Wave Rider EA - Manual
Trading Strategies

Wave Rider EA - Manual

2 March 2026, 18:56
Adam Hrncir
Adam Hrncir
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Wave Rider EA - User Guide v5.6

Welcome, and thank you for choosing Wave Rider! This guide walks you through the current Wave Rider 5.0-series input layout, including the four 5.60 recovery choices. Wave Rider is a multi-strategy Expert Advisor designed for Gold (XAUUSD/GOLD) on MetaTrader 5. It can manage your entries with either grid recovery or a single position with SL/TP. Take a few minutes to read this guide before your first launch — it will save you time and help you get the most out of the EA.

Product page: Wave Rider on MQL5 Market

⚠️ Important: Upgrading from 4.x

Already running Wave Rider 4.x? Great — version 5.0 brings a lot of improvements, but please read these four points carefully before switching. They will save you from avoidable surprises:

  • Upgrade only when all Wave Rider positions are closed. Version 5.0 uses a new strategy lineup, new input names, and new Magic Numbers. Updating while an older basket is open can prevent the new version from identifying that basket correctly.
  • Do not load an old 4.x set file into 5.0. Some renamed inputs will not bind to their old names. Start from the 5.0 defaults and recreate only the changes you actually need.
  • Default Magic Numbers changed to 77701-77707. If you run more than one Wave Rider instance on the same account, every instance must use its own complete set of seven Magic Numbers.
  • The old Entry Strictness input was replaced by Risk Profile. Risk Profile changes strategy selectivity. Auto Risk Level controls lot sizing. They are separate controls.

⚡ Before You Start

A quick checklist of what Wave Rider expects from your setup. Getting these right from day one makes everything that follows much smoother:

  • Platform: MetaTrader 5 on a hedging account. Grid recovery requires separate positions and is not designed for netting accounts.
  • Symbol: Gold. Common names such as XAUUSD, XAUUSD with a broker suffix, and GOLD are detected automatically. Symbol specifications and price feeds still differ between brokers, so backtest the exact symbol before live use.
  • Chart timeframe: Any. Each strategy reads its own internal timeframes; changing the chart timeframe does not change its signals.
  • Account type: A low-spread RAW/ECN account is strongly preferred. Spread, commission, slippage, stop distance, leverage, and tick history all affect results.
  • Cent accounts: Not recommended. Balance-based sizing and the tested grid assumptions are intended for standard account units.
  • VPS: Recommended. The terminal must stay connected for virtual basket targets, new trailing updates, filters, and recovery management to keep running.
  • Capital: There is no universal safe minimum deposit. Required margin depends on lot size, leverage, broker contract size, trade direction, and how deep a basket becomes. Test those exact conditions first.

Risk warning: We want you to trade with open eyes. Grid recovery can hold several positions during a sustained move. The matched recovery choices reduce unsafe configuration mistakes but do not guarantee recovery. Drawdown protection, broker stop levels, and news filters can reduce exposure; they cannot remove market, gap, slippage, connection, or execution risk.

🚀 Installation and First Launch

Setting up Wave Rider takes just a few minutes. Follow these three steps and you'll be ready to go:

Step 1 — Allow Algorithmic Trading

  1. Open MT5 and select Tools > Options > Expert Advisors.
  2. Enable Allow algorithmic trading.
  3. Add https://nfs.faireconomy.media/ to Allow WebRequest for listed URL. This lets Wave Rider use the ForexFactory calendar feed.
  4. Restart MT5 after changing WebRequest permissions.

Step 2 — Attach Wave Rider

  1. Open your broker's Gold chart.
  2. Drag Wave Rider from Navigator > Expert Advisors onto the chart.
  3. Confirm Allow Algo Trading on the Common tab.
  4. Review the Inputs tab. For a first test, keep the 5.0 defaults.
  5. Click OK and confirm that MT5 AutoTrading is enabled.

Step 3 — Verify the Setup

  • Read the Experts log for the detected pip size, enabled strategies, calculated lot size, time offset, and news source.
  • If the dashboard is enabled, confirm that it shows seven strategy rows and the expected position size, risk labels, and news status.
  • Run a broker-specific backtest with recent high-quality tick data before live use. A result from another broker does not prove that your symbol feed will behave identically.

