Relay — User Guide

Relay — User Guide Gold, traded with discipline. Relay is a fully automated Expert Advisor for XAUUSD on MetaTrader 5. It never runs a grid or a martingale, sends a stop loss with every trade, and shows on the chart what it is doing and why. This guide covers everything from the first attach to what a bad month looks like.

Please proceed with backtesting the 'Relay' product from the MQL5 Market.

Relay in the Strategy Tester, visual mode: the live dashboard on the left, and every closed trade drawn on the chart where it happened. Account details blurred.

Before you buy any EA, including this one: The backtest won. The account lost. Every way a backtest can mislead, in plain language.

Contents

1. A note from the developer
2. Install and first attach
3. The dashboard
4. Three engines, and the market picks
5. How the lot size is decided
6. Built for today's gold market
7. Risk control
8. The news filter
9. Prop firm mode
10. Every input explained
11. Broker, account and money
12. What to expect
13. Your first weeks
14. Support and the log

1. A note from the developer

Gold is not the market it was ten years ago. Since 2024 and 2025 gold has moved in long, violent, news-charged waves, a regime that punishes robots built on the calm ranges of the last decade. Relay was built the other way around: designed, tuned and validated on the modern market first, using real tick data, with its protections set for the days the market stops cooperating. Inside, three engines share one account. A trend engine rides the big waves with an adaptive trail, a fast engine banks short bursts, and a quiet-market engine works the hours in between. The measured condition of the market decides which of them may act. No strategy works forever, and anyone who promises otherwise is selling a story. An edge belongs to a market regime, not to the laws of nature. Relay's edge was measured on gold from 2025 onward. If that regime changes, the results will change with it, and Relay will be re-validated for the new one. Every number in this guide is a test measurement under stated conditions, including the losing ones.

2. Install and first attach

Five minutes, and nothing to load: the tested configuration is compiled in.

1. Open an XAUUSD chart, under whatever name your broker gives gold, on any timeframe. Relay reads the timeframes it needs by itself.
2. Attach Relay. Every default in the dialog is the tested value, so on a fresh chart there is nothing to change. If you ran an earlier version of Relay, press Reset in the Inputs tab first: MetaTrader keeps the old values otherwise.
3. Enable Algo Trading in the terminal and allow it in the EA's Common tab. The dashboard appears within seconds.
4. Check the dollar gauge. Relay reads your broker's EURUSD as a dollar-confirmation gauge and finds its name by itself. If the Experts log says the dollar dial is off, your broker names it with a suffix or prefix (EURUSD.r, EURUSDm and so on): type that exact name into Dollar gauge symbol.
5. Leave it alone. One chart, and nothing else trading the account: no manual trades on the same symbol and no second EA beside it.

3. The dashboard

Everything Relay knows, in plain words, on the chart.

Left: a retail account riding a trend. Right: prop firm mode, with the firm's limits counted down. Account details blurred.

Top line	The regime chip, Calm or Stormy, with the live volatility reading, and what Relay is doing: Ready, Trading, or Paused (a loss brake is on).
Market, Confidence, Stop room	The direction it reads, how strongly the timeframes agree, and how much room stops are given right now (wider in a storm).
Trend ride	The open trend trade and its profit, with the marks where the trade becomes safe and where it starts locking in profit.
Range trade, Quick trades, Protection	What the quiet-market engine and the fast engine are doing, and what is protecting the open position.
Today, This month, All time, Win rate	Results at a glance.
Loss brake, Next size up	How much of today's loss allowance is used, and the balance at which the lot steps up.
Next news, Status	With the news filter on: the next high-impact event, its countdown in minutes, and the forecast and previous figures.
Prop firm info	In prop mode: the daily loss room, the total drawdown room, and the guardian's state (Armed, Day halt, or HALTED (total)).
Last 10 trades	Every result with a plain reason why it ended: Target hit, Stopped out, Trend turned, Push faded, Weekend off.

Entries and exits are also drawn on the chart with their results, so a decision can be looked at afterwards instead of reconstructed from the History tab.

4. Three engines, and the market picks

The trend engine joins a sustained move and gives the winner room to run, with an adaptive trail that locks profit as the trade proves itself.

