Pipsgrowth EX18048 TrendFollow

Pipsgrowth EX18048 is a Heikin-Ashi reversal strategy tuned for XAUUSD on the 5-minute chart. The decision engine is anchored on a single, observable event: a Heikin-Ashi candle flips from red to green (long bias) or from green to red (short bias) on the last closed bar. The HA series is reconstructed in-line inside the EA rather than fetched from a custom indicator — ComputeHA() walks InpHA_Lookback (50) raw OHLC bars, seeds the oldest bar with the simple (O+C)/2 open and 4-price close, then propagates the standard HA recursion haC = (O+H+L+C)/4 and haO = (prevOpen+prevClose)/2 forward. Two adjacent closed HA bars are sampled; a state transition between them is the raw signal. The EA then demands that this candle flip be corroborated by two oscillators before any order is staged: MACD(12,26,9) must show main>signal for a long (main<signal for a short), and RSI(14) must be below 75 for a long or above 25 for a short. A confidence score is computed as 0.6min(100, ADX2.5) + 0.4*min(50, |RSI-50|*2) and trades are gated to confidence ≥ 25.

A seven-state regime classifier in DetectRegime() controls whether the signal is even considered. The classifier reads ADX(14), an ATR(14) percentile computed over the last 50 bars, and a Bollinger Bands(20,2.0) width ratio. When ADX ≥ InpADX_MinTrend (22) and the ATR-percentile ≥ 70 the regime is STRONG_TREND; the same ADX with lower percentile is WEAK_TREND. A very high ATR-percentile (≥ 80) without trend strength is EXPAND, a BB width ratio > 0.03 is BREAKOUT, ADX < 15 is CHOPPY, and the residual is RANGE. COMPRESS is detected when the BB width ratio collapses below 0.01. RegimeAllowsEntry() returns true for STRONG_TREND, WEAK_TREND, EXPAND and BREAKOUT — the four states where a HA color flip has the highest probability of starting a sustained move.

Beyond regime, a higher-timeframe trend agreement is required. HTFTrendAgrees() copies the close and an EMA(50) from the configured higher timeframe (H1 by default — InpHTF_TF is mapped to a PERIOD_* via MapTimeframeInt()) and demands that the H1 close sit above the H1 EMA for a long and below it for a short. This filter alone is responsible for most of the EA's directional discipline — counter-trend HA flips during a strong H1 downtrend will not stage an order regardless of M5 confirmation.

Entries are constructed on the close of a bar, not on intra-bar ticks. TryEntry() is invoked from OnTick() only when CoreSignal() returns non-zero and confidence ≥ 25; it then enforces a per-bar duplicate guard via g_lastEntryBarTime so that a single HA flip can spawn at most one order per bar. The no-trade gate — NoTradeReason() — runs the full rejection stack: kill switch, spread > InpMaxSpreadPoints (50 points), broker-server time outside InpSessionStartH/InpSessionEndH (07:00-20:00), NewsBlocked() (a reserved hook that currently always returns false), bad regime, HTF disagreement, effective capital below the InpCapFloor ($50) when a capital cap is configured, realized daily loss ≤ -3% of effective capital, realized weekly loss ≤ -6%, an active 4-hour cooldown after InpCooldownLosses (3) consecutive losses, and InpMaxConcurrent (3) positions already open. Any single rejection string short-circuits the entry and is logged via PrintFormat("[NOTRADE] sig=%d reason=%s", ...).

Position sizing is a fixed-fractional model on effective capital. ComputeLots() divides InpRiskPercent (0.5%) of effective capital by the per-lot risk implied by the ATR(14) * InpATR_SL_Mult (2.0) stop distance and the symbol's tick value/tick size, then passes the result through ClampVolume() which respects the broker's min/max/step and applies InpMaxLot (5.0 lots) as a hard cap. Before the order is sent, OrderCalcMargin() is called to estimate the required margin and the entry is rejected if it exceeds free margin. The InpDryRun switch defaults to true, so a fresh install will only print [DRYRUN] blocks with the would-be price, lots, SL and TP until the operator explicitly enables live execution.

Once in a position, the management loop in ManagePositions() is invoked every tick. The exits it can trigger, in order, are: a kill-switch close (when InpKillSwitch is true), a max-bars time stop at InpMaxBars (240 M5 bars = 20 hours), an opposite-signal close when a new HA flip opposes the current position, a regime-change close when the regime becomes CHOPPY or RANGE — but only if the trade is still unrealized at or below zero, so a profitable trade is never closed by a benign regime shift. The break-even logic moves the stop to open ± the broker's minimum stop distance once price has moved 1R in favor (unrealized ≥ ATR(14) * 1.0); the BE move is a one-shot and is not repeated. After BE is engaged the ATR(14) * InpATR_SL_Mult (2.0) trailing logic ratchets the stop on each tick where the new level would improve the existing stop by at least the freeze/stops-level distance. The TP is fixed at the entry price ± SL distance * InpRR_Min (1.5), giving a 1.5:1 reward/risk target.

The capital cap stack in this build is partially vestigial: the InpCapEnabled flag is referenced inside EffectiveCapital() but the corresponding input row was removed in v2.00, so setting InpCapAmount (default 0.0) is the only way to engage the cap and a non-zero cap is also the only condition under which InpCapFloor (50 USD) is enforced. The cooldown arming in TrackLossForCooldown() inspects the most recent closing deal filtered by InpMagic and _Symbol; after three losses in a row g_cooldownUntil is set to now + 4*3600 and the consecutive-loss counter is reset, but a single winning trade also resets the counter. The week boundary in MaybeResetTrackers() is computed on a 7*86400-second rolling window rather than the broker's actual Monday open.

The OnTester criterion is (netProfit * profitFactor) / (1 + relativeMaxDD) over the last 365 days, gated to a minimum of 30 closed trades, which biases the strategy optimizer toward smooth equity curves with controlled drawdowns rather than headline net profit alone. The retry helpers TryClose_EX18048, TryClosePartial_EX18048 and TryModify_EX18048 each loop up to three times with 200 ms or 100 ms sleeps on requote/timeout/price-change codes before giving up. Filling mode is auto-detected via SetTypeFillingBySymbol so the EA can run on netting and hedging accounts without code changes. For live deployment on a small account the recommended starting configuration is the default set with InpDryRun flipped to false, a 50-point spread cap (which XAUUSD on a typical ECN should respect most of the day outside the New York open), and the 07:00-20:00 server-time window respected by the broker — note that on brokers where server time is GMT+2 or GMT+3, the effective active hours are the European morning through the close of the New York cash session.