Turtle Trend Stairs
- Experts
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Cesar De Los Reyes Sanchez
I design and develop expert advisors (EAs) for MetaTrader 5. My focus is rule-based systems with clear logic and built-in risk management: fixed stop loss, risk per trade as a percentage of the account, daily loss limits and account protections. No martingale, no grid. - Version: 1.4
- Updated: 9 November 2026
- Activations: 5
Turtle Trend Stairs is a multi-timeframe trend following expert advisor with a stepped stop loss. It trades H1 breakouts in the direction of the H4 trend and moves the stop up in steps to protect open profit.
The idea
Trends tend to continue after a clean breakout, but a trade that was in profit can still turn into a loss. This EA uses the same entry logic as a classic trend breakout system and adds a ladder for the stop loss: first break-even, then a locked profit, then a trailing stop.
How it works
- Trend (H4): fast EMA (50) above slow EMA (200) and H4 close above the slow EMA: only buys. The opposite: only sells.
- Strength (H1): ADX above 20.
- Entry (H1): at the close of a bar that breaks the high or low of the last 20 bars, in the direction of the trend.
- Initial stop loss 2 ATR and take profit 6 ATR.
- Step 1 (break-even): when the trade is 1 ATR in profit, the stop moves to the entry price plus 0.1 ATR (covers spread and commission).
- Step 2 (profit lock): when the trade is 2 ATR in profit, the stop moves to the entry price plus 1 ATR.
- Then a trailing stop starts at 3 ATR of profit and follows the price at 2.5 ATR.
- The stop only moves in the favourable direction. It never moves away.
- Turtle filter: skips a breakout when the previous one would have won, unless it also breaks the 55-bar channel.
- One position per symbol. No martingale. No grid. No averaging down.
- Lot size is calculated from a percentage of the account balance (1% by default).
Quick start
- In MetaTrader 5, open the Toolbox (Ctrl+T), go to the Market tab and then Purchased (or Downloaded for the demo). The EA appears in the Navigator window under Experts.
- Switch on the Algo Trading button in the top toolbar (it turns green).
- Open a chart of a supported symbol and set the timeframe shown in Recommended use. Drag the EA from the Navigator onto the chart.
- In the window that opens, go to the Common tab and tick Allow Algo Trading. Leave the default inputs on your first run: risk is 1% of the balance per trade.
- Check that a smiley face appears in the top right corner of the chart, and read the Experts tab of the Toolbox for the start message.
- Before using real money, run it in the Strategy Tester (Ctrl+R) on your own broker, then on a demo account.
Recommended use
- Timeframe: H1.
- Symbols: tested on USDJPY. In our own historical tests (H1, 2019-2026) the entry logic showed a small edge on USDJPY only; on other Forex pairs we did not find a reliable edge. Use any other symbol only after testing it yourself on your broker. Attach one chart per symbol; each chart trades its own symbol.
- Account: hedging or netting. One position per symbol.
- Keep the terminal running (a VPS is recommended) with AutoTrading enabled.
- Test it on your own broker in the Strategy Tester and on a demo account before using real money.
Input parameters
- Magic number: identifier of the EA trades.
- Trend timeframe, fast EMA, slow EMA, breakout channel, ADX period and minimum ADX, ATR period.
- Turtle filter on/off and long channel length.
- Stop loss, take profit, trailing start and trailing distance (ATR multiples).
- Step 1 and step 2: profit that starts each step and the profit that the stop secures (ATR multiples; 0 disables a step).
- Risk per trade (% of balance), max trades per day, max daily loss (%), safety cap on lot size.
- Max spread (as a fraction of ATR), max slippage, Friday and Monday entry filters.
- Account protections: open risk cap, circuit breaker, account drawdown limit, optional push notifications.
Built-in protections
- Daily loss brake.
- Open risk cap for the whole account.
- Circuit breaker on the EA drawdown.
- Account drawdown limit (no new trades; open trades keep their stop loss).
- Free margin check and spread filter before every entry.
- The EA does not send requests that the broker will refuse (freeze level) and retries failed requests with a growing pause.
Important
- Trend following systems have losing streaks and long periods without trades. A stepped stop can close a trade at break-even before a trend continues. Results can be uneven.
- Spread, commission and slippage affect results. Test the EA on your own broker.
- Trading leveraged products such as Forex and CFDs involves a high risk of loss. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Only risk money you can afford to lose.
- This product is a trading tool, not investment advice.
Support: please use the comments section of this product.