BOLT, the fast engine. When a move lacks conviction it takes the smaller, quicker profit instead of waiting for a target that is not coming.

COVE, the quiet-market engine. It works the conditions the trend engine sits out, instead of forcing a trend trade into a market with no trend in it.

Only one trend position is open at a time, and at most two positions in all: a trend or BOLT trade, plus a COVE trade. In prop mode it is exactly one. There is no grid, no martingale, no averaging down and no recovery multiplier. Every trade is sent with its stop loss in the same request. The stop distance follows the volatility the market is actually showing: wider in a storm, tighter in calm conditions.

5. How the lot size is decided

A staircase, not a smooth curve, and never a function of the last trade's result. With the default Risk profile sizing, the lot is, in essence:

lot = floor(balance ÷ step) × minimum lot × signal scale

then rounded down to your broker's volume step, never below one minimum lot and never above the maximum. The minimum lot is your broker's smallest gold lot, 0.01 on most accounts. On the default High profile the step is 500: a balance of 500 to 999 trades 0.01, 1,000 trades 0.02, 1,500 trades 0.03, and so on.

Profile	Balance per minimum lot
Super Low	10,000
Low	5,000
Medium	1,000
High (default, very high risk)	500 in calm conditions, 400 in a storm
Custom	your own step

In a storm the High step tightens from 500 to 400, so the same balance sits one notch higher: at 2,000 that is 0.04 in calm conditions and 0.05 in a storm.

Signal scale. A trend trade with all three timeframes agreeing trades at 100% of that size, with two of three at 60%. BOLT trades are halved again: 50%, 30% or 20%. COVE trades at 100%. None of this scaling can act while the lot is already at the broker's minimum, so near the 500 minimum most trades run at a flat 0.01. That is the honest reason the recommended balance is 1,000.

A broker whose gold minimum is larger than 0.01: the ladder counts in your broker's minimum lot, so where that minimum is 0.1 the same balance trades ten times the size above. Check your symbol's minimum volume before you trade. Percent-of-balance risk also falls back to the broker's minimum lot, and a Fixed lot must be at least that minimum or nothing trades.

This is not martingale. The result of the previous trade is not an input to the formula at any point. Size grows only as the account grows and steps back down if the balance falls. Check it yourself: set Detailed log to true, and every lot calculation prints a line such as LOT: 0.04 lots | SL 12.35 | risk 2.47% of 2000.00.

6. Built for today's gold market

Relay was built and validated on the XAUUSD market regime of 2025 onward, which is why every backtest in this guide starts on 1 January 2025. Earlier years may test flat or negative, and Relay says so: whenever the Strategy Tester runs a period before 2025, a notice appears in the log, and on the chart in visual mode. If gold's market regime changes, Relay will be re-validated for the new one.

7. Risk control

Hard risk cap, 5%. A trade whose stop would risk more than the set share of the balance is skipped, never quietly made smaller to fit.	Loss brakes, 3% daily and 6% weekly. New entries stop once the day's, or week's, closed losses reach that share of the balance, and resume in the next period. Open trades keep their stops. After six losses in a row Relay also pauses for 24 hours, and after any losing trade it waits three bars.
Flat before the weekend. Relay reads your broker's own published Friday close and goes flat about five hours before it.	Every order checked before it is sent. An entry the account cannot carry, or whose stops the broker would refuse, is skipped and the reason written to the log.

8. The news filter

Off by default, and forced on in prop mode. It reads MetaTrader 5's built-in economic calendar, so Relay itself makes no internet request of any kind. You choose the currencies (USD and EUR by default), high impact only or medium and high, the minutes blocked before and after an event (30 and 30), and whether an open trade is closed before the event. With the filter on, the dashboard shows the next high-impact event, its countdown in minutes, and the forecast and previous figures. Inside an event's blackout window the row turns red and reads News NOW with the event's name, followed by Trading halts with the minutes left. The MT5 calendar is not available inside the Strategy Tester, so a backtest runs without the news filter. For retail accounts the filter ships off: measured on an earlier build, it helped in 2025 and hurt in 2026.

