Fairway
- Experts
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Pitt Petruschke
Algo trader and EA developer from Germany. Founder of AlgoVerdict (algoverdict.com) – independent tests of Expert Advisors, brokers and signal platforms based on live accounts. Author of Dawnbreak, a session range breakout EA for MT5. My own EA park runs on real accounts; my signals are listed in - Version: 1.10
- Activations: 10
Complete guide (every setting, set file): https://www.mql5.com/en/blogs/post/778374Fairway trades AUDCAD on M5 back to its mean. AUDCAD spends most of its time moving sideways, and stretched moves tend to swing back. Fairway opens a basket when the price is stretched beyond an Envelopes band on H1, adds orders at a growing distance while the price keeps running, and closes them in profitable pairs on the way back.
Grid EAs usually have one weak spot: a long trend against an open basket. Fairway answers it with a hard basket stop. A basket that reaches a set loss is closed, the EA waits for the next signal and starts again. One bad trend costs a known amount instead of the account.
Live account with the default set: https://www.mql5.com/en/signals/2396880
How it trades
- Signal: at the open of each M5 candle Fairway checks the last closed H1 candle's Envelopes band (EMA 14, 0.2 %). A BUY basket starts when the Ask is below the lower band, a SELL basket when the Bid is above the upper band.
- Grid: if the price keeps going, grid orders follow at a growing distance: 20, 24, 28.8, 34.6 pips and so on. The lot stays the same and only grows by one step if the last order is older than ten hours.
- Exits: a single order closes at +10 pips. With several orders, the best order closes together with one base lot of the worst order as soon as the pair is 8.5 pips in profit on the combined lots. In a deep basket a recovery mode closes orders one by one.
- Basket stop: a basket that reaches the set loss (default 150 USD per 3,500 USD of balance) is closed completely.
BUY and SELL baskets work independently and can be open at the same time, so a hedging account is required.
Scorecard dashboard
The dashboard on the chart looks like a golf scorecard. The Status tab shows the system state, signal, lot, spread, today's result and the basket stop. Each basket is a "hole" with its entries and a bar that shows how close the basket is to the basket stop. The clubhouse book shows today, week, month, total, maximum drawdown and the number of basket stops. Switch tabs with a click or the keys 1, 2 and 3; fold the panel with H.
Features
- Entry on a closed H1 Envelopes band, checked once per M5 candle
- Grid with growing distance and slowly growing lots, no martingale doubling
- Pair closing: the best order closes together with part of the worst one
- Recovery mode for deep baskets
- Basket stop in money per size step, optional account stop in % of the balance
- Optional limits: maximum orders per basket, no new basket while the other one is deep in loss
- Position size scales with the balance: 0.01 lot per 3,500 USD by default
- Spread filter for new baskets, margin and volume checks before every order
- Restart-safe: open positions are found again by their magic number
- A second copy on the same symbol refuses to start
Recommended use
- AUDCAD, M5, one chart per account. Other symbols are not tested.
- Hedging account. On a netting account BUY and SELL baskets cannot run at the same time.
- Balance: the default set trades 0.01 lot per 3,500 USD and closes a basket at -150 USD per 3,500 USD. With a smaller balance the EA still trades 0.01 lot, so the basket stop is a larger share of the account; reduce the basket stop to match.
- A broker with a tight AUDCAD spread. New baskets wait while the spread is above 4 pips.
- Test the set in the Strategy Tester with your broker's real ticks and on a demo account before trading live.
MetaTrader 5 backtest with real ticks
Strategy Tester, "Every tick based on real ticks", RoboForex, AUDCAD M5, 3,300 USD, 1 Jan 2024 to 17 Oct 2026, default set:
- Fairway with basket stop: +226.54 USD, profit factor 1.16, 1,371 trades, maximum equity drawdown 9.0 % (306.10 USD), 6 basket stops
- The same logic without basket stop: -539.02 USD, maximum equity drawdown 57.8 %
The basket stop costs profit in quiet periods: 2024 ended slightly negative (-96 USD) because three baskets were stopped. In return the long AUDCAD trend of 2026 did not run into a deep basket.
Risk warning: Fairway is a grid EA. It can hold a losing basket for days and it does take real losses at the basket stop. Trading CFDs and currencies on margin carries a high risk of loss. Backtests are simulations; past results do not guarantee future results. Use money you can afford to lose and test on a demo account first.
Inputs
Logical groups: General, Position size, Entry signal, Grid, Exits, Recovery, Risk and Dashboard. Money values are given per size step, so they scale with the balance together with the lot.
Support
Questions and bug reports through the comments or a private message. Please include your broker, the account type, the .set file and the Experts log lines from the time in question.
