Gold Clock Daily Entry

Gold Clock Daily Entry is an automated trading system for XAUUSD. It opens one buy trade per day at a fixed time of day and manages it with a fixed Stop Loss and Take Profit. The entry is the open of the M30 candle that starts at 20:30 UTC.

The rules are mechanical and fixed. The system does not use grid, martingale or averaging down.

KEY FEATURES

• One trade per day, Monday to Thursday. Fridays are skipped.
• Fixed Stop Loss at 1.5 x ATR and Take Profit at 3.0 x ATR on every order.
• Maximum holding time of 24 hours.
• One position at a time. No grid, no martingale, no averaging down.
• Risk-based position size: default risk of 0.30% of the balance per trade.
• Automatic time zone handling: the EA converts the broker server time to UTC by itself. An input is available to set the offset manually.
• Built-in account protection: daily loss and drawdown limits.
• Ready to use: the default settings are the settings used in the tests below.

MONEY MANAGEMENT

• Position size is calculated from a percentage of the account balance and the Stop Loss distance. Default risk: 0.30% per trade. A fixed lot mode is also available.
• If the smallest lot of the broker would risk more than the chosen risk, the minimum lot is used. Check the minimum lot of your broker before you start.
• Account protection pauses new trades when the daily loss reaches 2.0%, or when the drawdown from the peak equity reaches 12.0%. The daily pause ends at the next UTC day. The drawdown pause stays active until the EA is restarted, because the peak equity is kept in memory. Open positions keep their Stop Loss and Take Profit.

RECOMMENDED SETUP

• Symbol: XAUUSD (use the symbol name of your broker).
• Chart: M30.
• Account type: hedging or netting.
• Broker: a low spread on XAUUSD and a low swap rate for long positions. Check both before you start.
• The terminal must stay online at 20:30 UTC every day. A VPS is recommended.
• On the first run, open the Experts tab. The EA prints the detected UTC offset and the entry time on your server clock. Check that they are correct.

QUICK START

1. Open an XAUUSD chart and set the timeframe to M30.
2. Attach the EA to the chart.
3. Enable Algo Trading.
4. Keep the default settings. The Experts tab prints the detected time zone offset and the entry time on your server clock.

IMPORTANT TO KNOW

• Swap is a major cost. The system holds positions overnight. In the test below, swap was about 35% of the profit before swap. Results change with the swap rate of your broker.
• The entry time was chosen from the same price history used in the test. The results describe the past. They are not a forecast.
• The test period starts on 2023.01.01. An earlier test of the same rules that started in November 2021 showed 2022 as a losing year (-9.64%), with a maximum equity drawdown of 15.24%.
• Losing periods can be long. In the test, the account balance stayed below its previous peak for about 3.5 months, from May to August 2026. The longest series of losing trades was 11.
• The default drawdown limit pauses the EA until it is restarted. After a drawdown like the one of 2022, the EA would stop opening trades and wait for you.
• The trade is open during the daily market close and rollover. Spread can widen then and can trigger the Stop Loss.
• Around market holidays a trade can stay open longer than 24 hours, because the market is closed.
• No trading system avoids losses. Trade only with money you can afford to lose.

INPUT PARAMETERS (DEFAULT VALUES)

• Entry hour (UTC): 20
• Entry minute (UTC): 30
• Server GMT offset in hours: 99 (automatic)
• Entry window in seconds: 120
• Trade on Fridays: false
• Risk per trade: 0.30%
• Fixed lot: 0.0 (off)
• Stop Loss in ATR multiples: 1.5
• Take Profit in ATR multiples: 3.0
• ATR period: 48
• Maximum holding time in hours: 24
• Slippage in points: 30
• Account protection: enabled
• Daily loss limit: 2.0%
• Drawdown limit: 12.0%

STRATEGY TESTER RESULTS

The figures below come from the MetaTrader 5 Strategy Tester. They are not real trading results.

• Symbol and timeframe: XAUUSD, M30
• Modelling: Every tick based on real ticks (history quality 98%)
• Period: 2023.01.01 - 2026.10.01
• Initial deposit: 100,000 USD, leverage 1:100
• Settings: default
• Total net profit: 55,860.61 USD (swap included)
• Gross profit: 230,335.97 USD, gross loss: -174,475.36 USD
• Profit factor: 1.32
• Expected payoff: 74.38 USD per trade
• Recovery factor: 6.26
• Total trades: 751 (buy trades only)
• Profitable trades: 44.47%
• Average profit trade: 689.63 USD, average loss trade: -418.41 USD
• Maximal balance drawdown: 5.55%
• Maximal equity drawdown: 5.90%
• Most consecutive winning trades: 7, most consecutive losing trades: 11
• Average holding time: 9 h 25 min
• Yearly results (net of swap, on the account balance): 2023 +11.12%, 2024 +13.91%, 2025 +12.82%, 2026 (to Oct 1) +9.14%

Real trading results can differ because of spread, slippage, commission, swap and order execution.

SUPPORT AND UPDATES

Questions are welcome in the comments or by private message on MQL5. Updates are published as new versions of this product.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marthison Sousa