Night Scalper EA - Version 1.4 Setup Guide

The Complete Setup Guide for Version 1.4 of My EA - Night Scalper™

Night Scalper is an EA that aims for small, steady mean reversion profits during the low volatility hours of the Asian session. With strict risk management (no grid, no martingale), the ability to start with just $100, and a focus on long term compounding, this is a tool built for the realistic, patient trader.

I believe in building tools that survive the real market, not just the strategy tester. This post serves as a complete setup guide for version 1.4 and above of Night Scalper™.

Before you attach the EA to your charts, please read this guide, to ensure you understand how Night Scalper works.

A Short Reality Check

Forget the ChatGPT/AI and "neural network" marketing hype. Night Scalper™ is a straightforward, mathematically driven, and 100% REAL trading system, which means it will have both good and bad months, just like any professional and realistic strategy.

Night Scalper is a patient EA. When the trading session starts, the EA will place two pending orders (one Buy Limit and one Sell Limit).

• If the market moves and hits the order open price, the trade activates.

• If the market is dead, the pending orders will simply expire and be deleted at the end of the session, resulting in zero trades for the day. This is intentional. The strategy is designed to filter out slow moving setups. As long as you see the pending orders being placed in your MT5 terminal, at the time you chose in the inputs, the EA is working as intended. Do not expect trades every day. Expect patience.
  
  

⚙️ STEP 1: General EA Information & Installation

Here are the core EA parameters you need to know:

• Currency Pair: AUDNZD (Can be tested on AUD, NZD, CAD and CHF crossings)

• Timeframe: Any Timeframe (The EA calculates its own internal logic)

• Minimum Account Leverage: 1:300 (Required to allow the EA proper margin breathing room)

• Account Type: Low Spread / Raw / ECN (Mandatory)

• Risk Profile: Zero Martingale, Zero Grid. Strict TP/SL on all trades.

• Minimum Deposit: Start with just $100.

(If you have never purchased an EA from the MQL5 market, [click here for the official MQL5 installation guide].)

🚨 STEP 2: Choose the Right Broker

You can have the best EA in the world, but if you trade with a bad or average broker, you will likely lose money.

Night Scalper operates during the late market hours (rollover). What most retail traders don't realize is that when liquidity drops at night, average brokers severely widen their spreads, sometimes by several pips. Because this EA hunts for small scalping targets, a high spread will completely destroy the profitability of the EA by hitting your stop losses prematurely.

A Raw/Zero spread account is a mandatory requirement for this EA.

You can find the broker I personally use and the one used on the live signal here: Live Signal Broker

🎛️ STEP 3: Input Parameters

To get the most out of Night Scalper, you need to understand what the engine is doing under the hood. Here is a breakdown of every input parameter.

// General EA Settings

• Magic number: A unique numerical identifier placed on trades so the EA can manage its own positions without interfering with manual trades or other EAs. No need to change this.

• Max slippage in points: Protects you from entering trades during extreme volatility. Only change this if you are an advanced user testing specific broker latency.

// Risk Settings

• Calculate lot size automatically: If 'true', Night Scalper automatically scales your lot size up as your balance grows, allowing for exponential compounding. [RECOMMENDED: TRUE]
  

• Use highest balance reached for lot calculations: Calculates the lot size based on your all-time highest balance, rather than current floating equity. [RECOMMENDED: TRUE]

• Choose Risk Mode: Select how aggressive your trading style should be (ranges from Low Risk to Extreme Risk).
  Here's how the lot size is calculated:

  It takes your balance / the number below:
  Very Low Risk = 67.5
  Low Risk = 60
  Low Medium Risk = 52.5
  Medium Risk = 45
  Medium High Risk = 37.5
  High Risk = 30
  Very High Risk = 37.5
  Extreme Risk = 15
  Custom Risk = You set the number in the input 'Lot size will increase for every XX'
  
  

• Lot size will increase for every XX: If using the 'CUSTOM RISK' mode, the EA calculates lot size based on: (Balance / This Number).

• Fixed lot size: If Auto-Lot is set to 'false', the EA will bypass compounding and use this static lot size for every single trade.

// Order Settings

• Close opposite orders: Close opposite pending order, once one order has been activated. (BUY order activates, close SELL orders) [RECOMMENDED: TRUE]
  
  

• Stop loss in pips: If the market doesn't revert, the EA takes the loss and protects the account.

