Wave Rider EA - User Guide (v4.1)
Welcome to the official guide for Wave Rider - a hybrid grid-scalper built specifically for Gold (XAUUSD). This guide covers everything you need to get up and running: recommended setup, all input parameters explained in plain language, and tips for getting the most out of the EA.
Product Page: Click Here
⚡ Core Setup Requirements
- Symbol: XAUUSD (Gold)
- Chart Timeframe: Any — the EA uses its own hard-coded timeframes internally
- Account Type: Hedge
- Minimum Deposit: $300 (at 0.01 lot)
- Recommended Deposit: $800+ for comfortable grid recovery. Single Position mode requires significantly less — around $150 is enough at 0.01 lot since your risk is capped by the stop loss.
- Leverage: 1:100 minimum, 1:500 recommended
- Broker: ECN / RAW spread brokers recommended — VT Markets, IC Markets, IC Trading, Fusion Markets, FP Markets, FxTrading, or similar
- Gold Digits: 2 decimal places only (e.g. 2645.30). The EA is not compatible with brokers that quote gold with 1 or 3+ digits.
- Account: Standard or Pro accounts only. Do not use cent accounts — lot sizing, margin calculations, and profit targets will not work correctly on cent accounts.
- VPS: Recommended for 24/5 uninterrupted operation
Why Broker Selection Matters
Wave Rider runs 4 strategies that rely on precise entry timing and a grid system with tight profit targets. Low spreads directly impact how quickly the grid reaches its profit target. High spreads or excessive slippage can delay closures and increase exposure time. If you want the cleanest results, stick with a RAW/ECN account from one of the brokers listed above.
🧠 How Wave Rider Works
Wave Rider is not a blind grid EA and not a random scalper. It combines scalping precision with two trade management modes — intelligent grid recovery or clean single-position trading with SL/TP:
- 4 independent strategies scan for entries across different market conditions
- Every entry is confirmed by triple timeframe analysis — H1 trend direction + lower timeframe signal confirmation
- In Recovery mode, the grid system only activates when the market moves against an open position — it's your safety net, not your main strategy
- The EA does not trade against the trend
- Most trades close in under 30 minutes — minimal market exposure
🚀 How to Set It Up
Getting Wave Rider running takes just a few minutes. Follow these steps:
Step 1 — Install the EA
- Purchase Wave Rider from the MQL5 Market.
- Open MetaTrader 5 and go to Tools → Options → Expert Advisors.
- Check "Allow algorithmic trading".
- Add https://nfs.faireconomy.media to the "Allow WebRequest for listed URL" section (required for the ForexFactory news filter).
- Click OK and restart MT5.
Step 2 — Attach to a Chart
- Open a XAUUSD chart (any timeframe — the EA uses its own internally).
- In the Navigator panel, find Wave Rider under Expert Advisors.
- Drag it onto the XAUUSD chart.
- In the pop-up dialog, go to the Common tab and make sure "Allow Algo Trading" is checked.
- Switch to the Inputs tab to review settings (defaults work out of the box).
- Click OK.
Step 3 — Verify It's Running
- Look for the smiley face icon in the top-right corner of the chart — this confirms the EA is active.
- Make sure the AutoTrading button in the MT5 toolbar is enabled (green).
- Check the Experts tab at the bottom of MT5 for initialization messages. You should see Wave Rider confirm it loaded successfully with your account details.
- If you enabled the UI Dashboard, you'll see the on-chart panel appear with strategy status and account info.
Step 4 — Recommended First-Time Settings
For your first run, stick with defaults but consider these adjustments:
- Enable UI Dashboard: Set to true — gives you a real-time on-chart view of strategy status, daily P/L, drawdown tracking, and TP levels. Makes it much easier to understand what the EA is doing while you're learning it.
- Size Method: Set to Automatic (matching risk level) with Low risk — this scales safely with your balance.
- Trade Mode: Start with Recovery (Grid) if you have $800+ balance, or Single Position if you're on a smaller account or prop firm.