🧠 How Wave Rider Operates

Here's the big picture of what Wave Rider is doing on your chart. Seven independent strategies look for different market structures — think of them as seven specialists, each watching for its own kind of setup. By default, only one strategy may own an open basket at a time. When the complete Wave Rider basket closes, the EA waits through its global cooldown before evaluating new entries. Closing one recovery leg does not start the pause, and any remaining pause is restored after changing inputs, changing timeframe, or reloading the EA.

  • Recovery (Grid): The first strategy entry opens normally. If price moves against it, additional positions may be added at the configured distances. The basket is managed from its weighted breakeven price.
  • Single Position (SL/TP): One position is opened with a broker stop loss and take profit. No recovery positions are added.
  • Entry filters: Time, spread, ATH, news, cooldown, and single-strategy rules block new strategy entries. They do not abandon existing positions.
  • Open-position management: Grid management, profit closure, trailing, and protection checks continue even when new entries are blocked by time or news.

📊 The Seven Strategies

Meet the team. Each strategy has its own personality and its own conditions for stepping into the market:

  • S01 - Support & Resistance: Finds M15/M30 swing zones and can enter a confirmed breakout-retest. Its filters avoid chasing an already extended breakout, step aside when an older trend far above its longer-term average has begun to retreat, and reject a brief rebound that remains inside a wider M5 decline. These internal support/resistance levels still drive the strategy but are no longer drawn across the chart, keeping the workspace cleaner.
  • S02 - Pullback: Looks for multi-timeframe momentum pullbacks and recoveries, with exhaustion and trend-tail protection.
  • S03 - Trend Breakout: Uses Bollinger Band, momentum, volatility, and trend context to detect directional breakout conditions.
  • S04 - M5 Bounce: Looks for M5 bounce and rollover setups. BUY and SELL sides have separate candle-precision controls, and summer BUYs receive an additional overextension check without changing the trading schedule.
  • S05 - Smart-Money Volume: Uses Volume Spread Analysis across several timeframes to identify No Supply, Stopping Volume, No Demand, and Buying Climax patterns. Borderline No Demand sells are now declined while Gold is still expanding strongly upward.
  • S06 - Momentum Continuation: Trades both directions. Separate BUY and SELL engines look for fresh M15 momentum ignition near value and may take pullback-resume entries while each move remains valid.
  • S07 - Impulse: BUY-only and disabled by default. A large higher-timeframe move arms a window; the strategy then looks for controlled M5 pullback-resume entries. With Wide recovery, a late resume is rejected when the completed trend is already unusually extended.

Direction transparency: Trade Direction is a global permission, but it cannot make a strategy trade a direction it does not implement. S04, S05, and S06 can evaluate both directions subject to their own conditions. S01, S02, S03, and S07 are BUY-only and remain idle in SELL-only mode.

🛠️ Input Parameters Explained

This is your reference section. You don't need to memorize it — the defaults are the tested configuration, so feel free to start with those and come back here whenever you want to understand or adjust a specific input.

▶ Main Settings

  • Enable UI Dashboard (default: false) - Shows the on-chart performance, settings, strategy, news, and position-management panel. It also includes a manual Close All Positions button.
  • Trade Mode (Recovery/Single) (default: Recovery (Grid)) - Selects grid recovery or one position with SL/TP. Recovery settings are ignored in Single Position mode; Single Position settings are ignored in Grid mode.
  • Trade Direction (BUY/SELL) (default: BUY and SELL) - Allows BUY only, SELL only, or both. Strategy-specific direction limits still apply.
  • Enable only one strategy open at time (no parallel trading) (default: true) - Prevents several Wave Rider strategies from holding baskets simultaneously. Turning it off can materially increase margin use and overlapping exposure.
  • Enable automatic currency conversion to USD (default: false) - For non-USD accounts, converts the account balance to an estimated USD equivalent before Auto Risk or Custom Scale lot calculation. It does not convert account funds and does not affect Fixed Lot Size. If live conversion symbols are unavailable, the EA uses an approximate fallback rate and logs a warning.
  • Max spread (points) (default: 50) - Blocks a new strategy entry when the current spread exceeds this number of broker points. Points are not the same as the EA's gold pips. Set 0 to disable the spread limit.
  • Trade comment (default: Wave Rider) - Text written to each order comment.
  • Append strategy code to comment (e.g. [S01]) (default: true) - Adds S01-S07 to the comment so orders are easier to identify.

