Welcome to the official guide for Gold Hydra Bot, a fully automated Expert Advisor designed specifically for Gold (XAUUSD) trading. It uses a proprietary daily breakout strategy with adaptive intelligence that adjusts to real-time market conditions. Below you will find the recommended setup, a detailed explanation of all input parameters, and important tips for getting the best results.
EA Product Page: https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/166464
⚡ Core Setup Requirements
- Symbol: XAUUSD (Gold)
- Timeframe: H1 (recommended)
- Minimum Deposit: $500
- Account Type: Hedge or Netting
- Leverage: 1:100 recommended (1:500 for aggressive)
Why Broker Selection Is Critical
Gold Hydra Bot is a breakout strategy that places pending orders at key daily levels. Spread and execution quality directly impact your results. The same settings can be highly profitable on one broker and underperform on another — even with identical advertised conditions.
Recommended Broker: Vantage FX (Raw ECN account) — From my extensive testing across multiple brokers, Vantage FX delivered the best and most consistent results on XAUUSD. 👉 https://vigco.co/la-com/M2LyOdC6
Recommended VPS: TradingVPS — Low latency is important for pending order execution. A VPS close to your broker's server ensures the best fills. 👉 https://app.tradingvps.io/index.php?m=refer&id=241381
🧠 Signal Settings
I recommend loading the provided .set file as a starting point. The default trailing stop values in the compiled EA have been tightened to pass MQL5 Market validation. The .set file contains my recommended values optimized specifically for XAUUSD.
To replicate my setup:
- Load the EA with the provided .set file
- Set Use Fixed Lot: FALSE to enable automatic lot sizing
- Adjust Risk Percent based on your account size and risk tolerance
🔧 How It Works
Every day, the EA reads the previous day's key price levels (D1 candle). It places a Buy Stop above the high and a Sell Stop below the low. When price breaks through a level, the order is triggered with percentage-based Stop Loss and Take Profit. A smart trailing stop then locks in profits as the trade moves in your favor.
The EA includes adaptive intelligence: if gold gaps beyond a level at session open, it only trades in the favorable direction — avoiding re-entry on levels that have already been breached.
Key Features:
- Daily breakout strategy with adaptive order logic
- Automatic lot sizing based on risk percentage
- Percentage-based SL/TP that adapts to gold price (no manual adjustment needed)
- Trailing stop to lock in profits
- Level-hit protection — never re-enters a failed breakout
- News filter that pauses trading during high-impact events (NFP, FOMC, CPI)
- Weekend protection to avoid gap risk
- Trading hours filter for session-based control
- Spread control to prevent trading in bad conditions
- Collapsible dashboard with real-time P/L, performance stats, and news countdown
🛠️ Input Parameters Explained
1. EA Identification
Magic Number (default: 3001) — Unique ID for the EA's trades. Change this if running multiple instances on the same account.
2. Risk Management
Risk Percent (default: 5.0%) — Percentage of account balance risked per trade. Used when fixed lot is disabled.
Stop Loss Percent (default: 0.25%) — Stop Loss distance as percentage from entry price. At gold $2,900 this equals ~$7.25 or 725 points.
Take Profit Percent (default: 0.50%) — Take Profit distance as percentage from entry price. At gold $2,900 this equals ~$14.50 or 1,450 points.
3. Lot Sizing
Use Fixed Lot (default: TRUE) — If TRUE, uses the fixed lot size below. If FALSE, calculates lot size automatically based on Risk Percent. Set to FALSE for auto lot sizing.
Fixed Lot Size (default: 0.01) — Manual lot size used when Use Fixed Lot is TRUE.
4. Spread Control
Spread Limit (default: 300) — Maximum allowed spread in points. EA pauses trading when spread exceeds this value. For Raw ECN accounts, 300 works well. Increase if your broker has wider spreads.
5. Trailing Stop Settings
Use Trailing Stop (default: TRUE) — Enable/disable trailing stop on open positions. Highly recommended to keep enabled.
Trailing Start Percent (default: 0.06%) — Profit percentage at which trailing stop activates.
Trailing Stop Percent (default: 0.03%) — Distance of trailing stop from current price.
Trailing Step Percent (default: 0.02%) — Minimum move before trailing stop updates.
6. Pending Orders Settings
Pending Order Expiration Hours (default: 20) — Hours before unfilled pending orders are manually expired. The EA handles expiration internally to avoid freeze zone issues. Set to 0 to disable.
Order Comment (default: "GoldHydra") — Comment attached to each order for identification.
