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Sotirios Karkalakos
Gold Channel Rider is not one strategy. It is four, and each one has to pay for itself.
All four trade breakouts of gold's recent range, with a hard stop on every trade:
S1: 5-day channel, wide stop
S2: 10-day channel, trailing stop
S3: 20-day channel, trailing stop, near target
S4: 20-day channel, wide stop
MT5 Strategy Tester, 2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk per trade, each strategy on its own:
S1: 475 trades, profit factor 1.53, +5,634 USD
S2: 490 trades, profit factor 1.82, +10,717 USD
S3: 379 trades, profit factor 2.04, +9,531 USD
S4: 261 trades, profit factor 1.60, +3,901 USD
None of them is carried by the others. Different channel lengths catch different moves, so the losing stretches don't all arrive at once.
Each strategy has its own on/off switch. With a smaller account, switching off S1 and S4 (the wide-stop ones) lowers the risk of the minimum lot.
Free demo:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
All four trade breakouts of gold's recent range, with a hard stop on every trade:
S1: 5-day channel, wide stop
S2: 10-day channel, trailing stop
S3: 20-day channel, trailing stop, near target
S4: 20-day channel, wide stop
MT5 Strategy Tester, 2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk per trade, each strategy on its own:
S1: 475 trades, profit factor 1.53, +5,634 USD
S2: 490 trades, profit factor 1.82, +10,717 USD
S3: 379 trades, profit factor 2.04, +9,531 USD
S4: 261 trades, profit factor 1.60, +3,901 USD
None of them is carried by the others. Different channel lengths catch different moves, so the losing stretches don't all arrive at once.
Each strategy has its own on/off switch. With a smaller account, switching off S1 and S4 (the wide-stop ones) lowers the risk of the minimum lot.
Free demo:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
Don't trust EA screenshots. Including mine.
Every number I post about Gold Channel Rider comes from the MT5 Strategy Tester, and you can check it yourself in about three minutes with the free demo:
1. Symbol XAUUSD, period H1, model "1 minute OHLC" or "Every tick"
2. At least five years, for example 2020 to today. A trend follower judged on three months tells you almost nothing.
3. Deposit 10,000 USD or more, or load the "Small account" setfile for a smaller deposit.
What you should see (2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk): 13 of 14 years profitable. Some years are big (+29% in 2025, +24% in 2020), some are nearly flat (+1% in 2018), and 2022 was -5%. Flat stretches are part of trend following, and I'd rather show them than hide them.
If your result looks very different, write in the Comments tab and I will help you find why (usually the symbol name, the period or the deposit).
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Every number I post about Gold Channel Rider comes from the MT5 Strategy Tester, and you can check it yourself in about three minutes with the free demo:
1. Symbol XAUUSD, period H1, model "1 minute OHLC" or "Every tick"
2. At least five years, for example 2020 to today. A trend follower judged on three months tells you almost nothing.
3. Deposit 10,000 USD or more, or load the "Small account" setfile for a smaller deposit.
What you should see (2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk): 13 of 14 years profitable. Some years are big (+29% in 2025, +24% in 2020), some are nearly flat (+1% in 2018), and 2022 was -5%. Flat stretches are part of trend following, and I'd rather show them than hide them.
If your result looks very different, write in the Comments tab and I will help you find why (usually the symbol name, the period or the deposit).
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
Passing a prop firm challenge is not about the good weeks. It is about surviving the bad one.
What Gold Channel Rider does to protect the account:
- Hard stop loss on every trade, sent with the order. Nothing is ever open without one.
- Flat for the weekend: no new orders late on Friday, everything closed before the market shuts. No Monday gap.
- Daily loss limit: reach it and the EA closes everything and pauses until the next day.
- Maximum drawdown stop, measured from peak equity: reach it and trading stops.
- No grid, no martingale, no averaging down.
There is a ready-made Prop firm setfile in the Comments tab of the product page: 0.25% risk per trade, 3% daily loss limit, 6% maximum drawdown. Load it, check your firm's own limits, and adjust if they are stricter.
Test it in the Strategy Tester first with the free demo:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
What Gold Channel Rider does to protect the account:
- Hard stop loss on every trade, sent with the order. Nothing is ever open without one.
