ICT Premium Discount Optimal Trade Entry EA

You see the OTE arrow at two in the morning. This EA was already in the trade.

ICT Premium Discount OTE EA trades the optimal trade entry of the dealing range: it finds the swing high and the swing low, draws the range, waits for price to pull back into the 62-79% zone, and takes that entry - buys in discount on an up leg, sells in premium on a down leg, one trade per leg. Stop loss, take profit, risk per trade and trading hours are yours to set.

It is the same range and OTE engine, bar for bar, as my free indicator ICT Premium Discount OTE Honest Stats. If you already trade from those arrows, this EA takes the same ones.

The entry

• The dealing range runs from the older of the latest swing high and swing low to now (a swing = the highest or lowest candle of 10 on each side, and that number is an input)
• Up leg (the high came after the low): a candle that reaches down into the 62-79% pullback zone is a buy
• Down leg: a candle that reaches up into the 62-79% zone is a sell
• One trade per leg, so a range that keeps shaking inside the zone does not fill your terminal
• Ranges smaller than 3 x ATR(14) are skipped, so the EA ignores noise - also an input
• Optional: only take arrows whose candle also closes inside the zone

Your stop loss, three ways

• At the low of the dealing range for a buy, the high for a sell, plus a buffer you choose
• At the low or high of the entry candle, plus the buffer
• A fixed number of pips

The EA keeps the stop at the broker's minimum distance on its own, and if the broker refuses stops with a market order it opens first and sets the stop straight after.

Your take profit, four ways

• A fixed number of pips
• A multiple of the stop loss, so 2.0 means twice what you risk. This is the default, because it means the same thing on gold, on an index and on a currency, while a number of pips does not
• At the other end of the dealing range
• None, if you manage the exit yourself

Your risk

• Risk a percentage of the balance: the EA works out the lot size from your own stop loss, so a wide stop gets a small lot and a tight stop a bigger one. This is the default
• Or a fixed lot size, if that is how you trade
• The lot is rounded to the broker's step and never goes below its minimum or above its maximum; if the risk works out smaller than the smallest lot the broker allows, the EA says so in the log and skips the trade instead of risking more than you told it

Your hours

• Leave the hours off and the EA takes every arrow
• Or give it a window - London only, New York only, your killzone - and an arrow outside the window is simply not taken
• Maximum open buys and maximum open sells, each on its own, so you can run it long only, short only, or one of each
• A spread limit, so a wide spread does not become your entry

It matches your chart

The arrows of an indicator are chart objects and an EA cannot read them, so the engine is built into the EA instead of reading an indicator file. Nothing to install next to it, and because the signal is computed from candles the EA runs in the Strategy Tester like any other expert - most ICT indicator robots cannot be tested at all. Keep the signal inputs equal to the ones on your chart and the entries land on the same candles as the arrows you already see.

Works on everything you trade

• MetaTrader 5 and MetaTrader 4, same engine
• Any symbol: gold, indices, forex, crypto
• Any timeframe; the engine reads closed candles only, so a signal never changes after the candle has closed
• MetaTrader 4 loads only part of the history at first. The EA reads 1,500 closed candles when it starts and says in the log how many it got - scroll the chart back (Home key) or raise Tools > Options > Charts > Max bars in chart if it is still waiting
• Four and five digit brokers, market execution and instant execution

Getting started

• Drop the EA on a chart, switch AutoTrading on
• Set the risk per trade, the stop loss style and the take profit style you already use
• Leave the signal inputs alone if you use my indicator with its defaults; change them on both if you use your own
• Watch the Experts tab: the EA prints the range it is working with, every arrow it finds and the reason whenever it does not take one

Honest about what it is

• This is your entry rule, automated. It is not a strategy I sell you - the setup is ICT's, the settings are yours, and the result depends on the market, the symbol and the settings you choose
• A swing is known only after the candles to its right have closed, so an arrow appears on the candle that reaches the zone, never earlier. Nothing is repainted and nothing is traded in hindsight
• Test your settings in the Strategy Tester on your symbol before you put money behind them
• Past behaviour does not guarantee future behaviour

Inputs

• Signal: swing size, smallest range in ATR(14), OTE zone from and to, close-inside-the-zone only, candles of history read at start
• Hours: on or off, from hour and minute, to hour and minute
• Size: fixed lot or risk % of balance, the lot, the risk %
• Stop loss: range, entry candle or fixed pips, the pips, the buffer
• Take profit: none, fixed pips, multiple of the stop, or the far end of the range
• Orders: maximum buys, maximum sells, maximum spread, slippage, magic number, comment

Support: if something doesn't work as expected, send me a private message first. I answer every message and fix problems quickly.