• Max. take profit in points: Night Scalper determines Take Profit dynamically based on current market volatility, but this setting acts as an absolute ceiling.

• Min. take profit in points: Acts as a hard floor for the dynamic take profit calculation.

• Use dynamic orders: The order entry price will trail and change dynamically until the price touches it. [RECOMMENDED: FALSE for most users]

// Trading Session Settings

• Start trading XX hours before roolover: The EA will start placing orders XX hours before your brokers rollover time. [RECOMMENDED: 1]

• End trading XX hours after rollover: The EA will stop placing orders XX hours after rollover, minus 5 minutes as a buffer. [RECOMMENDED: 1]

• Set orders to expire before rollover: if 'TRUE' - Orders will be set to expire 5 minutes before rollover [RECOMMENDED: FALSE]

• Check for new orders on every: How often the EA should check for new orders.

• Only place orders if both types can be placed: The EA will only place new orders, if there's no currently open trades or orders.

• Trade on Friday: Whether to trade Friday night. Setting to true can lead to holding trades over the weekend gap. [RECOMMENDED: TRUE]

• Trades will be open for XX minutes: How long (in minutes) a trade should be open before closing (from the time the pending order was triggered).
  

• Close trades in profit when trading session ends: If 'FALSE' - Trades will not be closed after XX minutes, if they are currently in profit.

• Max. spread in points before closing is allowed (0 = disabled): The max. spread allowed before a trade can be closed, after the XX minutes. If set to '0', the EA will close trades regardless of current spread.

• Dynamic TP speed (Higher speed closes faster): How fast the TP should move towards the entry price of the trade. Higher speeds will move faster, but will also close the trades quicker, if the market goes against the trade.

• Dynamic TP frequency (How often should TP move): How often should the tp be adjusted. 

• Only move TP on losing trades: If 'TRUE' - Only move the TP towards the entry price, if the trade is currently in a loss.
  
  
  

📊 STEP 5: The Truth About Backtesting & Curve Fitting

I encourage you to test Night Scalper before running it live, but you must do it correctly. Most traders backtest incorrectly and get a false sense of security.

The "Curve Fitting" Scam: 

In the EA industry, sellers often over optimize their algorithms to past data until the backtest looks like a perfect, straight line pointing upward. This is called "curve fitting." The problem?

The future never perfectly mimics the past. A curve fitted EA will fail in live conditions. I do not curve fit Night Scalper or code out the losses.

My backtests will show bumps, drawdowns, and flat months because that is what a robust, realistic algorithm experiences.

The "Max Volume" Illusion: 

Every broker has a maximum allowed lot size (volume) per trade for any given symbol. However, the strategy tester ignores this limit, if it's not included in the code.

When you see an EAs backtest showing a $1,000 account compounding into $5 billion, the EA is likely opening impossible 5,000 lot trades or opening multiple positions that exceeds the volume ceiling, that no real world broker would ever accept.

I coded Night Scalper™ to strictly respect real world maximum volume limits. The backtests reflect reality with 1 max volume position at a time, not strategy tester fantasy.

How to test accurately:

• Quality Matters: Ensure your broker has 99% - 100% history quality downloaded.

• Spread Emulation: Ensure your strategy tester is set to emulate your Raw/Zero Spread broker account, not a standard account.
  
  

Even with 100% tick data, backtests are a tool, not a crystal ball. They show you how the EA handled historical volatility, but they cannot predict the future. Take the results with a grain of salt, focus on the logic of the algorithm, and look at live forward-testing data.

Check out the live signal here: Live Signal

💡 Conclusion: My Approach To Trading

Successful trading is not about installing an EA and waking up rich. It is about treating your portfolio like a business.

You must manage your overhead (spreads and commissions), ensure your trading conditions are stable (VPS), and employ algorithms with strict risk management.

Set it up correctly, let the strategy play out, and focus on the long term compound curve, rather than daily dopamine hits.

If you need any help optimizing your broker setup, adjusting your GMT offset, or have questions about Night Scalper, do not hesitate to reach out to me directly here on MQL5.

You can contact me here: Contact Me

Happy trading and have a great day!

Bjørn Larsen
Founder & Developer,
NoCap FX