- Flat for the weekend: no new orders late on Friday, everything closed before the market shuts. No Monday gap.
- Daily loss limit: reach it and the EA closes everything and pauses until the next day.
- Maximum drawdown stop, measured from peak equity: reach it and trading stops.
- No grid, no martingale, no averaging down.
There is a ready-made Prop firm setfile in the Comments tab of the product page: 0.25% risk per trade, 3% daily loss limit, 6% maximum drawdown. Load it, check your firm's own limits, and adjust if they are stricter.
Test it in the Strategy Tester first with the free demo:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
One input decides how aggressive Gold Channel Rider is: risk per trade.
Every trade is sized from its own stop loss, so "0.5% risk" means that if the stop is hit you lose 0.5% of the account. Not more.
Same rules, same 13.7 years of XAUUSD (MT5 Strategy Tester, 10,000 USD start):
0.25% risk -> 19,922 USD | 5.2% a year | max drawdown 8.5%
0.5% risk (default) -> 39,783 USD | 10.6% a year | max drawdown 9.3%
1% risk -> 164,808 USD | 22.7% a year | max drawdown 18.0%
The honest part: growth and drawdown rise together. There is no setting that gives you 1% returns with 0.25% pain. My advice is to start at 0.5% or lower.
One more honest detail: gold's stops are wide right now, so the minimum lot of 0.01 already risks about 75-150 USD per trade. For a true 0.5% plan on roughly 30,000 USD. Smaller account? Use the "Small account" setfile from the Comments tab.
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Every trade is sized from its own stop loss, so "0.5% risk" means that if the stop is hit you lose 0.5% of the account. Not more.
Same rules, same 13.7 years of XAUUSD (MT5 Strategy Tester, 10,000 USD start):
0.25% risk -> 19,922 USD | 5.2% a year | max drawdown 8.5%
0.5% risk (default) -> 39,783 USD | 10.6% a year | max drawdown 9.3%
1% risk -> 164,808 USD | 22.7% a year | max drawdown 18.0%
The honest part: growth and drawdown rise together. There is no setting that gives you 1% returns with 0.25% pain. My advice is to start at 0.5% or lower.
One more honest detail: gold's stops are wide right now, so the minimum lot of 0.01 already risks about 75-150 USD per trade. For a true 0.5% plan on roughly 30,000 USD. Smaller account? Use the "Small account" setfile from the Comments tab.
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
A 92% win rate can still empty your account.
Before building Gold Channel Rider, I measured the mechanism most best-selling gold robots use: grid, recovery, no stop loss on any position, one equity stop. Four years of real XAUUSD data, with real spread, commission and swap.
156 winning series out of 169. A 92.3% win rate.
The account finished down 86.2%.
Both numbers are true at the same time. The 13 losing series were big enough to erase everything the 156 winners made, and more.
Gold Channel Rider wins 50.7% of its trades, and I show that number on purpose:
- every trade has a hard stop loss sent with the order
- losers are cut early, winners are left to run
- no grid, no martingale, no averaging down
Result over 13.7 years in the MT5 Strategy Tester: +298% at 0.5% risk per trade, max drawdown 9.3%.
Next time you see a 95% win rate, ask one question: where is the stop loss?
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Before building Gold Channel Rider, I measured the mechanism most best-selling gold robots use: grid, recovery, no stop loss on any position, one equity stop. Four years of real XAUUSD data, with real spread, commission and swap.
156 winning series out of 169. A 92.3% win rate.
The account finished down 86.2%.
Both numbers are true at the same time. The 13 losing series were big enough to erase everything the 156 winners made, and more.
Gold Channel Rider wins 50.7% of its trades, and I show that number on purpose:
- every trade has a hard stop loss sent with the order
- losers are cut early, winners are left to run
- no grid, no martingale, no averaging down
Result over 13.7 years in the MT5 Strategy Tester: +298% at 0.5% risk per trade, max drawdown 9.3%.
Next time you see a 95% win rate, ask one question: where is the stop loss?
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
A 92% win rate can still empty your account.
Before building Gold Channel Rider, I measured the mechanism most best-selling gold robots use: grid, recovery, no stop loss on any position, one equity stop. Four years of real XAUUSD data, with real spread, commission and swap.
156 winning series out of 169. A 92.3% win rate.
The account finished down 86.2%.
