Pipsgrowth EX18082 TrendFollow

EX18082 AlphaTrend is a single-instrument trend-following EA tuned for XAUUSD on the M5 timeframe. Its signal engine stacks three independent decision layers — fast/slow EMA crossover, a 7-period RSI pullback trigger, and a 30-bar Donchian breakout — on top of an internal Heiken Ashi slope filter that determines which direction is even allowed to fire. The result is a system that can either buy pullbacks inside an established trend or buy the breakout when price escapes a 30-bar range, all from the same code path.

The trend filter is computed in the CalculateHASlope() function. It builds the Heiken Ashi close for the most recent closed bar ((O+H+L+C)/4) and for a bar lookback periods earlier (default 10), then takes the difference in points. The sign of that slope gives trend_dir: positive when HA is rising, negative when falling, and zero on a flat or near-flat slope. The InpMinSlopePoints input is set to 0.0 by default, which effectively lets the slope confirm any non-zero directional bias; raising it tightens the gate. No pullback or breakout entry can fire against trend_dir.

The pullback branch (toggled by InpEnablePullback, true by default) is the most common entry. It requires three things to align on the most recent closed bar: the fast EMA(21) above the slow EMA(55), RSI(7) below the bullish pullback level (default 40), and trend_dir > 0 for a long entry. A short is the mirror: fast below slow, RSI above 60, trend_dir < 0. The RSI pullback levels are deliberately inside the neutral zone, so the system is not buying oversold/overbought extremes — it is buying dips in an uptrend and rips in a downtrend.

The breakout branch (toggled by InpEnableBreakout, true by default) only fires when the pullback branch did not. GetDonchian() uses iHighest/iLowest over the previous 30 bars (skipping bar 0) to return the prior high and low. A close above the prior 30-bar high with trend_dir > 0 is a long entry; the mirror is a short. Because the breakout check runs on the closed bar, the system does not chase the new high; it waits for the next bar to confirm and then enters with an ATR-derived stop and target.

Volatility is gated by ATR(14) and its normalized position inside a 0-1 range, controlled by InpMinAtrNorm (0.15) and InpMaxAtrNorm (0.85). When the current ATR percentile is outside this band, the EA skips entries — the goal is to avoid both compression (whipsaw) and expansion (post-news chaos). A current_atr <= 0 check returns early. Spread is also hard-capped: any tick where the symbol spread exceeds 200 points is dropped on the floor before management runs.

Each new trade is sized by GetLotSize() using a 1% balance risk budget by default, with 0.01 fixed-lot fallback when InpRiskPercent is zero. The stop distance in points is calculated as ATR(14) * InpSlAtrMult (1.4 by default), so the SL is dynamic and breathes with the market. The TP is ATR(14) * InpTpAtrMult (2.2 by default), which works out to roughly a 1:1.57 reward-to-risk ratio. The maximum lot per trade is capped at 10 via InpMaxLotSize, and the result is floored to the symbol's lot step, then clamped to the symbol's min/max.

Safe pyramiding (InpUsePyramid = true by default) allows up to 3 positions on the same symbol with the same magic. The CheckPyramidSafety() function refuses to add if a position in the opposite direction is already open, refuses to add if the current open trade's SL has not yet been pushed into profit by at least InpPyramidMinProfit (100 points), and refuses to add if the count has hit InpMaxPyramidTrades. This is a 'secured profit' pyramid, not a martingale — every additional entry is gated by a position that is already green by a defined amount.

Position management runs on every tick through ManageProfitLock(). When a position is at least InpLockTrigger (300) points in profit, the SL is rewritten to current price ± InpLockDistance (100 points), but only if the new SL is at least InpLockStep (50) points better than the current SL. This produces a stepwise ratchet: the SL never loosens, only tightens, and it advances in 50-point increments once the trade is 300 points up. The TP is left untouched by the modifier.

Time filtering is on by default. IsTradingTime() parses InpStartTime ("08:00") and InpEndTime ("20:00") and only permits entries between those server hours. Outside the window, the EA still manages open positions but blocks new entries; with InpCloseAtEnd, it will force-close the basket at the end time. The new-bar gate (iTime shift 0) prevents multiple entries per candle — a new signal is processed exactly once per M5 bar.

On the trade-execution side, the EA uses CTrade with ORDER_FILLING_FOK and a 10-point slippage tolerance. TryModify_EX18082() retries up to 3 times with a 100ms sleep on requote/timeout; TryClose_EX18082() and TryClosePartial_EX18082() retry up to 3 times with 200ms sleeps on the same transient retcodes. There is no on-chart info panel and no OnTester custom fitness function — the EA relies on the standard MT5 optimization metrics.

In a backtest, the practical operating envelope is: $100 minimum deposit, 0.01 micro-lot, ATR-derived stops that widen in trending conditions and tighten in ranging conditions, a stepwise profit-lock that turns break-even trades into risk-free runners, and a pyramiding cap that prevents basket blow-ups. Run it on M5 XAUUSD, give it a 1% balance risk, and expect a steady but selective trade frequency — most M5 bars will not produce both a pullback and a Donchian breakout on the same candle, so signals will arrive in clusters around London and New York opens rather than as a constant stream.