▶ Position and Risk

One thing worth understanding early: Risk Profile and Auto Risk Level do different jobs. Risk Profile changes selected strategy-entry thresholds. Auto Risk Level changes lot size only when the Automatic size method is selected. Keeping these two apart in your mind will make the rest of this section much clearer.

The [INFO] Risk Profile row above the selector summarizes Cautious, Balanced, and Aggressive. It is help text only: editing or saving it cannot change entry behavior or lot size.

  • Risk Profile (default: Balanced) - Selects the tested strategy behavior:
    • Cautious - More selective strategy settings and normally less activity.
    • Balanced - Default compromise between activity and stability.
    • Aggressive - Allows more activity and can increase drawdown and basket frequency. It does not automatically increase the lot size.
    For the Smart-Money Volume strategy, the profile also controls how selectively new SELL entries handle unusually strong short-term directional conditions.
  • Size Method (default: Automatic) - Chooses Fixed Lot Size, Automatic by risk level, or Custom Scale by balance.
  • Fixed Lot Size (default: 0.01) - Used only with Fixed Lot Size. The broker's minimum, maximum, and volume step are still applied.
  • Auto Risk Level (default: Very low risk) - Used only with Automatic sizing:
    • Very low: 0.01 lot per 4,000 balance units
    • Low: 0.01 lot per 2,000 balance units
    • Medium: 0.01 lot per 1,500 balance units
    • High: 0.01 lot per 800 balance units
    • Very high: 0.01 lot per 500 balance units
    When currency conversion is enabled, the balance units are USD-equivalent. The broker minimum lot can make a small account trade 0.01 even when the formula returns less.
  • Custom: Scale by Balance (default: 1000) - The balance interval used by Custom Scale.
  • Custom: Base Lot Size (default: 0.01) - Custom Scale formula: Base Lot Size x balance / Scale by Balance.

▶ Strategies

  • [S01] Enabled (Support and Resistance) [BUY] (default: true)
  • [S01] Magic Number (default: 77701)
  • [S02] Enabled (Pullback) [BUY] (default: true)
  • [S02] Magic Number (default: 77702)
  • [S03] Enabled (Trend Breakout) [BUY] (default: true)
  • [S03] Magic Number (default: 77703)
  • [S04] Enabled (M5 Bounce) [BUY/SELL] (default: true)
  • [S04] Magic Number (default: 77704)
  • [S05] Enabled (Smart-Money Volume - VSA) [BUY/SELL] (default: true)
  • [S05] Magic Number (default: 77705)
  • [S06] Enabled (Momentum Continuation) [BUY/SELL] (default: true)
  • [S06] Magic Number (default: 77706)
  • [S07] Enabled (Impulse) [BUY] (default: false)
  • [S07] Magic Number (default: 77707)

S07 is an explicit opt-in. Its Enable and Magic Number controls use fresh internal names, so an older saved set cannot silently switch the strategy on after upgrading. Enable it manually and save a new set if you choose to use it.

Magic Numbers are position ownership IDs, not risk settings. Never assign the same Magic Number to unrelated EAs. If two Wave Rider instances run on one account, change all seven numbers for the second instance, for example to a separate unused range.

▶ Grid Settings

First, what "recovery" actually means

When Wave Rider opens a trade and price moves against it, the EA can open more trades in the same direction at better prices. Together, those trades form one basket.

The basket is managed as a single unit. Rather than each trade having to recover on its own, they share one average price, and the whole group closes together once that average moves into profit. That is why a basket can finish green even while some individual trades inside it are still red — and it is why price only has to come back part of the way, not all the way to your first entry.