- News Filter: Keep enabled (default). Make sure you added the ForexFactory URL in Step 1.
- Drawdown Protection: Keep enabled at 35% (default). This is your safety net.
- Run on demo first for at least a few days to see how the EA behaves with your broker's spreads and execution.
Note: Wave Rider only opens trades when the H1 trend is clearly bullish or bearish. If the market is ranging or the trend is undefined, the EA sits on its hands and waits. This is by design — no trend, no trade. Don't be alarmed if the EA is quiet during choppy or sideways conditions.
Step 5 — VPS Setup (Recommended)
For uninterrupted 24/5 operation, run MT5 on a VPS:
- Use a Windows VPS with at least 2GB RAM located close to your broker's servers.
- Install MT5, log in to your account, and attach Wave Rider as described above.
- Make sure AutoTrading is enabled and the EA shows the smiley face.
- The EA will manage all positions automatically — you can check in via Remote Desktop anytime.
📊 The 4 Strategies
Each strategy targets a different market condition. Run them all together, or pick the ones that suit your style:
- S01 — Support & Resistance: Dual timeframe ZigZag-based detection of real support and resistance levels on M15/M30 — zones where price actually reversed, not arbitrary lines. Filters entries with volatility and trend strength confirmation.
- S02 — Pullback: Watches multiple timeframes (M1/M5/M15) for momentum shifts and catches retracements at the right moment. Includes bounce zone detection and exhaustion filtering to avoid false entries.
- S03 — Trend Breakout: Detects when price breaks out of a consolidation range with momentum confirmation. Rides strong directional moves with multiple entries.
- S04 — M5 Strategy: Identifies oversold bounce setups on the M5 chart using market strength, momentum, and candle pattern analysis. Multiple confirmation layers keep entries precise.
When one strategy waits, another may fire — giving you consistent coverage across different market conditions.
🛠️ Input Parameters Explained
▶ Main Settings
- Enable UI Dashboard (default: false) — Turns on an on-chart visual dashboard showing account info, strategy status, daily P/L per strategy, drawdown tracking, and TP/breakeven prices. Includes a "Close All Positions" button. Useful for monitoring but uses a bit more CPU.
- Trade Mode (Recovery/Single) (default: Recovery (Grid)) — Choose how the EA manages trades:
- Recovery (Grid) — Uses the intelligent grid recovery system when the market moves against you. Default mode.
- Single Position (SL/TP) — One trade with a fixed stop loss and take profit, plus a trailing stop. No grid, no recovery layers. Ideal for prop firm accounts or smaller balances.
- Trade Direction (default: BUY and SELL) — Controls which direction the EA is allowed to trade. Options are BUY and SELL, BUY only, or SELL only. All strategies support both directions — choose based on your market outlook.
- Entry Strictness (default: Normal) — Controls how selective the EA is when opening new positions. Think of it as a quality dial:
- Relaxed — Least strict trend filtering. Allows more entries in less defined trend conditions. More trades, slightly less filtered.
- Normal — Balanced default. Moderate trend filtering that works well for most accounts.
- Selective — Strictest trend filtering. Only enters when the trend direction is clearly established. Fewer trades, higher quality.
- Enable only one strategy open at time (default: true) — When enabled, only one strategy can have an open position at any time. This prevents multiple strategies from stacking positions simultaneously, keeping your exposure controlled. Disable if you want parallel trading across strategies.
- Enable automatic currency conversion (default: false) — If your account is not in USD, enable this so the EA correctly calculates position sizes and profit targets in your account currency.
- Max spread (points) (default: 50) — The maximum allowed spread before the EA will skip a trade. Set to 0 to disable the filter. If your broker has wider spreads during news events, this prevents the EA from entering at bad prices.
- Trade comment (default: "Wave Rider") — The comment attached to every trade. Useful for identifying EA trades in your account history.
- Append strategy code to comment (default: true) — Adds the strategy code (e.g. [S01], [S02]) to the trade comment so you can see which strategy opened each trade.
