This guide covers installation, the broker checks, the risk levels, the status panel and every input. Try the free demo in the Strategy Tester on your own broker's data before you trade a live account.
Links
- Product page: Centurix on the MQL5 Market
- MT4 version: Centurix MT4
- Questions: send me a private message on MQL5
- PDF version
What Centurix does
Centurix trades gold (XAUUSD) with a portfolio of 35 strategies on one chart. Every position has a stop loss from the moment it opens. There is no grid, no martingale and no averaging down.
You choose one setting, the risk level. Centurix sizes every position from it, so the same level means the same risk per dollar of equity whether gold trades at $400 or $4,500.
Installation
- In MetaTrader, open the Market tab of the Toolbox, then Purchased, and click Install next to Centurix.
- Open one gold chart: XAUUSD, or your broker's name for it (for example XAUUSD.r or GOLD). Any timeframe works; it does not change the trading.
- Drag Centurix from the Navigator (Expert Advisors, Market) onto the chart. On the Common tab, allow Algo Trading.
- On the Inputs tab, choose a risk level. Balanced is the tested default.
- Turn on Algo Trading in MetaTrader (AutoTrading in MetaTrader 4) and keep the platform running, ideally on a VPS.
- Check the status panel in the top-left corner of the chart. It should say "Status: trading".
Run one copy per account. Do not attach it to a second chart of the same account with the same magic number. If you move it to the MQL5 VPS, do not keep a second copy running on your own computer.
Before you trade: check your broker
- Symbol: use your broker's gold symbol. Other instruments are not supported.
- Account type: a hedging account is required, because each strategy holds its own position. Netting accounts and US accounts with the FIFO rule are not supported.
- Costs: a raw-spread (ECN) account is recommended. Centurix places many orders, so spread, commission and slippage matter more than the risk level. 10 points of slippage on every fill cost about 4 points of yearly return in the tests.
- Leverage: from $35,000, 1:30 is enough (1:20 for Balanced and lower risk levels). Small accounts need more leverage (see "Account size").
- Order limit: some brokers cap the number of open and pending orders. Centurix respects the cap and skips new orders while it is reached.
Account size
- Recommended: $35,000 deposit for Balanced, with 1:30 leverage or higher. Lower risk levels need more (see the table below). Use the same deposit in the Strategy Tester.
- Lowest possible: $2,000 deposit with 1:100 leverage, or $1,000 with 1:200 or higher, with much larger drawdowns. With only 1:20 to 1:30 leverage, at least $10,000.
Why Centurix needs a larger balance: it runs 35 strategies at once, and every position must be at least the broker's smallest lot (0.01). Below the balance in the table, Centurix cannot go smaller than that, so its positions are bigger than the risk level asks for.
- Very low (3) - about $115,000
- Low (5) - about $70,000
- Medium (7) - about $50,000
- Balanced (10) - about $35,000
- High (12) - about $30,000
- Very high (15) - about $25,000
These amounts are for gold at $4,000 and rise with the gold price (about 12% more at $4,500). The status panel shows the exact amount for your account in the "Small account" line.
Why lower levels need a larger balance: a lower level asks for smaller positions, and no position can be smaller than 0.01 lot. On $35,000, Balanced asks for about 0.01 lot per position, exactly the minimum. Very low asks for about 0.003 lot, so the minimum lot is 3.3 times too big. In the test, Very low and Low on $35,000 made exactly the same trades as Balanced on $10,000. As a rule: needed balance = $35,000 x 10 / risk level. On a smaller account, a lower level does not lower your risk.
What a larger balance changes. Balanced, 1:100 leverage, XAUUSD June 2025 - September 2026:
- $10,000 - Return: +69%, Largest equity drawdown: 9.9%
- $20,000 - Return: +39%, Largest equity drawdown: 6.1%
- $35,000 - Return: +34%, Largest equity drawdown: 3.5%
- $100,000 - Return: +34%, Largest equity drawdown: 3.7%
- $200,000 - $500,000 - Return: +37% to +38%, Largest equity drawdown: 4.1% - 4.3%
The smaller accounts made a larger percentage only because they took more risk: on $10,000 the drawdown was about 2.4 times the drawdown at the level, and the return for each % of drawdown was lower (7 against 9 to 10 from $35,000). From $35,000 no position is larger than the level asks. Up to about $150,000 some positions are rounded down to whole 0.01 lots, so the drawdown can be a little lower than the level; from there the results match the level closely. On a test of January 2023 - September 2026 the order was the same.
Under $35,000 (Balanced): drawdowns are larger than the risk level suggests, and the smaller the account, the larger they get. On $10,000 all six risk levels traded exactly the same, so changing the level changes nothing.
Under the minimum: Centurix skips the trades the account cannot afford, so you get only part of the strategy.
Leverage does not change the results. With enough margin, 1:10 to 1:500 gave the same trades and the same profit on $35,000 and on $100,000. Leverage changes only the margin headroom. On $35,000 at Balanced the lowest margin level was 152% at 1:10, 304% at 1:20, 457% at 1:30 and 1,522% at 1:100. High and Very high use about 1.5 times the margin of Balanced. So use 1:20 or higher for Balanced and the lower levels, and 1:30 or higher for High and Very high. More leverage than that gives no extra profit.
Very large accounts: brokers limit the total volume per symbol. On the test broker this rejected some orders on $1,000,000 (Balanced: 7% of the trades, Very high: 30%). Above about $500,000, check your broker's volume limit, or use a lower risk level.
Risk levels
- Very low (3) - The smallest positions. For large accounts and strict prop-firm limits.