9. Prop firm mode

One switch changes three things at once: sizing becomes at most 0.35% risk per trade, the position count is held at one, and the news filter is forced on, including closing an open trade before the news. In prop mode only the trend engine trades; BOLT and COVE stay off.

A guardian watches your firm's daily loss limit and total drawdown limit with a 1.5% safety buffer: when equity comes within that buffer of a limit it closes everything and halts, for the rest of the day or until Relay is restarted. A price gap larger than the buffer can still go through.

Daily loss limit	Your firm's daily percentage. Default 5%.
Total drawdown limit	Your firm's total percentage. Default 10%.
Trailing total	On for firms whose total limit trails the equity high-water mark.
Daily limit is a % of	0 = the initial balance (FTMO's rule and the safe default), 1 = the current balance, 2 = whichever is larger.
Day loss measured from	0 = the balance at the day's start (how FTMO words it), 1 = the highest point reached during the day. The default is 1, the stricter.
Daily reset shift	The difference in hours, with its sign: -1 if the firm's day starts one hour after your broker's midnight (FTMO, 00:00 CET, on a broker running EET).
Restarts — read this	The "initial balance" is the balance when Relay starts on the chart. It is not remembered across a terminal restart, a VPS move or a re-attach, and neither is a halt. Attach Relay at the start of the challenge, and after any restart check that the dashboard's Total DD room still matches your firm's.

Backtest at the defaults, 100,000 USD, IC Markets real ticks, with the developer's news archive loaded in the tester: +30.8% in 2025 with an equity drawdown of 2.7%, and +5.8% from 1 January to 12 August 2026 with 3.0%. That archive is not supplied, so your own prop-mode backtest runs without news blocks and will differ. A backtest, not a funded-account record.

10. Every input explained

Thirty-four inputs in six groups; every default is the tested value. The names below are exactly as the dialog shows them.

1. Trading	Default	What it does
Magic number	777001	The ID on Relay's own orders. Change it only if another EA uses the same number.
How the lot size is decided	Risk profile	The profile ladder (recommended), percent-of-balance risk, or a fixed lot.
Risk profile	High	The risk dial: Super Low 10,000, Low 5,000, Medium 1,000, High 500 (400 in a storm), or Custom. High is very high risk.
Custom step	250	Only for the Custom profile.
Percent mode: risk per trade	0.75%	Only for percent mode.
Fixed mode: lot size	0.01	Only for fixed mode; the size never grows.
Dollar gauge symbol	(auto)	Leave empty; type your broker's exact EURUSD name only if the log says the dollar dial is off.
2. Strategies
Strategy BOLT	On	Leave it on: switching it off cost 85% of the 2026 test and took drawdown from 7% to 35% (earlier build).
Strategy COVE	On	Leave it on: switching it off cost 30% of the 2026 test and about doubled the drawdown (earlier build).
Go flat before the weekend	On	Closes everything about five hours before the broker's published Friday close (19:00 GMT if none is published).
Take profit sooner in a market going nowhere	0 (off)	Not a proven setting. Over a flat six weeks of 2026, 0.45 turned -$34.96 into +$99.31; from 1 Jan to 23 Sep 2026 it cost $1,574 and raised drawdown from 15% to 24%, and it cost $1,226 in 2025. Leave it at 0 unless you prefer grinding through flat markets.
3. News filter
Enable news filter	Off	Blocks new trades around events and shows the next event. Prop mode forces it on.
High impact only	On	Off also blocks medium-impact events.
Currencies to watch	USD,EUR	A comma list matched against the calendar.
Block minutes before / after	30 / 30	The blackout window around each event.
Also close open trades before news	Off	Needs Enable news filter on. Prop mode does both automatically.
4. Protection
Daily/weekly loss brake	On	The master switch for both brakes and the 24-hour pause after six losses in a row.
Max daily loss	3%	Tightening it to 2 or 2.5% lost money while raising drawdown (earlier build).
Max weekly loss	6%	The same for the week.
Hard risk cap	5%	A trade risking more than this share of the balance is skipped, not shrunk.
5. Prop firm mode
Prop mode	Off	Percent sizing, one position, news filter on, guardian armed.
Risk per trade	0.35%	A maximum. 0.50% passes recent years but more than halved the long-run safety cushion (earlier build).
The firm's daily loss limit / total drawdown limit	5% / 10%	Set to your firm's rules.
Total limit trails the equity peak	Off	On for firms whose total limit trails the high-water mark.
Daily limit is a % of / Day loss measured from / Daily reset shift	0 / 1 / 0	See section 9.
6. Display
Detailed log	Off	Prints every signal, its decision and each lot calculation. Leave it off for normal running.
Apply the built-in chart theme / Keep other indicators off the chart	On / On	Relay's dark chart theme and a clean chart.
Show the on-chart dashboard / Draw past trades on the chart	On / On	The dashboard, and entry and exit markers with results.

