldown, and the ATR-based stops, the EA is designed to fail safely before it fails expensively — a useful property for a multi-indicator trend system on a fast instrument like gold.