- Low (5)
- Medium (7)
- Balanced (10) - The default, used in every published backtest: 9.3% largest equity drawdown in 2004 - 2026 on a $100,000 account.
- High (12)
- Very high (15) - The largest level: 13.8% largest equity drawdown in 2004 - 2026 on a $100,000 account, lowest margin level 131%.
As a rule, risk level N gave about N% largest equity drawdown in the 2004 - 2026 backtest. When the same trades are shuffled into a different order, a typical path is about 8% deeper and 1 path in 20 is about 50% deeper (Balanced: about 14.7%). A level name is not a maximum loss, and a past drawdown is not a limit for the future. Start with Balanced or lower and do not raise the risk to recover a losing period.
The levels work as described only on an account at least as large as the table in "Account size" shows. On a smaller account the levels trade the same or nearly the same.
No set files are needed: the defaults are the tested settings, and the risk level is one choice on the Inputs tab.
The status panel
The panel is in the top-left corner of the chart. It reads the account and shows what Centurix is doing. It never sends, changes or blocks an order, so the trades are the same with the panel on or off.
- Status: trading; market closed; paused by the daily loss limit, the NFP filter or the drawdown pause; close-only; or trading is off. The most important reason is shown first.
- Risk: the risk level, custom value or fixed lots in use.
- Balance, equity and drawdown from peak since Centurix was attached.
- Open positions, pending orders and the floating profit of Centurix positions.
- Spread and margin level.
- Small account: shown while your equity is below the size the risk level needs (see "Account size").
Turn it off with the input "Show the status panel". It is not drawn in a Strategy Tester run that is not visual.
All inputs
- Risk level - Very low / Low / Medium / Balanced / High / Very high (3 / 5 / 7 / 10 / 12 / 15). Balanced is the tested default.
- Custom risk value, 1-15 - Above zero, replaces the risk level with your own value. Above 15 was not tested as safe: at 20 the backtest reached a margin stop-out. Zero uses the risk level.
- Fixed lots per trade - Above zero, every strategy trades this lot size and the risk level is ignored. Zero sizes from the risk level.
- Pause new trades while equity drawdown exceeds the risk value - On: most Centurix strategies open no new trades while equity is more than the risk value (in %) below its peak since Centurix started. Open positions keep their stops and exits.
- Margin guard - -1 (auto, recommended): below $10,000 of equity, or above risk value 10, new orders are cut so the margin in use stays under 50% / 70% of equity. Otherwise only orders that the free margin can carry are sent. A number sets your own limit in % of equity. 0 keeps only the free-margin check.
- Daily equity loss limit % - Above zero, no new trades for the rest of the server day once equity falls this far below its level at the start of the day. Zero turns it off.
- ... and close Centurix positions when it is hit - Also closes the open Centurix positions at that moment.
- NFP filter - No new trades around the US Non-Farm Payrolls release (the first Friday of the month), and pending orders are removed.
- ... and close Centurix positions before the release - Also closes the open Centurix positions when the window starts.
- NFP release hour / minute, server time - The release time on your broker's server clock. 15:30 fits most brokers at GMT+2/+3.
- Pause before / after NFP, minutes - The length of the window: 5 minutes before to 15 minutes after by default.
- Max spread for new orders, points - Above zero, no new orders while the spread is above this. Zero turns it off.
- Skip a new order while the spread is above this % of its stop - The automatic cost filter: no new order when the spread is a large share of what the trade risks. 16 is the tested value. Zero turns it off.
- Magic number - Identifies the Centurix orders. Centurix also uses the next 210 numbers, so keep that range free for other experts. On MetaTrader 4 it must be below 2,147,483,400.
- Show the status panel - Shows the panel on the chart.
What to expect
- Centurix places pending orders and removes them when they are no longer valid. Many orders are placed and removed each day; this is normal.
- Up to about 15 positions can be open at the same time in a strong one-way move. Each one has its own stop loss.
- Results come unevenly. Losing weeks and losing months are normal; in the backtest about 7 months in 10 were profitable. Judge it over months and years, not days.
- The trading does not depend on the chart timeframe. Changing the chart timeframe restarts the expert; open positions and orders are kept.
Troubleshooting
No trades for a while. Check the status panel first. If it says "trading", the market has not reached any level yet. Pending orders on the chart show that Centurix is working.
Status: trading is off. Check the Algo Trading button, the expert's Allow Algo Trading setting and any account or symbol restriction.
Status: market closed. The broker's trading session for gold is closed, for example during the daily break. Orders resume when it opens.
Status: paused. The daily loss limit, the NFP filter or the drawdown pause is active. It ends by itself.
Orders smaller than expected. The margin guard cut the order to what the account can carry. Compare the panel's margin level with your broker's stop-out level, or use a lower risk level.
Live results differ from a backtest. Compare the broker, symbol specification, spread, commission, slippage, leverage, inputs and version. Short pending-order trades are sensitive to execution.
How it was tested
The main test covers XAUUSD from June 2004 to September 2026 in the Strategy Tester (1-minute OHLC), with the broker's own spreads and again with a 45-point spread floor, far wider than real gold spreads. The settings were chosen on 2006 - 2018 and checked on 2018 - 2026 without changes. Extra tests used real ticks from IC Markets for 2023 - 2026. The MetaTrader 4 edition runs the same strategy with the same inputs: on the same 2024 - 2026 prices it took the same 2,397 trades. These are historical simulations, not live results.
Support
Have a question, or something does not look right? Just drop me a private message on MQL5 or write in the product comments, and I will be happy to help. A screenshot of your chart with the status panel is often all I need.
Trading involves risk, and past results do not guarantee future results.
