CitadeLab Prop Firm Breakout

CitadeLab Prop Firm Breakout is an Expert Advisor built for one job: passing prop-firm challenges inside the rules. It trades breakouts on gold (XAUUSD) with eight independent range slots, plus two optional index engines for US Tech 100 (USTEC) and Germany 40 (DE30). Most failed challenges break a drawdown rule rather than the strategy, so the risk engine comes first.

How It Works

• Eight gold breakout slots: each one watches a different price range and timeframe, and places a buy stop and a sell stop beyond its edges.
• Index engine 1 (USTEC) and index engine 2 (DE30): rolling 36-bar M15 range breakouts during the European/US session, closed at the end of the day.
• Every position is opened with a defined stop loss and take profit. Break-even and trailing rules protect open profit.
• No martingale. No grid. No averaging down. No hedging tricks to hide losses.

Prop Firm Risk Engine

• Overall loss guard: set FirmMaxLossPct to your firm's maximum loss. The EA flattens everything with a safety buffer (GuardBufferPct, default 0.5%) before the firm's limit.
• Daily loss guard: set FirmDailyLossPct to your firm's daily limit (0 = firm has no daily limit).
• Target lock: when the profit target (FirmTargetPct) is reached, the EA closes all trades and stops, so the phase is not given back.
• Adaptive sizing: position size shrinks automatically as the remaining drawdown room shrinks.
• Safe and Fast presets: Safe uses smaller positions to protect drawdown room; Fast sizes up to reach the target sooner.

Backtest Results (MT5 Strategy Tester)

Phase 1 started on the 1st of every month, July 2023 to August 2026: 38 starts per rule profile, 60-day window, $100k.

• 10% target / 20% max loss: 89% passed (Safe), 87% (Fast). 0 of 38 starts hit the loss limit. Median time to pass: 3 days.
• 10% target / 8% max loss: 74% passed (Safe), 76% (Fast). Median 13.5 days (Safe), 8 days (Fast).
• 8% target / 5% max loss: 68% passed in both modes. Median 16 days (Safe), 12.5 days (Fast).

"Passed" means the target was reached within 60 days. A start that neither passed nor hit the loss limit by day 60 is counted as not passed. These are historical backtests on 1-minute bars without commission or slippage. They are not a guarantee of future results.

Setup

1. Use a HEDGING account. The EA places buy and sell orders at the same time.
2. Attach the EA to ONE XAUUSD H1 chart only. The index engines trade USTEC and DE30 from that same chart.
3. Set IX1_Symbol and IX2_Symbol to your broker's exact names for US Tech 100 and Germany 40 (for example USTEC / USTECm / NAS100 and DE30 / DE30m / GER40). If a symbol is not available, that engine switches itself off.
4. Enter your firm's rules: FirmTargetPct, FirmMaxLossPct, FirmDailyLossPct.
5. Set AccountSize to your challenge's starting balance, so guards and the target stay correct after a restart.
6. Enable Algo Trading and keep the terminal running 24/5 (a VPS is recommended).

Main Inputs

• PropMode: on = the prop-firm settings below control risk (default on).
• FirmTargetPct: profit target of the current phase, in %.
• FirmMaxLossPct: firm's maximum overall loss, in %.
• FirmDailyLossPct: firm's daily loss limit, in % (0 = none).
• PropSpeed: Safe, Fast (default) or Turbo. Turbo is the fastest but blew far more accounts in testing and is not recommended.
• GuardBufferPct: how far before the firm's limit the EA stops (default 0.5%).
• AccountSize: starting balance of the challenge (0 = balance when the EA starts).
• MinLotTolerance: on small accounts, allows the broker's minimum lot if its risk is within this multiple of the target risk.
• IX1_On / IX1_Symbol, IX2_On / IX2_Symbol: switch the USTEC and DE30 engines on or off and set their symbol names.
• MaxSpread: orders are not placed while the spread is above this value (points).
• BaseMagicNumber: change it if you run other EAs on the same account.

Important

• Check your prop firm's current rules before buying a challenge: EAs allowed, instruments, news trading, static or trailing drawdown, minimum trading days.
• Do not close or modify the EA's trades manually; it manages its own exits and guards.
• The EA is designed for XAUUSD H1. Results on other symbols are not supported.

Risk Warning

Trading leveraged products such as gold and index CFDs carries significant risk and can result in the loss of your capital or challenge fees. Backtests and past performance do not guarantee future results. No prop-firm pass or trading profit is guaranteed. This product is software, not financial advice.