Zazen Gold Breakout
- Experts
-
Christian Koehler
We are a highly qualified team of experienced programmers and trading experts who have set ourselves the goal of revolutionising the world of trading.
Our approach is simple and clear: we develop EAs based on simple and understandable strategies that deliver profitable results. - Version: 1.0
- Activations: 8
Zazen Gold Breakout is an Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 5 that trades gold (XAUUSD) with six breakout strategies in one portfolio. Every trade has a fixed stop loss from the start. The EA uses no grid and no martingale.
The six strategies work on different timeframes, so the result does not depend on a single idea. A news filter pauses the short-term strategies around the US labour market data and the US inflation data. Daily loss limit, total loss limit and profit target are built in for prop firm accounts.
The EA is meant for traders who want a transparent approach with limited risk per trade and who can sit through losing periods.
Download Set Files: Download
Idea
Gold often moves in a range for a long time and then breaks out strongly. Zazen Gold Breakout waits for such breakouts and enters only when the price leaves the range. The exact rules remain part of the product.
The six strategies are the result of many thousands of backtests. Only variants that were profitable both from 2015 to 2022 and from 2023 to 2026, and whose neighbouring settings also worked, were kept. The approach is therefore not fitted to a single good year.
The equity curve is not a straight line, because it is real. If you expect a curve without setbacks, this EA is not the right choice.
Features
- Fixed stop loss on every trade, no grid, no martingale
- Lot size by drawdown target, by risk per trade or fixed
- Distances and lot sizes adapt to the gold price
- On small accounts the EA trades only as many strategies as fit the account
- News filter for NFP and CPI, in live trading taken directly from the MetaTrader calendar
- Prop firm rules with daily limit, total limit and profit target
- Spread limit, virtual orders and Friday close as switches
- Dashboard with balance, equity, result per strategy and next news event
In live trading the EA detects the broker's server time itself and works with gold prices quoted with two or three decimal places.
Prop firm compatible
The EA monitors the usual prop firm rules itself. Before each new order it checks whether all open stop losses together could breach a limit, and skips the order if so. If the daily limit is reached anyway, it closes all trades and pauses until the next day. At the total limit or the profit target it closes everything and stops trading.
Three set files are included: phase 1 with a 10 % profit target, phase 2 with a 5 % profit target and one set for the funded account. All three use a 4 % daily limit and a 9 % total limit and so keep a distance from the common rules of 5 % and 10 %. In the sets the day starts at midnight Central European Time. Time zone, hour and limits can be adjusted to any provider.
If you run several accounts with the same provider, the EA can shift entry, stop loss and take profit by a few random points per account. For accounts that must not hold positions over the weekend there is the Friday close switch.
Provider rules differ and change. Before you start, please check whether your provider allows Expert Advisors and which limits apply. A passed backtest is no promise that a challenge will be passed.
Requirements and setup
The EA needs a MetaTrader 5 account in hedging mode and the symbol gold (XAUUSD). It does not start on a netting account.
- Account: From about 12,000 USD all six strategies trade with the default settings. On smaller accounts the EA trades only as many as fit the drawdown target with the minimum lot.
- Accounts around 1,000 USD: The default target of 10 % is not enough for any strategy here, so the drawdown target has to be raised. The risk is correspondingly higher, and the backtests shown apply only to the full portfolio.
- Cent accounts: About 150 USD are enough for all six strategies if gold is traded there with one hundredth of the usual contract size. The EA reads contract size, minimum lot and account currency from the broker and calculates the lot size from them.
- Chart: a single XAUUSD chart, the timeframe does not matter.
- Operation: The terminal has to run continuously, most easily on a VPS.
How many strategies trade depends on the account size and the drawdown target:
| Account | Drawdown target | Active strategies |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 USD | 10 % (default) | none |
| 1,000 USD | 20 % | one |
| 1,000 USD | 30 % | two |
| from about 1,700 USD | 10 % | one |
| from about 2,500 USD | 10 % | two |
| from about 3,900 USD | 10 % | three |
| from about 7,700 USD | 10 % | four |
| from about 9,700 USD | 10 % | five |
| from about 12,200 USD | 10 % | all six |
The values apply at a gold price of about 4,200 USD and shift with the price. Set files for accounts of 1,000, 5,000 and 10,000 USD are included.