What Recovery Spacing controls

Recovery Spacing decides how far price has to move against you before the next trade is added to the basket. It sounds like a small setting. It is actually the single biggest decision you make in Grid mode:

  • Trades placed close together — the basket fills quickly, pulls its average price down fast, and often closes sooner. The cost is that you end up holding more trades, and you get there faster if the move keeps going.
  • Trades placed far apart — you hold far fewer trades, and a basket only goes deep if the market really keeps running. The cost is patience: a deep basket can stay open longer while it waits for price to come back.

Here is the part most grid EAs get wrong. Spacing is not the only thing that has to change. Trade sizes, the profit target, the pause between additions and the safety limits all have to match the spacing you chose — widen the gaps but leave everything else alone, and a deep basket can no longer pull its own average back to price.

So Wave Rider does not ask you to tune those individually. You pick one of four complete, tested setups, and every value inside it was chosen to work with the others.

The four choices

  • Wide (Slow) — the default, and the right starting point for almost everyone. Spacing follows how much gold has actually been moving recently instead of a fixed number of pips, and the EA waits at least ten minutes between additions. Expect fewer recovery trades and a more patient basket.
  • Wide (Fast) — everything Wide (Slow) does, except the first recovery trade arrives sooner. In testing it traded more and earned more — and it also drew down more. Choose it on purpose, not by accident.
  • Static — fixed distances that never change: 22 pips for buys, 35 pips for sells, with a smaller profit target. More recovery trades, and baskets that tend to finish quicker. This is the classic grid behaviour from earlier Wave Rider versions.
  • Hybrid — a middle ground. Static's fixed distances act as a floor that spacing can never fall below, but when the market speeds up, the gaps are allowed to open wider than that floor.

Not sure which one? Leave it on Wide (Slow), back-test it on your own broker's history, and only change it once you have a reason to. If you would rather not use recovery at all, set Trade Mode to Single Position — that switches the whole system off and trades one position with a normal stop loss and take profit.


The two [INFO] rows sitting just above Recovery Spacing are a short reminder of these differences. They are help text only — editing or saving them cannot change how the EA trades.

Limits on how far a basket can go

Maximum Grid Orders (default: 10) caps how many trades one basket can hold, counting the first one. There is also a second, independent limit on the total size of a basket. Whichever limit is reached first stops any further recovery trades — and in practice the size limit often stops things before the count does.

Show TP Line on Chart (default: true) controls the Dark Orange dash-dot guide showing the basket's current closing target. The familiar input name has been restored, so a saved set containing this setting can restore its previous choice.

Show Next Grid Line on Chart (default: true) controls the thin white dash-dot guide for the next calculated recovery price. Turn it off if you prefer a cleaner chart; the Next price remains available on the strategy card, and the Dark Orange TP guide is unaffected. Next is an upcoming calculation, not an order guarantee. Recovery cadence, maximum positions, basket-volume limits, market hours, margin checks, and broker execution rules still decide whether a position may actually open.

Both chart guides follow the dashboard switch. If Enable UI Dashboard is off, neither line is drawn and any existing Wave Rider TP or Next guide is removed.

Reduce TP in deeper baskets by 25% (Wide Recovery only) (default: true) — A deep basket has already been fighting the market for a while. Rather than stubbornly holding out for the full original target, Wave Rider lowers what it asks for as the basket grows, so it can take the exit and move on. From the third trade onward, each additional trade cuts the target by a quarter, and it never drops below 9 pips:

  • 1 or 2 positions: 24 pips (unchanged)
  • 3 positions: 18 pips
  • 4 positions: 13.5 pips
  • 5 positions: about 10 pips
  • 6 or more positions: 9 pips

What those pips are worth in your account currency depends on the basket's total volume, so a deeper basket can still close for more money than a shallow one. The reduced target is measured the same way as the full one — floating profit, swap, and the recorded entry commission are all counted before the basket is allowed to close. Once a basket has stepped down, closing part of it does not step the target back up; the ladder resets only when the basket is completely flat. Turn the switch off to keep the full 24-pip target at every depth. This applies to Wide (Slow) and Wide (Fast); Static and Hybrid are unaffected either way.

