Pipsgrowth EX18106 TrendFollow

EX18106 is not a trade-executing EA. The script fires no orders, attaches no protective stops, and never modifies positions. Instead, the OnTick() function runs a fractal-style pivot scan that locates swing highs and swing lows on the current chart, then waits for price to cross those swing levels and labels the resulting break as either a regular 'Break' or a 'Break (MSS)' Market Structure Shift event. The detection logic is compact — only 8 functions — and the input surface is reduced to a magic number and a trade-comment string, with no parameter for swing length, color, threshold, or risk model. The #property description line claims a 'full 12-layer stack', but the actual implementation is a single-pass detector: pivot scan + rolling buffer + break classifier + chart annotation.

The pivot detection algorithm works on a fixed 10-bar window defined by const int length = 10;. On each confirmed new bar, the script walks bars curr_bar = length (bar 10) bars back from the current bar and compares its high and low against the bars to the left and right of it within the same 10-bar neighborhood. If high(curr_bar) is greater than high(curr_bar - a) AND high(curr_bar) is greater than high(curr_bar + a) for every a from 1 to 10, the bar is marked isSwingHigh = true. The symmetric condition for isSwingLow runs in parallel: low(curr_bar) < low(curr_bar - a) AND low(curr_bar) < low(curr_bar + a) for all a in the same range. The check fires only on a new bar — the static prevBars counter holds the bar count from the previous tick and resets isNewBar to true only when iBars(_Symbol, _Period) changes between ticks.

When a swing high is found, the price is stored in a rolling 2-element buffer swingHighs_Array[] and the script calls drawSwingPoint() to place a blue OBJ_ARROW (wingdings code 77) at the swing bar with the label 'BoS' (Break of Structure) anchored below the price. Swing lows are drawn in red with the same code, anchored above. Each call to drawSwingPoint also creates a paired OBJ_TEXT with the literal 'BoS' string set via ObjectSetString(..., OBJPROP_TEXT, ' ' + text), so the label appears with two leading spaces. The 2-element buffer trims the oldest entry each time a new swing is added: ArrayRemove(swingHighs_Array, 0, 1) pops index 0, ArrayResize extends by 1, and the new swing value lands at the back. After the resize, ArrayPrint dumps the buffer to the log with the literal 'POPULATED!' header — useful for tracing during backtest, harmless in live.

The break-of-structure check runs on every tick, not just new bars. After the pivot detection phase, the script reads SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol, SYMBOL_ASK) and SymbolInfoDouble(_Symbol, SYMBOL_BID), then asks two questions: did price break above a stored swing high (Ask > swing_H), or did price break below a stored swing low (Bid < swing_L)? If a break is detected, the script first scans up to length * 2 + 1000 = 1020 bars back from the current bar to locate the exact bar index where swing_H (or swing_L) originally appeared, then evaluates the MSS condition:

• MSS uptrend: swingHighs_Array[0] > swingHighs_Array[1] AND swingLows_Array[0] > swingLows_Array[1]. Both the most recent high and the most recent low are higher than their predecessors — a higher-high / higher-low sequence.
• MSS downtrend: swingHighs_Array[0] < swingHighs_Array[1] AND swingLows_Array[0] < swingLows_Array[1]. A lower-high / lower-low sequence.

When MSS is true, drawBreakLevel_MSS() paints a 4-pixel-wide arrowed line in clrDarkGreen (uptrend) or clrBlack (downtrend) from the original swing bar to the current bar, with a 13-point 'Break (MSS)' label anchored on the right edge. When MSS is false, drawBreakLevel() paints a thinner 2-pixel line in clrBlue or clrRed with a 10-point 'Break' label. The visual difference between the two is intentional — MSS lines are thicker and use distinct colors to make higher-timeframe trend changes stand out on the chart at a glance.

After the break is drawn, the swing reference is reset (swing_H = -1.0; or swing_L = -1.0;) and the function returns early, so a single tick cannot fire multiple break annotations back-to-back. The next swing that forms on a future bar will repopulate the rolling buffer and the cycle restarts. Until then, the Ask/Bid checks at the start of OnTick simply skip — neither swing_H > 0 nor swing_L > 0 is true while the references are negative.

Three trade-related helpers — TryClose_EX18106(), TryClosePartial_EX18106(), and TryModify_EX18106() — are declared and even instantiated (CTrade g_trade_wrappers_EX18106;) but never called from OnTick(). They exist in the file as scaffolding, presumably to be wired into a future version that adds trade execution. The included <Trade\Trade.mqh> header is also unused at runtime. The Print() statements inside the swing-detection and break blocks will flood the Experts log with messages like 'WE DO HAVE A SWING HIGH @ BAR INDEX 10 H: 2543.21' and '$$$$$$$$$ BUY SIGNAL NOW. BREAK OF SWING HIGH'. These are not actual trade alerts — they are diagnostic prints, and a trader who runs the EA on a 5-minute XAUUSD chart during an active London or New York session will see them fire frequently.

Use cases. EX18106 is best suited for discretionary swing traders who want an automated way to mark swing pivots and BOS/MSS levels on their XAUUSD M5 or H1 chart without manually drawing trendlines. The 10-bar pivot window is hard-coded — it cannot be tuned to detect 5-bar short-term pivots or 20-bar swing pivots. The rolling 2-element swing buffer means MSS classification only kicks in after the third swing in either direction has formed; the first two swings are simply annotated as BoS without a trend bias. Because no positions are opened, EX18106 carries no execution risk and can run on a $100 micro account or a $100,000 institutional book with identical behavior. The broker does not matter for the detection itself, but the EA must be attached to a chart that has visible price history (the 10-bar left-side and 10-bar right-side scan needs past bars to be valid), and a freshly opened chart with fewer than 20 bars of data will not produce any signals. For traders who want a pure indicator overlay with no auto-trading, EX18106 is a starting point. For traders who want an EA that actually opens trades on MSS breaks, EX18106 is a visualization shell — the trade entry logic has not been added yet.