SENTINEL EA USER MANUAL

A- UNDERSTANDING THE MAIN MECHANISM

1- How Sentinel Algorithm Trades

Sentinel is a Mean-Reversion Structural Trading System designed to identify high-probability turning points by analyzing weekly price action relative to statistical extremes. Instead of scalping noise on lower timeframes, Sentinel identifies when an instrument is statistically overextended on a macro (weekly) level and positions itself for the inevitable reversion to the mean.

2- The Core Trading Strategy

Phase 1: Structural Extremum Detection (Weekly Bollinger Analysis)
The algorithm continuously monitors price action on the Weekly Timeframe. It looks for specific statistical anomalies where price deviates significantly from its average value:

• Oversold Reversal (Long Setup): Triggered when the Weekly Close price pierces back inside the Lower Bollinger Band after being extended. This confirms that selling pressure has exhausted and buyers are stepping back in at value levels.

• Overbought Reversal (Short Setup): Triggered when the Weekly Close price pierces back inside the Upper Bollinger Band. This indicates exhaustion of the bullish trend and a high probability of a structural correction.

Phase 2: Sequence Confirmation
To filter out false signals during strong trends, Sentinel employs a "Sequence Check" on historical closes. It verifies that a local trough (for buys) or peak (for sells) has actually formed by comparing recent weekly closes. This ensures the EA doesn't try to catch a falling knife but waits for the first sign of a structural shift.

Phase 3: Dynamic Risk & Volatility Management
Once a trade is entered, the EA adapts to current market volatility:

• ATR-Based Stop Loss & Take Profit: Initial targets are never arbitrary fixed points. They are calculated dynamically using the Average True Range (ATR), ensuring stops are wide enough to breathe during high volatility but tight enough to protect capital during calm periods.

• Breakeven Protection: As the trade moves in favor, an intelligent "No Green to Red" function locks in risk by moving the Stop Loss to breakeven after a defined ATR distance.

3- Intelligent Position Management

The Adaptive Recovery Protocol (Grid Mode)
Sentinel acknowledges that even high-probability setups can face temporary drawdowns. Instead of accepting a full stop-loss, the system activates a controlled recovery mode (if enabled):

• Smart Grid Logic: If the market moves against the initial entry, Sentinel adds secondary positions at calculated intervals ( Grid Step ).

• Martingale Scaling: Position sizes are adjusted using a multiplier ( Factor ) to lower the average entry price, allowing the basket of trades to exit at a profit with a smaller market reversal.

4- OVERLAP FEATURE: Advanced Drawdown Reduction

The Overlap Feature is Sentinel's signature risk management tool, designed to "burn off" bad positions without waiting for a full market reversal.

• How it works: When a grid basket grows to a specified size (e.g., 3+ trades), the EA uses the floating profit from the latest (and largest) trade to subsidize the closure of the earliest (and most negative) trade.

• The Benefit: By closing the losing anchor trade using current profits, the system dramatically reduces margin exposure and "unwinds" the basket from both ends. This lowers the break-even point for the remaining trades, allowing the EA to escape prolonged drawdowns faster than traditional grid systems.

5- Universal Instrument Compatibility

Because Sentinel relies on volatility (ATR) and statistical deviation (Standard Deviation/Bollinger Bands) rather than fixed price levels, it is mathematically universal.

• Forex, Crypto, Indices, & Metals: The logic automatically calibrates to the asset's price scale. Whether trading EURUSD (0.0001 ticks) or Bitcoin (1.00 ticks), the percentage-based and volatility-based math remains valid without manual code changes.

6- Customization Options

Users retain full control over the strategy's aggression:

• Risk Profile: Choose between strict Stop Loss trading or Grid-based recovery.

• Entry Precision: Adjust Bollinger Band deviations to trade only extreme outliers (fewer, higher quality trades) or standard deviations (more active trading).

• Recovery Aggression: Fine-tune the Grid Step and Overlap percentages to match your account's margin capabilities.

CustomComment: Enter any comment you wish to display.

Lot Size and Magic Number: These are standard input variables for trade management.

Throttle Model: This parameter optimizes the speed of backtests and optimizations. Extensive logging can significantly reduce EA performance, so when running backtests or optimizations, select "0=No Log" to dramatically improve processing speed.

Dashboard Update: Sentinel EA displays key performance statistics on its dashboard. However, continuously updating these metrics can impact MetaTrader terminal performance, particularly when running multiple EAs or set files across various instruments. This becomes especially problematic on low-powered VPS systems where resource constraints are a concern.