Apart from the visible switches described above, the basket target and recovery mechanics cannot be edited separately. Hiding a chart guide changes presentation only; broker-confirmed trailing protection remains enabled for every choice. Fewer Positions and More Positions describe relative recovery activity; they do not guarantee a particular drawdown. No choice removes grid risk, so back-test your broker, lot sizing, leverage, and deposit before live use.

Upgrading from an earlier 5.x version: update only when all Wave Rider positions are closed. Most old grid-tuning names are intentionally ignored, while Maximum Grid Orders keeps its earlier input name and may load a value from an older set. Existing saved Wide, Static and Hybrid selections keep their identity after Wide (Fast) is added, so your stored choice is not silently swapped for a different one. Wide itself is not the same package it was, however: its spacing, recovery-lot progression and deeper-basket gaps all changed in this release, so keeping Wide selected still gives you new behavior. Back-test it on your own broker before running it live. Wide (Slow) is the default for a reset or fresh setup. Review Recovery Spacing and Maximum Grid Orders, then save a fresh set.

▶ Single Position Settings

These settings are used only in Single Position (SL/TP) mode.

  • Stop Loss (pips) (default: 250) - Intended broker stop distance. Gaps, slippage, and execution conditions can produce a larger realized loss.
  • Take Profit (pips) - safety net (default: 50) - Broker take-profit distance.
  • Enable Trailing Stop Loss (default: true) - Advances the real broker SL after activation.
  • Start trailing after (pips profit) (default: 12) - Profit distance required before trailing starts.
  • Trailing step (pips) (default: 3.0) - Minimum favorable step before another SL update. Invalid or frozen stop levels are deferred and retried rather than forcing a close.

▶ Time Management

Wave Rider is picky about when it trades — and that's by design. Its day-specific and strategy-specific windows must both allow a new entry. Times are anchored to the configured broker winter offset and automatically normalized for the broker's summer-time shift.

  • Base GMT offset, auto-adjusts for DST (ICM, VT, Fusion, BlackBull) (default: 2) - Broker winter offset used when the schedules were configured. The EA detects the live server offset and compensates for the normal GMT+2/GMT+3 seasonal shift. Change it if your broker uses a different winter server offset.
  • Enable Monday-Thursday time filter (default: true) - Controls only the Monday-Thursday entry windows. Friday, weekend, holiday, strategy, news, spread, cooldown, and protection rules remain independent.
  • Monday-Thursday start times (default: 01:15;14:35;15:45)
  • Monday-Thursday end times (default: 14:20;15:20;22:30) - The defaults form three paired windows: 01:15-14:20, 14:35-15:20, and 15:45-22:30.
  • Enable Friday trading (default: true)
  • Friday start time (default: 01:30)
  • Friday end time (default: 10:00) - Friday entries are limited to the morning window by default.
  • First-Friday NFP protection - Wave Rider blocks new entries for the entire first Friday of every month. This calendar rule is independent of the News Filter, which also handles the actual NFP event according to its configured full-day rule.
  • Last-Friday protection - New entries are also blocked on the final Friday of every month. Month-end flows make that session behave differently from an ordinary Friday, and a basket opened into it has the least time to resolve before the weekend.
  • Summer Friday protection - Throughout the July-August window, Wave Rider takes no new Friday entries at all. Thin summer liquidity produced the widest broker-to-broker differences in testing.
  • Christmas holiday filter (no new trades Dec 20 - Jan 7) (default: true) - Blocks new entries during that date range. Existing positions continue to be managed.

For multiple windows, the number and order of start values must match the end values. Use 24-hour HH:MM format and separate pairs with semicolons.

The three Friday calendar rules — first Friday, last Friday, and the July-August window — have no on/off switch in this build. They are deliberately fixed, so expect several Fridays each month with no new entries. Baskets already open are unaffected: recovery orders, exits, trailing stops and drawdown protection all keep running normally.

