Swing-level breakouts on gold
Gold Breakout watches swing highs and lows on the gold daily chart, then rests an order just inside the most recent level that has not broken yet. Each level gets traded once. Every distance scales with the daily ATR, so the EA adapts on its own as gold gets calmer or wilder.
How it trades
Tracks two sets of swing points at once: a 20/3 set and a 10/2 set.
Rests a buy stop just inside the most recent unbroken swing high, a sell stop just inside the most recent unbroken swing low.
Stop loss 0.5 × daily ATR. Take profit 3 × the stop.
Once a trade reaches +0.5R the stop moves up to lock in +0.1R.
When both swing sets break at the same level they each take their own trade. These confluence breakouts have been the strongest in testing.
Closes positions and pulls resting orders around US Non-Farm Payrolls, from 100 minutes before to 60 minutes after.
Retries on broker errors. New orders pause if median slippage goes past $0.40 an ounce.
No grid. No martingale. A stop loss and a take profit on every trade.
What the backtest shows
MT5 Strategy Tester on IC Markets data, 1 April 2018 to 30 September 2026, £5,000 start, 1.0% risk per trade running on its own, C1 and C2 sets, 99% history quality. Commission and swap included.
Net profit: +£14,353 (£5,000 → £19,353)
Return: 17.6% a year
Max drawdown: 12.1% equity · 10.3% balance
Profit factor: 2.89
Trades: 383 · around one a week
Win rate: 72.1%
Positive years: 9 out of 9
Hypothetical results produced by the MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester on historical data. Not live trading. Past performance, simulated or real, is not a reliable indicator of future results.
What to expect
About one trade a week, held around 16 hours on average. Seven in ten finish in profit, though most of those winners are small break-even locks rather than full targets. The regular 3R winners are where the money comes from.
Every calendar year was positive in testing, from +3% in 2022 to +37% in 2025. The worst month was −3.9% and 63% of months were positive.
Flat spells run long. The longest gap between new equity highs was about 16 months across 2024 and 2025. That is the part people find hardest.
Longs have done better than shorts through gold's bull run, with a profit factor of 4.22 against 1.44. Both sides make money.
At 1% risk the backtest drawdown was 12% on equity. Plan for a worst case nearer 15%.
What you need
MetaTrader 5, attached to an XAUUSD daily chart.
A hedging or netting account. Server clock GMT+2 or GMT+3.
A gold spread you can live with. Slippage protection is built in, though a decent broker still helps.
A VPS if you want it running unattended.
What you get
HighTide_GoldBreakout_v2.04.ex5
Two set files: one for running it on its own, one for the portfolio risk setting
The summary sheet and the full manual
Free updates, plus email support from me
Trading carries risk and you can lose money. Test on a demo account first. Only trade with money you can afford to lose.