Both numbers are true at the same time. The 13 losing series were big enough to erase everything the 156 winners made, and more.
Gold Channel Rider wins 50.7% of its trades, and I show that number on purpose:
- every trade has a hard stop loss sent with the order
- losers are cut early, winners are left to run
- no grid, no martingale, no averaging down
Result over 13.7 years in the MT5 Strategy Tester: +298% at 0.5% risk per trade, max drawdown 9.3%.
Next time you see a 95% win rate, ask one question: where is the stop loss?
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Before building Gold Channel Rider, I measured the mechanism most best-selling gold robots use: grid, recovery, no stop loss on any position, one equity stop. Four years of real XAUUSD data, with real spread, commission and swap.
156 winning series out of 169. A 92.3% win rate.
The account finished down 86.2%.
Both numbers are true at the same time. The 13 losing series were big enough to erase everything the 156 winners made, and more.
Gold Channel Rider wins 50.7% of its trades, and I show that number on purpose:
- every trade has a hard stop loss sent with the order
- losers are cut early, winners are left to run
- no grid, no martingale, no averaging down
Result over 13.7 years in the MT5 Strategy Tester: +298% at 0.5% risk per trade, max drawdown 9.3%.
Next time you see a 95% win rate, ask one question: where is the stop loss?
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
A 92% win rate can still empty your account.
Before building Gold Channel Rider, I measured the mechanism most best-selling gold robots use: grid, recovery, no stop loss on any position, one equity stop. Four years of real XAUUSD data, with real spread, commission and swap.
156 winning series out of 169. A 92.3% win rate.
The account finished down 86.2%.
Both numbers are true at the same time. The 13 losing series were big enough to erase everything the 156 winners made, and more.
Gold Channel Rider wins 50.7% of its trades, and I show that number on purpose:
- every trade has a hard stop loss sent with the order
- losers are cut early, winners are left to run
- no grid, no martingale, no averaging down
Result over 13.7 years in the MT5 Strategy Tester: +298% at 0.5% risk per trade, max drawdown 9.3%.
Next time you see a 95% win rate, ask one question: where is the stop loss?
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Before building Gold Channel Rider, I measured the mechanism most best-selling gold robots use: grid, recovery, no stop loss on any position, one equity stop. Four years of real XAUUSD data, with real spread, commission and swap.
156 winning series out of 169. A 92.3% win rate.
The account finished down 86.2%.
Both numbers are true at the same time. The 13 losing series were big enough to erase everything the 156 winners made, and more.
Gold Channel Rider wins 50.7% of its trades, and I show that number on purpose:
- every trade has a hard stop loss sent with the order
- losers are cut early, winners are left to run
- no grid, no martingale, no averaging down
Result over 13.7 years in the MT5 Strategy Tester: +298% at 0.5% risk per trade, max drawdown 9.3%.
Next time you see a 95% win rate, ask one question: where is the stop loss?
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
One rule made my gold EA better. And I chose it before I looked at the result.
Breakouts that go against gold's multi-month trend are the ones that fail. So Gold Channel Rider compares today's close with the close 120 days ago:
- above it: only buy-stops are placed
- below it: only sell-stops
Nothing else changes.
Same EA, 2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk per trade:
Profit factor: 1.37 -> 1.75
Max drawdown: 15.6% -> 9.3%
Losing years: 2 -> 1 (out of 14)
10,000 USD became 39,783 instead of 34,035
How I avoided curve fitting: I tested seven ideas on 2013-2020 only, then checked the survivors ONCE on 2021-2026. Only this filter held up out of sample. It also works on every lookback from 90 to 160 days, so 120 is not a lucky number.
Want the old behaviour? Set the trend filter to 0 and it trades both sides of every channel.
Free demo, test it on your own broker's data:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Breakouts that go against gold's multi-month trend are the ones that fail. So Gold Channel Rider compares today's close with the close 120 days ago:
- above it: only buy-stops are placed
- below it: only sell-stops
Nothing else changes.
Same EA, 2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk per trade:
Profit factor: 1.37 -> 1.75
Max drawdown: 15.6% -> 9.3%
Losing years: 2 -> 1 (out of 14)
10,000 USD became 39,783 instead of 34,035
How I avoided curve fitting: I tested seven ideas on 2013-2020 only, then checked the survivors ONCE on 2021-2026. Only this filter held up out of sample. It also works on every lookback from 90 to 160 days, so 120 is not a lucky number.