▶ Position Sizing
- Size Method (default: Auto Risk) — How the EA calculates lot size:
- Fixed lot size — Uses the same lot size for every trade, no matter your balance.
- Automatic (matching risk level) — Scales lot size based on your account balance using a predefined risk level. This is the recommended option.
- Custom lot scaling by balance — You define your own ratio (e.g. 0.01 lot per $1,000 balance).
- Fixed Lot Size (default: 0.01) — The lot size used when "Fixed lot size" method is selected.
- Auto Risk Level (default: Low risk) — When using Auto Risk, this sets how aggressively the EA scales:
- Very low risk — 0.01 lot per $4,000 balance
- Low risk — 0.01 lot per $2,000 balance
- Medium risk — 0.01 lot per $1,500 balance
- High risk — 0.01 lot per $800 balance
- Very high risk — 0.01 lot per $500 balance
- Custom: Scale by Balance (default: 1000) — When using Custom scaling, the EA adds one base lot for every X dollars of balance.
- Custom: Base Lot Size (default: 0.01) — The base lot size used in custom scaling calculations.
▶ Strategies
- [S01] Enabled (default: true) — Enable or disable the Support & Resistance strategy.
- [S01] Magic Number (default: 8001) — Unique identifier for S01 trades. Change this if you run multiple instances of the EA.
- [S02] Enabled (default: true) — Enable or disable the Pullback strategy.
- [S02] Magic Number (default: 8002) — Unique identifier for S02 trades.
- [S03] Enabled (default: true) — Enable or disable the Trend Breakout strategy.
- [S03] Magic Number (default: 8003) — Unique identifier for S03 trades.
- [S04] Enabled (default: true) — Enable or disable the M5 Strategy.
- [S04] Magic Number (default: 8004) — Unique identifier for S04 trades.
Each strategy has its own magic number so the EA can track and manage positions independently. If you run multiple copies of Wave Rider on the same account, make sure each instance uses different magic numbers.
▶ Grid System
The grid is your recovery mechanism. When the market moves against an open position, the grid opens additional positions at calculated intervals to lower the average entry price. Once the combined position reaches the profit target, everything closes together.
- Maximum Grid Orders (default: 16) — The maximum number of grid positions the EA will open for a single trade direction. Higher values give more recovery room but require more margin.
- Lot Size Multiplier (default: 1.0) — Each new grid order's lot size is the previous order's lot multiplied by this value. At 1.0, every grid order is the same size (no martingale). Values above 1.0 increase lot sizes as the grid deepens — use with caution.
- Fixed Grid Distance (Pips) (default: 22) — The distance in pips between each grid level. When price moves this far against you, a new grid order is placed.
- Profit Target (Pips) (default: 12) — The combined profit target in pips for the entire grid basket. Once the weighted average price of all positions is this many pips in profit, the EA closes everything.
- Show TP Line on Chart (default: true) — Draws a horizontal line on the chart showing where the grid's take-profit level is. Helpful for visual monitoring.
- Enable Trailing Stop Loss (default: true) — Once the grid basket reaches its profit target plus the trailing start distance, a real trailing stop is placed on all positions. This lets profits run beyond the initial target while protecting gains.
- Trailing Start (Pips) (default: 2.5) — How many pips beyond the profit target the price must move before the trailing stop activates. For example, with a 12-pip target and 2.5-pip trailing start, trailing begins at 14.5 pips of profit.
- Trailing Step (Pips) (default: 3.0) — The step size for the trailing stop. Each time price moves this many additional pips in your favor, the stop loss is tightened by one step.
- Enable Progressive Spacing (default: true) — When enabled, grid levels get wider as the grid deepens. This prevents the classic grid blowup where positions stack too close together during strong trends.
- Progressive Start Position (default: 4) — Progressive spacing kicks in starting from this grid position number. The first few levels use the fixed distance, then spacing begins to widen.
- Spacing Multiplier (default: 1.2) — How much wider each progressive level gets. At 1.2, each level beyond the threshold is 20% wider than the previous one.
