The playbook
The engine trades one idea: when gold is already trending, a break out of its recent range tends to keep going. It only takes the trade when four things line up on the 15-minute chart.
The four conditions (for a buy; a sell is the mirror image)
- Breakout. The candle closes above the highest high of the previous 20 candles (the last 5 hours). Price is escaping its range.
- Trend. The 50-candle average is above the 200-candle average, and price is above the 50. The bigger picture already points up.
- Higher timeframe. On the 1-hour chart, the last closed candle is above its 50-hour average. Trading with the hourly trend, not against it.
- Momentum, not exhaustion. RSI is between 50 and 75. Above 50 means buyers are in control; above 75 the move is often stretched and late.
Where the stop and target go
- Stop = entry minus 1.5 × ATR. ATR is gold's typical candle size right now, so the stop sits outside normal noise and widens automatically on volatile days.
- Target = entry plus 2 × the stop distance. Every win pays twice what a loss costs.
- With 2:1, you break even winning just 1 trade in 3. Losing streaks of 4–6 are normal; the maths works over dozens of trades, not one.
When it stays out
- 15 minutes before to 30 minutes after big US news (NFP, CPI, FOMC, GDP, PCE). Price jumps and spreads widen.
- After losing 3R in a day, or after 6 alerts in a day. This protects you from revenge trading.
- When gold is too quiet or too wild (ATR outside 0.03–0.60% of price).
Position size calculator
Risk a fixed slice of your account on every trade. On Exness, 1 standard lot of XAUUSD is 100 oz, so a $1 move is $100 per lot.
Words you'll see
- R
- The amount you risk on a trade. If you risk $10, a +2R win makes $20 and a −1R loss costs $10.
- EMA 50 / 200
- Moving averages of the last 50 and 200 closing prices, weighted to recent ones. 50 above 200 = uptrend.
- RSI
- Relative Strength Index, 0–100. Measures recent up-moves against down-moves. Above 50 favours buyers; above 70–75 is stretched.
- ATR
- Average True Range: gold's typical 15-minute candle size in dollars. Used to size stops.
- Breakout level
- The highest high (or lowest low) of the previous 20 candles. A close beyond it triggers the setup.
- Spread
- The gap between Exness's buy and sell price. It's a cost on every trade, so results here deduct it.
- Expectancy
- Average R per trade over many trades. Positive means the edge is real; it's the number to judge the system by.
- Drawdown
- The biggest drop from a high point in total R. Tells you how bad a normal losing run gets.
- Shadow trade
- A signal logged and graded but never alerted — the engine's backfilled history, or a new rule version under test.
This is a learning and signal tool, not financial advice. Trade sizes you can afford to lose while the live record builds up.