Want the old behaviour? Set the trend filter to 0 and it trades both sides of every channel.
Free demo, test it on your own broker's data:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
One rule made my gold EA better. And I chose it before I looked at the result.
Breakouts that go against gold's multi-month trend are the ones that fail. So Gold Channel Rider compares today's close with the close 120 days ago:
- above it: only buy-stops are placed
- below it: only sell-stops
Nothing else changes.
Same EA, 2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk per trade:
Profit factor: 1.37 -> 1.75
Max drawdown: 15.6% -> 9.3%
Losing years: 2 -> 1 (out of 14)
10,000 USD became 39,783 instead of 34,035
How I avoided curve fitting: I tested seven ideas on 2013-2020 only, then checked the survivors ONCE on 2021-2026. Only this filter held up out of sample. It also works on every lookback from 90 to 160 days, so 120 is not a lucky number.
Want the old behaviour? Set the trend filter to 0 and it trades both sides of every channel.
Free demo, test it on your own broker's data:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Breakouts that go against gold's multi-month trend are the ones that fail. So Gold Channel Rider compares today's close with the close 120 days ago:
- above it: only buy-stops are placed
- below it: only sell-stops
Nothing else changes.
Same EA, 2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk per trade:
Profit factor: 1.37 -> 1.75
Max drawdown: 15.6% -> 9.3%
Losing years: 2 -> 1 (out of 14)
10,000 USD became 39,783 instead of 34,035
How I avoided curve fitting: I tested seven ideas on 2013-2020 only, then checked the survivors ONCE on 2021-2026. Only this filter held up out of sample. It also works on every lookback from 90 to 160 days, so 120 is not a lucky number.
Want the old behaviour? Set the trend filter to 0 and it trades both sides of every channel.
Free demo, test it on your own broker's data:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
One rule made my gold EA better. And I chose it before I looked at the result.
Breakouts that go against gold's multi-month trend are the ones that fail. So Gold Channel Rider compares today's close with the close 120 days ago:
- above it: only buy-stops are placed
- below it: only sell-stops
Nothing else changes.
Same EA, 2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk per trade:
Profit factor: 1.37 -> 1.75
Max drawdown: 15.6% -> 9.3%
Losing years: 2 -> 1 (out of 14)
10,000 USD became 39,783 instead of 34,035
How I avoided curve fitting: I tested seven ideas on 2013-2020 only, then checked the survivors ONCE on 2021-2026. Only this filter held up out of sample. It also works on every lookback from 90 to 160 days, so 120 is not a lucky number.
Want the old behaviour? Set the trend filter to 0 and it trades both sides of every channel.
Free demo, test it on your own broker's data:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Breakouts that go against gold's multi-month trend are the ones that fail. So Gold Channel Rider compares today's close with the close 120 days ago:
- above it: only buy-stops are placed
- below it: only sell-stops
Nothing else changes.
Same EA, 2013 - 2026, 0.5% risk per trade:
Profit factor: 1.37 -> 1.75
Max drawdown: 15.6% -> 9.3%
Losing years: 2 -> 1 (out of 14)
10,000 USD became 39,783 instead of 34,035
How I avoided curve fitting: I tested seven ideas on 2013-2020 only, then checked the survivors ONCE on 2021-2026. Only this filter held up out of sample. It also works on every lookback from 90 to 160 days, so 120 is not a lucky number.
Want the old behaviour? Set the trend filter to 0 and it trades both sides of every channel.
Free demo, test it on your own broker's data:
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
Most gold EAs you see here show a 95% win rate and a perfectly straight equity line. Look closer and you will usually find a grid, a martingale, or no stop loss at all. Those curves are smooth right up to the day the account is gone.
Gold Channel Rider does the opposite.
