MSP Open Alpha 1

A compact trend-following system for XAUUSD on M30, built around a classic EMA crossover with a higher-period direction filter. Designed as a clean, readable starting point to understand how a mechanical trend strategy behaves.

[ MSP Open Alphas Dedicated group ]

Strategy typology

• Trend-following EMA crossover system on closed M30 bars, distributed for XAUUSD.
• Single-position design ("one trade at a time"): a new signal is ignored while any strategy position or pending order is still open — no pyramiding.
• Intraday: entries are restricted to a broker server-time window (07:00–19:00 by default).

Entries

• Signals are evaluated once per new bar — entries never repaint.
• Buy: the fast EMA (20) crosses above the slow EMA (50) between the last two closed bars, and the latest close is above both the fast EMA and the 200 EMA trend line.
• Sell: the exact mirror image (cross below, close below fast EMA and below EMA 200).
• Executed as market orders at the current ask/bid.

Exits

• Every position carries a stop-loss at a fixed percentage of the entry price (1% by default).
• No take-profit (TP = 0) and no signal-based exit: a trade runs until its stop-loss or the daily close.
• Once per day at a configurable server time (20:00 by default), all strategy positions are closed and all pending orders deleted.

Capital Protection

• Risk-based position sizing: a fixed percentage of the balance (1% by default) is risked per trade; lot size is derived from the stop-loss distance using tick size, tick value and lot step, then clamped to the broker's min/max volume.
• New orders are rejected when free margin is insufficient and no-change SL/TP modifications are rejected, while position-reducing and closing orders are always allowed.
• MagicNumber + comment ownership tags ensure the EA only scans and manages its own positions and orders.

Backtest Results — XAUUSD M30, 2020.01.01 – 2026.10.01

Broker: IC Markets (EU) Ltd · USD account · initial deposit 1,000.00 · leverage 1:50 · "Every tick" model · history quality 99% (79,801 bars / 9,542,122 ticks) · all inputs at defaults.

What the numbers show:

• Positive expectancy: profit factor 1.46 with average win (+13.34) clearly larger than average loss (−10.24) — the edge comes from payoff asymmetry, not from a high win rate.
• Balanced long/short activity (276 long / 224 short trades, both ~52–54% winners) — the logic is not a one-directional curve-fit.
• Drawdown stayed in single digits (max 8.59% of equity) over ~6.8 years — consistent with the 1%-per-trade risk sizing and the daily close-all.
• AHPR 1.0016 / GHPR 1.0015 with LR correlation 0.96: the equity curve grows steadily hour-by-hour and day-by-day, not from one lucky spike.

Note: these results come from one broker, one symbol, one period and one set of inputs, on a 1,000 USD demo-style backtest. They show how the code behaves in the Strategy Tester — they are not a promise of future results (see Risk Warning below). 

Backtest & Setup Guide

• EA launching asset: XAUUSD (Gold)
• Strategy Timeframes: M30
• Minimum / Recommended deposit: 200 / 500 USD (demo-first recommended)
• VPS recommended for stable execution
• Preferred Broker: ICMarkets

Inputs

• FastEmaPeriod — fast EMA period (20).
• SlowEmaPeriod — slow EMA period (50); must be greater than FastEmaPeriod .
• TrendEmaPeriod — trend filter EMA period (200).
• EntryStartHour / EntryStartMinute — entry window open, server time (7:00).
• EntryEndHour / EntryEndMinute — entry window close, server time (19:00).
• ExitHour / ExitMinute — daily close-all time, server time (20:00).
• RiskPercent — account risk per trade, in percent (1.0 = 1% of balance).
• StopLossPercent — stop-loss distance as a percent of the entry price (1%).

Risk Warning

• Past performance is not a guarantee of future profitability
• No trading system can win 100% of the time
• Check our post How not to be fooled when you buy an algo