▶ Protection Manager

These are your safety nets — the systems watching your account while you're away from the screen:

  • Enable Drawdown Protection (default: true) - Monitors drawdown from the current day's peak equity. When the threshold is reached, Wave Rider requests closure of its positions and disables new trading for the rest of the server day.
  • Drawdown calculation mode (default: Percentage) - Percentage uses the day's peak equity. Money uses an absolute amount in the account currency.
  • Drawdown threshold (% or money) (default: 35) - Means 35% in Percentage mode or 35 account-currency units in Money mode. Execution may finish beyond the threshold during fast markets.
  • Count Broker Credit as Protection Equity (default: false) - Leave this off when the broker shows a separate credit or bonus. Wave Rider then subtracts positive broker credit from the equity used as the Percentage-mode protection baseline, so temporary credit cannot make the account appear safer than its own funds. A large bonus therefore makes the same percentage threshold intentionally more conservative; the startup log shows both equity bases. Turn it on only if you deliberately want raw broker equity used. If included credit later decreases, Wave Rider adjusts its stored daily peak by the same amount. Money mode still measures the actual floating loss of Wave Rider positions.
  • Prevent trading close to All-Time High (default: false) - Blocks all new strategy entries when price is within the configured distance of the calculated symbol high. Existing baskets continue to be managed.
  • ATH calculation timeframe (default: W1)
  • ATH lookback periods (default: 100) - With W1, this is approximately 100 weekly bars.
  • Distance from ATH threshold (%) (default: 0.25) - Entry block begins when price is within this percentage of the tracked high.
  • Dynamic Exit (close all on rapid adverse move) (default: false) - Monitors a rapid move against the dominant Wave Rider position direction. When triggered, it requests closure and pauses trading for the rest of the day.
  • Dynamic Exit (price move % to trigger) (default: 0.5)
  • Dynamic Exit (lookback window in seconds) (default: 120) - The default looks for an adverse 0.5% move over approximately two minutes.

Protection transparency: These systems react after prices and broker state are received. They are not guaranteed fills and cannot cap loss exactly during gaps, disconnections, rejected requests, or extreme slippage.

▶ News Filter

Gold reacts strongly to news, so the News Filter is one of your most valuable tools. It blocks new strategy entries. It does not stop management of an existing basket. ForexFactory is tried first when WebRequest permission is available; otherwise Wave Rider falls back to the native MQL5 Economic Calendar. Calendar names and impact ratings can differ between sources.

  • Enable News Filter (ForexFactory, MQL5 Calendar) (default: true)
  • Filter High Impact events (default: true) - Applies the ordinary before/after window to relevant high-impact events.
  • Filter Medium Impact events (default: false) - When enabled, all relevant medium events also use the ordinary window.
  • Minutes before news to stop trading (default: 120)
  • Minutes after news to resume trading (default: 120)
  • Also Watch These News Currencies (USD by default) (default: USD) - Comma-separated additional currencies. Wave Rider also derives relevant currencies from the attached symbol. USD remains explicit because it is the primary news currency for Gold.
  • Other Medium Events to Treat as High (default: empty) - Optionally add event-name keywords to Wave Rider's protected Medium-event list. Entries are case-insensitive and comma-separated.
  • Other News to Block All Day + Next Day (default: empty) - Optionally add event-name keywords to Wave Rider's protected extended-block list.
  • Don't Trade on Selected News Day + Next Day (default: true) - A matching high-impact event blocks its full broker-server date and the following date. Trading resumes at 00:00 server time after the second date.
  • Don't Trade on USD Bank Holidays (All Day) (default: true) - Blocks the USD bank-holiday server date only. It does not block the following day.

Wave Rider keeps its required news names internally so an old saved set cannot restore an obsolete list. These protected terms cannot be removed through the two Other fields; those fields only add your own terms. Nonfarm and ISM events now follow the impact rating supplied by the active calendar source. Official High-impact NFP remains in the protected all-day list, including both Nonfarm and Non-farm title spellings. A Medium-impact Forex Factory ADP event is not promoted and therefore does not receive the all-day block. Repeated custom keywords are ignored safely. If an older set contained your own custom news names, enter only those extra names in the new Other fields.