- 4 breakout strategies on XAUUSD (5, 10 and 20-day channels)
- A hard stop loss on EVERY trade, sized by ATR
- No grid. No martingale. No averaging down. Never a bigger lot after a loss
- A 120-day trend filter: it only trades in the direction of gold's bigger move
- Friday close, spread and slippage guards, ready-made prop firm settings
MT5 Strategy Tester, Jan 2013 - Sep 2026, default settings, 0.5% risk per trade:
10,000 -> 39,783 USD
10.6% a year | max drawdown 9.3% | profit factor 1.75 | 1,605 trades
13 of 14 years profitable
The win rate is 50.7%, and I show it on purpose. A trend follower wins by letting winners run and cutting losers short, not by hiding losses.
Don't take my word for it. Download the free demo, run it in your own Strategy Tester with your own broker's data, and compare the result with the chart above. 4 setfiles (Default, Conservative, Small account, Prop firm) are in the Comments tab.
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Gold Channel Rider does the opposite.
- 4 breakout strategies on XAUUSD (5, 10 and 20-day channels)
- A hard stop loss on EVERY trade, sized by ATR
- No grid. No martingale. No averaging down. Never a bigger lot after a loss
- A 120-day trend filter: it only trades in the direction of gold's bigger move
- Friday close, spread and slippage guards, ready-made prop firm settings
MT5 Strategy Tester, Jan 2013 - Sep 2026, default settings, 0.5% risk per trade:
10,000 -> 39,783 USD
10.6% a year | max drawdown 9.3% | profit factor 1.75 | 1,605 trades
13 of 14 years profitable
The win rate is 50.7%, and I show it on purpose. A trend follower wins by letting winners run and cutting losers short, not by hiding losses.
Don't take my word for it. Download the free demo, run it in your own Strategy Tester with your own broker's data, and compare the result with the chart above. 4 setfiles (Default, Conservative, Small account, Prop firm) are in the Comments tab.
https://www.mql5.com/en/market/product/195647
Past results do not guarantee future results.
Sotirios Karkalakos
Published post I built three gold grid EAs and measured them honestly
Every week someone posts a gold EA with a win rate above 95% and an equity curve that goes up like a staircase. I wanted to know whether that is a strategy or an accounting trick, so over the last month I built three grid systems for XAUUSD and tested each one until it told me the truth...
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Sotirios Karkalakos
Published product
Four ready-made setfiles are attached in the Comments tab: Default, Conservative, Small account (under 15,000 USD) and Prop firm - together with the exact settings to use when you test the free demo. Gold Channel Rider is a fully automated Expert Advisor for XAUUSD , built on one of the oldest ideas in systematic trading that still holds up on gold: when price breaks out of a multi-day range, it tends to keep going. It runs four independent breakout strategies at the same time, on 5-day, 10-day
Sotirios Karkalakos
Published product
Your grid EA wins 9 trades out of 10. That was never the question. I ran the mechanism the best-selling gold robots use — grid, recovery, no stop loss on any position, one hard equity stop — over four years of real XAUUSD data, with real spread taken from every bar, real commission and real swap. 156 winning series out of 169. A 92.3% win rate. The account finished down 86.2%, with a peak drawdown of 96.8%. Both numbers are true at the same time, and that is the whole problem. The 92% is what
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1
Sotirios Karkalakos
Published product
Almost everything sold for MetaTrader predicts direction. I tested whether that is possible, on thirteen years of EURUSD and gold, with walk-forward validation and a control run on randomly shuffled labels. Direction came out between 48 and 51 percent. On gold the same models scored 53.4 percent on the shuffled labels - higher than on the real data. That is what an over-fitted system looks like from the inside, and it is why a backtest curve is not evidence. The size of tomorrow's move is a
Sotirios Karkalakos
Published product
Most traders who fail a prop firm challenge do not fail because they did not know the rules. They fail because, at the moment it mattered, nobody was doing the arithmetic. Prop Guard Monitor does the arithmetic. It sits on one chart, watches the whole account, and answers one question continuously: how much room is left before a rule breaks. It never closes a position. It never deletes an order. It never locks anything. This build cannot touch a trade even if you want it to - the trading
Sotirios Karkalakos
Published product
A funded account is not lost on the trade you regretted. It is lost on the one that was still open when the daily limit went past. Prop Guard sits on one chart and watches the whole account. It does not open trades and it does not produce signals. It answers one question, continuously: how much room is left before a rule breaks - and when the answer gets close enough to zero, it acts. THE PART MOST GUARDS GET WRONG Your drawdown peak is written to disk. Close the terminal, restart the PC