How I Grew a $310 Account to $851 in 54 Days Trading Gold on MT5
A personal breakdown of my XAUUSD automated strategy — the logic, the backtest numbers, and what happened on the live account.
I've been developing and running an automated Expert Advisor on XAUUSD for several months and wanted to share the full picture with the community. The strategy logic, the optimization results, and what the live account has actually done. No fluff, just real data.
THE STRATEGY
The EA trades XAUUSD on M15 using a session range-breakout approach. Gold tends to consolidate during the Asian session then break hard during London open. The EA measures the high and low of a defined session window and places pending orders above and below that range to catch the move.
The main logic elements are a configurable session window for building the range, risk calculated as a percentage of balance per trade with a hard maximum cap, cancellation of the opposite pending order once one direction triggers, an optional news filter that skips high-impact events, and an optional end-of-day close before the session ends.
BACKTEST RESULTS
Symbol: XAUUSD M15 | Period: Jan 2025 – Jan 2026 | Balance: $540 | Passes: 2,507
Two configurations came out on top depending on the goal.
Conservative — good for prop firm challenges: Profit Factor 1.61 | Drawdown 29.44% | Trades 59 | Session 03:00–08:00 | Risk 6.6% | Max Risk 18% | Max Trades Per Day 2 | News Filter ON | EOD Profit ON
Aggressive — for personal accounts: Profit Factor 2.71 | Backtest Profit $7,013 | Drawdown 56.41% | Trades 45 | Session 04:00–09:00 | Risk 4.7% | Max Risk 38.5% | Max Trades Per Day 8 | News Filter OFF
The conservative set keeps drawdown under 30% which fits most prop firm rules. The aggressive set pushes harder — higher returns but you need to be comfortable with the drawdown.
LIVE RESULTS
Starting balance: $310 Peak balance: $851 Confirmed withdrawal: $1,000 ✅ Time: 54 days Max drawdown recorded: 0.39%
Everything is tracked publicly in real time:
MyFxBook: FX Blue: https://www.fxblue.com/users/ApexDrawdownZero2
LESSONS FROM LIVE TRADING
Session timing matters more than I expected — small shifts in the range start hour change trade quality significantly. The news filter saved me from several bad candles on NFP and CPI days. Keeping the max risk cap conservative is what keeps the equity curve smooth. Broker spread on Gold varies a lot — this works best on a raw spread ECN account.
Happy to answer any questions about the strategy, the optimization process, or the results. Drop a comment below.
Disclaimer: This is my personal trading experience. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Trading Gold and forex carries substantial risk. Do your own research.