The dashboard distinguishes NEWS for ordinary minute windows, NEWS DAY for the event date, POST-NEWS for the following-day pause, and USD BANK HOLIDAY (ALL DAY) for a holiday block. Hover the status for the source event time and expected end of the pause.

▶ S01 - Support & Resistance Strategy

  • New Trades Allowed From (default: 01:15)
  • New Trades Allowed Until (default: 22:30)
  • Enable trading on 15min timeframe (default: true)
  • Enable trading on 30min timeframe (default: true)
  • Breakout-Retest: buy the pullback to a broken swing high (default: true) - Adds the tested BUY retest path. It waits for a breakout to arm, then requires a controlled pullback instead of buying the initial spike.

▶ S02 - Pullback Strategy

  • New Trades Allowed From (default: 01:15)
  • New Trades Allowed Until (default: 13:00)

▶ S03 - Trend Breakout Strategy

  • New Trades Allowed From (default: 06:00;16:30)
  • New Trades Allowed Until (default: 11:00;21:00) - Paired windows are 06:00-11:00 and 16:30-21:00.

▶ S04 - M5 Strategy

  • New Trades Allowed From (default: 06:00)
  • New Trades Allowed Until (default: 21:00)
  • [BUY only] More precise entries (fewer trades) (default: false) - Requires stronger bounce-candle confirmation. It can reduce entries and does not guarantee better results on every feed.
  • [SELL only] More precise entries (fewer trades) (default: true) - Uses stricter bearish rollover confirmation to avoid some SELL entries during upward expansion.
  • Enable M10 timeframe signal (default: false) - Adds the M10 signal profile. Leave off unless you have tested the change on your broker.

▶ S05 - Smart-Money Volume Strategy

  • New Trades Allowed From (default: 07:00)
  • New Trades Allowed Until (default: 20:00)

S05 signal thresholds and the S06/S07 detailed timing and signal controls are intentionally locked to their tested defaults. Their Enable and Magic Number controls remain available in the Strategies group.

▶ Dashboard Appearance

  • Scale override (0=auto, typical 1.0-1.5) (default: 0) - Keep 0 for automatic DPI scaling. Use a manual value only if the panel is unsuitable on a specific remote-desktop or display setup.
  • Font name (default: Calibri) - Must be installed in the Windows environment running MT5.
  • Base font size (default: 9) - Changes dashboard body text. Very large values can cause clipping even when automatic panel scaling is correct.

The current dashboard keeps the readable 5.0 typography on Retina/high-DPI sessions while giving the panel, strategy cards and main button more horizontal room. Standard desktop sizing remains unchanged. An active strategy card shows TP: price | Next: price | BE: price. Next is the latest recovery level calculated by the live grid path and is also shown as a thin white dash-dot line on the chart. Once that level is filled, its line is removed and the following level appears after the new position is confirmed. The Dark Orange TP and white Next chart guides use the same dash-dot pattern and are drawn behind the dashboard so they do not cross its panel. Next is informational and does not bypass pacing, position or volume limits, market hours, margin checks, or broker execution rules. The dashboard's Closed P/L is calculated from history belonging to the configured strategy Magic Numbers; a new Magic range correctly starts at zero when no matching history exists. Each strategy's daily profit is also restored from today's closed-trade history after the EA reloads, including after an input or timeframe change, and refreshes when a trade closes.

💡 Recommended First-Use Process

There's no rush to go live. The traders who get the best long-term results with Wave Rider are the ones who take this path patiently:

  1. Use the current defaults and the Balanced Risk Profile.
  2. Choose a lot-sizing method that you understand. On a non-USD account, decide explicitly whether USD-equivalent conversion is required.
  3. Backtest the exact broker symbol with recent high-quality tick data. Check maximal equity drawdown and the deepest baskets, not only profit or win rate.
  4. Run on demo and compare spread, number of entries, grid depth, and execution with the backtest.
  5. Change one setting at a time. A lower trade count does not automatically mean lower risk, and a higher profit factor does not prove a safer grid.
  6. Keep Algo Trading, internet access, and the terminal running whenever Wave Rider positions are open.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

The questions we hear most often from Wave Rider users, answered honestly:

Why is Wave Rider not opening trades?
This is the most common question, and it almost always has a simple answer. The market may be outside the global or strategy window, spread may be too high, another strategy may own a basket, cooldown may be active, the H1/strategy filters may reject the setup, or news/ATH/holiday protection may be blocking new entries. If it is a Friday, check the calendar rules first: Wave Rider takes no new entries on the first or last Friday of any month, on any Friday in July or August, or outside the Friday morning window. Read the Experts log and dashboard status before changing settings.