▶ Single Position Settings
When Trade Mode is set to Single Position, the EA uses a fixed stop loss and take profit instead of the grid recovery system. This mode is ideal for prop firm accounts or smaller balances where grid exposure is not desired.
- Stop Loss (pips) (default: 250) — The fixed stop loss distance in pips. This is your maximum risk per trade.
- Take Profit (pips) - safety net (default: 50) — The hard take profit level. Acts as a safety net — the trailing stop usually closes the trade before this level is reached.
- Enable Trailing Stop Loss (default: true) — When enabled, a trailing stop follows price once the trade moves into profit by the configured start distance.
- Start trailing after (pips profit) (default: 12) — How many pips of profit the trade must reach before the trailing stop activates.
- Trailing step (pips) (default: 3.0) — The step size for the trailing stop. Each time price moves this many additional pips in your favor, the stop loss is tightened.
▶ Time Management
Wave Rider supports multiple trading windows per day, with separate schedules for different days of the week. Time values use your broker's server time.
- Base GMT offset (default: 2) — The GMT offset that the EA's time windows were tuned for. Most brokers (ICMarkets, VT Markets, Fusion, BlackBull, FP Markets) use GMT+2 in winter and switch to GMT+3 in summer for daylight saving time. The EA automatically detects this DST shift and adjusts all trading windows accordingly — no manual changes needed twice a year. Only change this if your broker uses a different base offset.
- Enable weekly time filter (default: true) — Master switch for the time filter. When disabled, the EA trades 24 hours on all enabled days.
- Monday–Thursday start times (default: "01:15;14:35;15:45") — Semicolon-separated list of session start times. Each start time pairs with the corresponding end time. This example creates three trading windows: 01:15–14:20, 14:35–15:20, and 15:45–22:30.
- Monday–Thursday end times (default: "14:20;15:20;22:30") — Matching end times for each Monday–Thursday session.
- Enable Friday trading (default: true) — Whether the EA trades on Fridays. Friday has its own schedule since markets can be thinner and more volatile before the weekend.
- Friday start times (default: "01:30;16:00") — Friday-specific trading windows.
- Friday end times (default: "10:00;17:00") — Friday-specific end times.
- Enable Friday NFP trading (default: true) — Allows trading during Non-Farm Payroll Fridays. The EA has built-in NFP detection. Disable this if you prefer to sit out NFP days entirely.
▶ Protection Manager
Three layers of protection keep your account safe. These are independent of the trading strategies and act as hard limits.
- Enable Drawdown Protection (default: true) — Master switch for daily drawdown protection. When triggered, the EA closes all open positions and stops trading for the rest of the day. Resets automatically the next day.
- Drawdown calculation mode (default: Percentage) — How the drawdown threshold is measured:
- Percentage — As a percentage of your peak equity for the day (high-water mark). If your account grows during the session, the protection adjusts with it.
- Money — As an absolute dollar amount (e.g. $500 means if floating loss reaches $500).
- Drawdown threshold (default: 35) — The value at which drawdown protection triggers. In percentage mode, this is 35%. In money mode, this is $35.
- Prevent trading close to All-Time High (default: false) — When enabled, the EA will not open new positions when price is near the all-time high of the symbol. This prevents buying the top. Grid orders for existing positions still execute normally.
- ATH calculation timeframe (default: W1) — The timeframe used to calculate the all-time high. Weekly (W1) gives a broad view.
- ATH lookback periods (default: 100) — How many bars to look back when calculating the ATH. At W1 with 100 periods, that's roughly 2 years of weekly data.
- Distance from ATH threshold (%) (default: 0.25) — How close price needs to be to the ATH before protection kicks in. At 0.25%, if gold ATH is $3,000, trading pauses when price is above $2,992.50.
- Dynamic Exit — Enable (default: false) — When enabled, the EA monitors for rapid adverse price moves against your open positions. If the market suddenly drops (or spikes against your direction) beyond the threshold within the lookback window, all positions are immediately closed and trading is paused for the rest of the day. Designed to protect against news spikes, flash crashes, and sudden reversals. Disabled by default — enable and optimize the threshold for your risk tolerance.