Dashboard updates also slow down backtesting and optimization processes. To address this, we've included an adjustable update interval parameter:

• During optimization/backtesting: Set the interval to 3000 seconds (or higher) to prevent computational overhead from degrading performance.

• During live trading: We recommend a 60-second (one-minute) update interval, though you can reduce this to as low as 1 second if your system resources allow.

SECTION 2:

Grid Order Management:

These settings control how the EA manages trades when the market moves against the initial position.

• Grid Method: Enables or disables the grid recovery system ( ON / OFF ).

• Position Multiplier: Determines the lot size of subsequent grid trades. For example, a value of  1.7  means each new order will be 1.7 times larger than the previous one (Martingale progression).

• Grid Step: The minimum distance (in points) the price must move against the position before a new grid order is opened.

• Step Multiplier: Expands the grid distance for subsequent orders. A value of  1.5  means if the first step is 200 points, the next will be 300 (200 * 1.5), then 450, etc. This helps spread out trades during strong trends.

• Max Open Trades: Limits the maximum number of open positions in a basket to prevent over-leveraging.

Overlap Feature (Smart Drawdown Reduction):

This function is designed to decrease margin pressure and eliminate "bad" entries without waiting for a full basket reversal.

• Overlap Last Order Number: Defines when the overlap logic activates. If set to  3 , the feature will only start working when there are at least 3 open trades in the basket.

• Overlap Percent: The percentage of profit from the last (most profitable) trade used to close the first (most negative) trade.

  • How it works: When a new grid trade is in profit, the EA calculates a portion of that profit (based on  Overlap Percent). It then checks if this amount is enough to cover the loss of the very first trade in the basket. If yes, it closes both the last trade and the first trade.

  • Result: You reduce the total number of open trades and free up margin, "trimming" the basket from both ends while banking a small net profit or breaking even on those specific trades.

Grid Exit Settings:

Controls how the entire basket of trades is closed.

• Basket Mode: Choose between  USD  (currency) or  Points  as the target unit.

• Basket Take Profit/Stop Loss: Sets the collective target for all open trades. When the total profit/loss of the basket reaches this value, all trades are closed simultaneously.

SECTION 6:

Tick Size Normalization

This is a critical compatibility feature designed to ensure Sentinel EA functions correctly across different asset classes (Forex, Indices, Crypto, Metals) where pricing formats vary significantly.

• True/False:

  • true : Activates the normalization logic.

  • false : Uses the raw pricing data from the broker.

• Normalization Coefficient:

  • How it works: Some non-Forex assets (like DAX40, US30, or Bitcoin) may have non-standard tick values or digit precisions that can confuse standard pip calculations. This coefficient manually "standardizes" the tick value for internal calculations.

  • When to use it: You generally leave this  false  for major Forex pairs (EURUSD, GBPUSD). You should only set this to  true  and adjust the coefficient (e.g.,  0.01 ,  1.0 , or  0.0001 ) if you notice the EA is calculating Stop Loss, Take Profit, or Grid distances incorrectly on indices or crypto. It effectively tells the EA "what one point is worth" for that specific symbol.

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Max Spread and Slippage Settings

These safety filters protect you from executing trades during poor market conditions, such as news events or low liquidity sessions (rollover).

• Maximum Spread in Points (0=Disabled):

  • Defines the maximum allowable spread for opening a new trade.

  • Example: If set to  20  (2 pips), the EA will simply wait and not trade if the current market spread is 2.5 pips. This prevents you from entering a trade with an immediate, large disadvantage.

• Max tolerated entry slippage in pips:

  • Slippage occurs when the execution price differs from the requested price. This setting caps the negative slip you are willing to accept on trade entry.

  • If the broker fills you worse than this limit, the trade logic attempts to reject or re-quote (depending on execution type).  0  effectively means "fill me at my price or not at all" (which may result in missed trades).

• Max tolerated close slippage in pips:

  • Similar to entry slippage, but applies when closing trades. This is vital for protecting profits.

• If set to true, it will automatically adjust max slippage:

  • This is an intelligent adaptation feature. If  true , the EA ignores the fixed slippage numbers above and dynamically calculates a "reasonable" slippage based on current market volatility (ATR). This is highly recommended for volatile pairs where a fixed slippage might cause too many rejections.