Setting up the EA:
- Drag the EA onto an XAUUSD chart and allow algo trading.
- Keep the default values or load one of the set files.
- Check in the dashboard which strategies are active and whether the next news event is shown.
- Let the EA run on a demo account for a few weeks first.
For backtests the news filter needs a file with the event dates, because the MetaTrader calendar is not available in the Strategy Tester. The MT5 News Exporter writes this file as news.csv to the common data folder. Export the events from the start of your test period. If the file is missing, the EA assumes the US labour market data on the first Friday of the month and does not filter the inflation data. The journal points this out.
Settings
The EA has 31 settings in six groups, and none of them has to be changed for normal operation.
| Group | Setting | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategies | Strategy 1 to Strategy 6 | on | Switches individual strategies on or off. The lot size depends on the number of active strategies. |
| General | Magic number base | 4700 | Base of the magic numbers. The strategies use 4701 to 4706. Change it only if another EA uses the same numbers. |
| General | Max. spread in points | 500 | With a larger spread the EA places no new orders. 500 points are 5.00 USD in the gold price. |
| General | Virtual orders | off | The EA places no orders with the broker but watches the price itself and enters with a market order. The terminal then has to run without interruption. |
| General | Close all trades on Friday | off | Closes all trades and deletes all orders on Friday. |
| General | Friday close hour | 22 | Hour in server time from which trades are closed on Friday. |
| Lot size | Lot calculation | Max. drawdown target | Selects the calculation: drawdown target, risk per trade or fixed lot. |
| Lot size | Max. drawdown target in % | 10 | The lots are chosen so that the largest drawdown in the backtest was about this value. A guide value, not an upper limit. |
| Lot size | Risk per trade in % | 0.5 | Loss at the stop loss in percent of the account. Applies only to the calculation by risk. |
| Lot size | Fixed lot | 0.01 | Lot size at a gold price of 4,000 USD, the EA adjusts it to the current price. Applies only to the fixed lot. |
| Lot size | Balance for lot calculation | 0 | 0 uses the current balance. A fixed amount keeps the lots the same regardless of the balance. |
| Lot size | Keep lot size after losses | on | The lots follow the highest balance reached and do not get smaller after losses. |
| Lot size | Small accounts: trade fewer strategies | on | Trades only as many of the active strategies as fit the drawdown target with the minimum lot. Off: all strategies share the target, and strategies with lots that are too small pause. |
| Prop firm rules | Use prop firm rules | off | Switches on all limits of this group. |
| Prop firm rules | Max. daily loss in % | 0 | Daily limit in percent of the initial balance, open trades count. 0 switches it off. |
| Prop firm rules | Daily reset time zone | Server time | Time zone for the start of the day: server time or Central European Time. |
| Prop firm rules | Daily reset hour | 0 | Hour at which a new day begins. |
| Prop firm rules | Max. total loss in % | 0 | Total limit in percent of the initial balance. 0 switches it off. |
| Prop firm rules | Initial balance | 0 | Initial balance of the account. 0 uses the balance at the first start. |
| Prop firm rules | Profit target in % | 0 | When it is reached, the EA closes everything and stops trading. 0 switches it off. |
| Prop firm rules | Unique trades: random shift in points | 0 | Shifts entry, stop loss and take profit randomly per account by up to this many points. |
| Prop firm rules | Reset lock | off | Removes the lock after the total limit or the profit target was reached. |
| News filter | News filter NFP and CPI | on | Pauses the short-term strategies from 100 minutes before to 60 minutes after the events, closes their trades and deletes their orders. |
| News filter | News file for backtests | news.csv | Name of the event file for the Strategy Tester. It is not needed in live trading. |
| News filter | News file download | Link | Reference to the MT5 News Exporter, without function. |
| Display | Show dashboard | on | Shows the overview in the chart. |
Risk warning
Trading gold and leveraged products is risky, and you can lose part or all of the capital you invest. Zazen Gold Breakout does not guarantee profits.
All figures mentioned come from backtests with historical data. The strategies were selected on exactly this data, so future results can be considerably worse. Spread, slippage, swap, commission and your broker's server time change the result. The drawdown target is a guide value from the backtest and not an upper limit for losses.
Only trade with money you can afford to lose, and test the EA on a demo account first. This text is not investment advice.