- Dynamic Exit — Price move % to trigger (default: 0.5) — The percentage price move that triggers the dynamic exit. At 0.5%, if gold is at $2,600, a $13 adverse move within the lookback window triggers the exit. Lower values are more sensitive (trigger more often), higher values only catch extreme moves.
- Dynamic Exit — Lookback window (seconds) (default: 120) — The time window in seconds over which the price move is measured. The EA compares the current price to where it was this many seconds ago. Shorter windows only catch very fast moves (flash crashes), longer windows also catch slower but sustained adverse moves.
▶ News Filter
Wave Rider includes a built-in economic news filter that automatically blocks new trade entries during high-impact events like FOMC rate decisions, NFP, CPI releases, and Fed speeches. The filter uses ForexFactory as its primary data source (with more accurate impact ratings) and falls back to the MQL5 built-in Economic Calendar automatically.
ForexFactory Setup (recommended): To enable ForexFactory data, add https://nfs.faireconomy.media/ to Tools > Options > Expert Advisors > Allow WebRequest for listed URL, then restart MT5. Without this, the MQL5 built-in calendar is used automatically - no action needed.
- Enable News Filter (default: true) - Master switch for the news filter.
- Filter High Impact events (default: true) - Block trading around high-impact events (FOMC, NFP, CPI, rate decisions, etc.).
- Filter Medium Impact events (default: false) - Also block trading around medium-impact events. Disabled by default since medium events rarely cause significant gold moves.
- Minutes before news to stop trading (default: 60) - How many minutes before a news event the EA stops opening new positions. Existing positions and grid orders are not affected.
- Minutes after news to resume trading (default: 30) - How many minutes after a news event the EA waits before resuming normal trading.
- Manual currency filter (default: empty) - Additional currencies to monitor. For XAUUSD, the EA automatically monitors USD. Add "EUR" if you also want to filter around ECB events.
- Treat as high impact if name contains (default: "FOMC,NFP,Nonfarm,CPI,Fed Chair,Interest Rate Decision,ISM Non-Manufacturing,ISM Services") - Events matching these keywords are automatically promoted to high impact even if the calendar rates them as medium.
▶ Per-Strategy Settings
Each strategy has a few user-facing settings. The internal parameters are pre-optimized and locked to defaults — you don't need to touch them.
[S01] Support & Resistance Strategy
- Trading time start (default: "05:00") — When S01 starts looking for signals.
- Trading time end (default: "20:00") — When S01 stops looking for signals.
- Enable 15min timeframe (default: true) — Allow S01 to detect support/resistance levels on the M15 chart.
- Enable 30min timeframe (default: true) — Allow S01 to also use M30 for level detection. Using both timeframes gives broader coverage.
[S02] Pullback Strategy
- Trading start times (default: "01:15") — When S02 begins scanning for pullback entries.
- Trading end times (default: "13:00") — When S02 stops scanning. This strategy focuses on the earlier part of the day.
[S03] Trend Breakout Strategy
- Trading time start (default: "06:00;16:30") — Two trading windows for breakout detection.
- Trading time end (default: "11:00;21:00") — Matching end times for each window.
[S04] M5 Strategy
- Trading time start (default: "06:00") — When S04 starts looking for setups.
- Trading time end (default: "21:00") — When S04 stops scanning.
- Require bullish candle + higher low for entry (default: false) — An extra price action filter. When enabled, S04 requires a bullish candle with a higher low before entering. Makes entries more selective but may reduce trade count.
▶ Dashboard Appearance
- DPI Scale Override (default: 0 = auto) — Override the automatic DPI scaling. Set to 0 to let the EA detect your screen resolution automatically. Useful if the dashboard appears too large or too small on your setup.
- Font Name (default: Calibri) — The font used for all dashboard text.
- Base Font Size (default: 9) — The base font size for dashboard body text. Headings and labels scale proportionally.