11. Broker, account and money

Broker: a raw-spread or ECN account with a low gold spread. Relay was developed and tested on IC Markets real tick data. A markup of about $0.20 per ounce costs roughly 4% of a year's profit (an estimate on an earlier build).	Account: USD, hedging mode (netting accounts are not supported: COVE trades beside the trend engine), leverage 1:500. One chart, nothing else trading the account.
VPS: recommended, close to your broker's server, 100 ms or less.	Minimum balance 500 USD. Relay does not stop below it: it keeps trading the minimum lot, which is then a larger share of the account than was tested.
Recommended balance 1,000 USD. It opens at 0.02, so the signal scaling can act. The trade-off: a deeper drawdown, in money and in percent.

12. What to expect

All backtests: IC Markets real ticks, default settings, Market build 2.0.

824 trades

62.3% closed in profit

1.66 profit factor

+121,447 USD net result

29.6% max equity drawdown, on very high risk settings

10,000 USD, 1 Jan 2025 to 29 Sep 2026, default settings, which are very high risk settings.

Period	Net	Won	Profit factor	Max equity drawdown
2025, 10,000 USD	+37,248 USD	61.1%	2.20	23.1%
2026 to 29 Sep, 10,000 USD	+13,247 USD	64.3%	1.42	28.9%
2025, 500 USD	+2,399 USD	58.1%	2.34	20.7%
2026 to 12 Aug, 500 USD	+2,883 USD	62.1%	2.00	23.1%

The Strategy Tester's own report for the same period, run on the developer's terminal. Another terminal's tick data gives slightly different figures (here 833 trades and +116,825 USD); that is normal between brokers and servers.

The bad case is just as real. On the default very high risk settings, equity fell 23% below its peak in 2025 and 29% in 2026, inside years that both ended in profit. If that is more than you want, choose a lower profile: Medium trades about half the size of High, Low about a tenth. A lower profile is not simply a smaller copy, though: measured on an earlier build, Medium roughly halved returns at a lower profit factor and without the storm step. A run of several losing trades is ordinary operation, and single losing months happen. Relay never changes its lot size because of a loss. A lasting change in gold's character is the real risk: the protections limit how fast damage can happen, they cannot turn a hostile market into profit. Run a demo first, and judge Relay on months, not days.

13. Your first weeks

Plenty of trades close near zero. The fast engine takes most of the trades and a small share of the money; a handful of trend trades carry the year.	Profit that comes back. A trade can show real open profit, have its stop moved to break-even, and still close at almost nothing. It is the price of leaving the big winners alone.
When you attach matters. A single trade can carry a month; someone who attaches a fortnight later may meet only the quiet stretch that follows.	Judge at 60 days, not 8 trades. If a fortnight of small scratches would make you switch it off, run it on demo for two months first.

14. Support and the log

Questions, bug reports and feature requests reach the developer through MQL5 messages or this product's comments. Please include your broker, your account type and the Experts log for the day in question.

Relay: entry skipped - margin ...	The account could not carry the trade at its size. Nothing was sent.
Relay: entry skipped - stop ... too close	The broker would have refused the stops at that moment, usually a spread that widened at an open. Nothing was sent.
REGIME NOTICE	The Strategy Tester is running a period before 2025.
LOT: ...	With Detailed log on: each lot calculation.

Trading leveraged products carries a substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor. Past performance, including backtests on real tick data, does not guarantee future results. All figures in this guide are test measurements under stated conditions, not promises of return. You alone are responsible for your trading decisions and for following your broker's and your country's rules. Never trade with money you cannot afford to lose.