7. Daily Strategy Settings
Close At End Of Day (default: TRUE) — Close all positions and pending orders when trading session ends.
One Trade Per Day (default: TRUE) — Only place one set of orders per day.
Max Daily Trades (default: 2) — Maximum orders per day (1 Buy + 1 Sell = 2).
Use Adaptive Orders (default: TRUE) — Enable gap detection at session open. If price has gapped beyond a key level, the EA only trades in the favorable direction instead of blindly placing both sides.
Min Distance Points (default: 200) — Minimum distance in points from current price to order level. Also used as gap detection threshold for adaptive mode.
Skip If Level Hit (default: TRUE) — Once a breakout level has been touched or breached during the day, the EA marks it as "consumed" and won't re-enter on that level. Prevents re-entering failed breakouts after news spikes.
8. Level Settings
Use Buffer Offset (default: FALSE) — Apply an offset to breakout levels for better order placement.
Buy Buffer Points (default: 50) — Points added above the high level for Buy Stop placement.
Sell Buffer Points (default: 50) — Points subtracted below the low level for Sell Stop placement.
9. Trading Hours Settings
Trading Start Time (default: 01:02) — Time to start placing orders (server time, HH:MM).
Trading End Time (default: 22:00) — Time to stop placing orders (server time, HH:MM).
10. News Filter Settings
Use News Filter (default: TRUE) — Pause trading around high-impact news events. Highly recommended.
News Importance (default: 3) — Minimum news importance to filter (3=High only, 2=Medium+High, 1=All).
Minutes Before News (default: 5) — Minutes to stop trading before a news event.
Minutes After News (default: 5) — Minutes to wait after a news event before resuming.
FOMC Minutes After (default: 45) — Extended wait time after FOMC events (higher volatility).
News Check Interval (default: 300) — Seconds between news calendar checks.
Max News To Track (default: 2) — Maximum upcoming news events shown on dashboard.
Enable News Debug (default: FALSE) — Enable detailed news logging in the Experts tab. Useful for troubleshooting.
11. Weekend Closure Settings
Use Weekend Closure (default: TRUE) — Enable automatic weekend protection.
Friday Close Hour (default: 20) — Server time hour to close positions on Friday.
Sunday Open Hour (default: 23) — Server time hour to resume trading on Sunday.
Close All On Weekend (default: TRUE) — Close all open positions before the weekend.
Cancel Pending On Weekend (default: TRUE) — Cancel all pending orders before the weekend.
12. GMT Settings
Use Custom GMT Offset (default: FALSE) — Override automatic GMT detection. Only enable if your broker reports incorrect server time.
Custom GMT Offset (default: 0) — Manual GMT offset in hours.
13. Dashboard Control
Show Dashboard (default: TRUE) — Show/hide the visual information panel.
The dashboard is collapsible — click the [-] button to minimize it to a single line showing only the EA name and total P/L. Click [+] to expand. The state is saved across restarts.
Dashboard sections can be individually toggled: Orders Info, Trading Info, Trading Hours, Weekend Status, GMT Info, and News Status.
Dashboard sections include:
- Trading — Current price, spread, lot size, adaptive mode (BOTH / BUY ONLY / SELL ONLY)
- Orders — Pending count, active positions, floating P/L, daily order count, level-hit status (Buy: OK/HIT, Sell: OK/HIT)
- Performance — Today's closed P/L, win/loss score, total P/L since EA start, total win/loss record
- Hours — Current trading window and status (ACTIVE / CLOSED)
- GMT — Server GMT offset and current server time
- News — Upcoming high-impact events with countdown timers
⚠️ Important: Before You Start
- Download the free demo and backtest with your broker's data first.
- Run on a demo account for at least 2-4 weeks before going live.
- Do not expect backtest results to match live performance exactly — execution, spread, and slippage vary.
- The News Filter is disabled in the Strategy Tester (no calendar access). Live results will differ slightly due to news avoidance.
- Adjust risk parameters based on your account size and risk tolerance.
- Each broker is different — the same settings can produce different results. If backtest results are poor with your broker, this EA may not be suitable for your setup.
- Load the provided .set file for optimized XAUUSD parameters.
⚠️ Disclaimer
Past performance is not indicative of future results. Trading forex and gold involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for all investors. You should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite before trading. Only invest money you can afford to lose. The signal provider is not responsible for any losses incurred.
For any questions or support, please contact me via my MQL5 profile: https://www.mql5.com/en/users/morenodainese
(C) 2026 Moreno Dainese — Gold Hydra Bot V1.0