5 Layers of Protection
- News Filter — Automatically blocks new entries before, during, and after high-impact economic events (FOMC, NFP, CPI, etc.). Uses ForexFactory data with MQL5 Calendar as fallback. Configurable time windows before and after events.
- Drawdown Protection — Tracks your daily floating loss against your peak equity (high-water mark). If it exceeds your threshold, all positions are closed and trading pauses until the next day. Configurable as percentage or absolute money amount.
- ATH Protection — Monitors the all-time high of the symbol and blocks new entries when price is too close to the top. Grid orders for existing positions continue normally — only new trade entries are blocked.
- Dynamic Exit — Detects rapid adverse price moves against your open positions (e.g. news spikes, flash crashes). If price drops more than your configured percentage within the lookback window, all positions are immediately closed and trading pauses for the rest of the day. Disabled by default.
- Grid Trailing Stop — Once the grid basket reaches its profit target, a trailing stop locks in gains. If price continues in your favor, profits grow. If it reverses, the trailing stop closes everything at a guaranteed profit level.
💡 Tips for Best Results
- Start with defaults. Wave Rider is pre-optimized. The default settings work out of the box on XAUUSD with a RAW/ECN broker. Run it on demo first to see how it behaves with your broker's spreads and execution.
- Use Auto Risk sizing. Fixed lots don't scale with your account. Auto Risk (Low) is a safe starting point — it scales 0.01 lot per $2,000 of balance.
- Keep drawdown protection enabled. This is your hard safety net. A 35% threshold gives the grid enough room to recover while protecting you from catastrophic loss.
- Enable the News Filter. It protects you from entering trades right before FOMC, NFP, and other high-impact events that can cause sudden spread widening and stop hunting. Whitelist the ForexFactory URL for the best coverage.
- Use a VPS. Wave Rider needs to be running 24/5 to manage grid positions and trailing stops. If your PC shuts down or loses internet, open grid positions won't be managed.
- ECN/RAW spreads matter. The grid profit target is 12 pips by default. If your spread is 3–5 pips on a standard account, that eats into your profit significantly. RAW accounts with 0.5–1.5 pip spreads on gold make a real difference.
- Sufficient margin is key. The grid system needs room to work. With 16 max grid orders at 1.0 multiplier, you need enough free margin to support all levels. $1,000+ at 0.01 lot with 1:500 leverage is a comfortable starting point.
❓ FAQ
Can I run Wave Rider on symbols other than XAUUSD?
The EA is optimized and tested exclusively for XAUUSD (Gold). While it may technically run on other symbols, the internal parameters, time windows, and strategy logic are all tuned for gold's behavior. Running it on other pairs is not recommended.
What timeframe should I attach the EA to?
It doesn't matter. The EA uses its own internal timeframes regardless of the chart timeframe. Attach it to any chart — M1 or H1, the behavior is identical.
Can I run multiple instances on the same account?
Yes, but make sure each instance uses different magic numbers. The default magic numbers are 8001–8004 for strategies S01–S04. Change them to a different range (e.g. 9001–9004) for the second instance.
What happens if drawdown protection triggers?
All open positions are immediately closed and trading is paused for the rest of the day. The EA resets automatically at the start of the next trading day.
Is this a martingale EA?
No. The default lot multiplier is 1.0, meaning every grid order is the same size. You can increase the multiplier if you want, but the default behavior is flat-lot grid recovery — not martingale.
What is progressive spacing?
Instead of placing grid orders at equal intervals, progressive spacing makes the gaps wider as the grid gets deeper. This prevents positions from stacking too close together during strong trends, which is the main cause of grid blowups.
For questions or support, contact the developer via the MQL5 product page: Wave Rider on MQL5 Market
DISCLAIMER: Trading foreign exchange and CFDs carries a high level of risk. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Always test on a demo account first. Grid trading requires sufficient margin — use the drawdown protection features and start with conservative lot sizes. Wave Rider is a professional tool built for patient traders who understand risk management.