Why did price touch the Next line without opening another position?
The Next line shows the currently calculated recovery price; it is not a pending order. Wave Rider still waits for the configured recovery cadence and checks maximum positions, total basket volume, market hours, margin, the live quote, and broker execution conditions. If any gate is active when price touches the line, no request is sent. The line remains useful as the upcoming level and is recalculated before the EA can act.

Why did my deeper basket close for fewer pips than the target?
That is the Reduce TP in deeper baskets switch doing its job, and it applies to Wide Recovery only. From the third position onward the basket asks for progressively less — 18 pips, then 13.5, then about 10, never below 9 — so it can leave a difficult market sooner instead of waiting for the full 24. Because a deeper basket carries more volume, the money result is often similar or better than the pip count suggests. Switch it off if you prefer the full target at every depth.

Why is S07 inactive in SELL-only mode?
S07 is deliberately BUY-only. S06 now has separate BUY and SELL engines and can trade in SELL-only mode.

Why can the dashboard equity differ from Drawdown Protection's equity?
The dashboard shows the broker's raw account figures. By default, Percentage Drawdown Protection excludes separately reported positive broker credit from its baseline. Enable Count Broker Credit as Protection Equity only if you want both to use raw broker equity.

Does a news or time block stop grid management?
No. These filters stop new strategy entries. Existing Wave Rider positions continue through grid, target, trailing, and protection management.

Can I attach the EA to M1, M5, or H1?
Yes. The chart timeframe is only the display timeframe. Strategy calculations use their own configured timeframes.

Can I use a broker suffix such as XAUUSD.a or XAUUSD-ECN?
Usually yes because Wave Rider operates on the attached chart symbol and recognizes common XAU/GOLD naming. Contract size, digits, history, and execution can still differ, so verify the detected pip size and backtest that exact symbol.

Can I run multiple instances on one account?
Yes, but every instance needs a separate seven-number Magic range. Avoid any collision with other EAs. Also remember that several instances can multiply total account exposure even when each instance allows only one strategy basket.

Is Wave Rider a martingale?
Static recovery uses flat lots. Wide recovery uses a bounded, internally matched progression with both per-leg and total basket-volume limits. Its multiplier is managed automatically and is not exposed as a separate input.

What remains protected if MT5 disconnects?
Broker-accepted SL/TP levels remain at the broker. Logic that requires new ticks or new requests cannot update while MT5 is offline, including virtual basket closure, later grid management, and further trailing steps. Use a stable VPS.

What happens when Drawdown Protection or Dynamic Exit triggers?
Wave Rider requests closure of its positions and disables new trading for the rest of the server day. Actual closing prices depend on broker execution.

Can I use old 4.x set files?
No. Rebuild the settings from the 5.0 input list. Renamed inputs and the new strategy/magic layout make silent fallback to defaults possible when an old name is no longer recognized.

Can I reuse grid settings from an earlier 5.x set?
The rest of the set can still load, but most old grid-tuning names are ignored. Maximum Grid Orders is the exception and keeps its earlier input name, so review the loaded value. Select Recovery Spacing, confirm Maximum Grid Orders, and save a fresh set so TP, spacing, lot behavior, and cadence remain matched.

Have a question this guide didn't answer? You're not on your own — reach out through the Wave Rider MQL5 product page and the developer will be glad to help.

Disclaimer: Trading leveraged products carries a high level of risk. Past performance and backtests do not guarantee future results. Broker feeds, spreads, swaps, commissions, slippage, liquidity, and execution differ. Test on demo, use conservative sizing, monitor free margin, and never trade money you cannot afford to lose.

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