Gold News Striker

Gold News Striker — NFP & FOMC Breakout EA for XAUUSD

Gold News Striker trades the explosive volatility around the two biggest USD events — Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) and the FOMC rate decision — using a disciplined pending-order straddle on Gold (XAUUSD). It arms a Buy Stop and a Sell Stop a few pips around price one minute before the release, rides the breakout with step-trailing, and cancels everything if the news produces no move.

The EA is calendar-driven. In live trading it reads the built-in MetaTrader 5 economic calendar and only arms around genuine, scheduled NFP and (optionally) FOMC events. It re-checks the calendar automatically before each event, so a shifted or cancelled release is handled correctly — no manual date entry, and no trading on a day with no news.

How it works

1. One minute before the scheduled release, the EA places a Buy Stop and a Sell Stop a configurable distance (default 5 pips) above and below price.
2. The release hits — price breaks one side, the order fills, and the opposite pending is cancelled instantly (OCO).
3. No reaction, no trade. If price does not break out within the reaction window, both pending orders are cancelled and nothing is risked.
4. The open trade is protected by break-even and step-trailing to lock in profit as the move extends.

Key features

• Event-driven — trades only around NFP / FOMC, not random intraday noise.
• Real calendar in live — pulls actual event dates and times from the MT5 economic calendar and re-reads it before each event to catch schedule changes.
• Straddle entry with OCO — catches the breakout in either direction; the unused side is cancelled automatically.
• Reaction-window filter — if the news does not move price, the trade is skipped.
• Risk-based position sizing — lot is sized from a chosen % of balance and the stop distance, so your risk per trade is defined.
• Break-even and step trailing — moves the stop to entry once in profit, then trails in steps.
• Backtest support — an optional CSV calendar lets you backtest historical events.
• Built for XAUUSD, with a configurable pip value.

Broker compatibility (server time)

Brokers use different server time zones, and some follow US daylight-saving while others do not. Gold News Striker handles this automatically: enable the built-in MT5 calendar (InpUseMT5Calendar = true) and the EA places each straddle using your broker's actual server time for every NFP/FOMC release — no manual time setting, DST handled for you. Works on ICMarkets, Exness, and any MT5 broker that provides the economic calendar.

• If you prefer not to use the calendar, set InpNewsHour / InpNewsMinute to the release time in your broker's server time.
• InpCalShiftHours is a safety adjustment in case a broker reports calendar times in GMT instead of server time.

How to use — Live

1. Attach Gold News Striker to an XAUUSD, M1 chart.
2. Turn on Algo Trading, and in the EA dialog (Common tab) tick Allow Algo Trading.
3. Make sure the MT5 economic calendar is enabled and populated (Toolbox > Calendar shows Nonfarm Payrolls / Fed Interest Rate Decision).
4. Apply the recommended live settings (below).
5. Run on a VPS so the terminal is online at the exact release time.
6. Verify the first event: Toolbox > Experts shows a "calendar loaded" line and, about 1 minute before the release, a "straddle placed" line — in your broker's server time automatically.
7. Always forward-test on a demo account for a few events before going live.

Recommended live settings:

• InpUseMT5Calendar = true — real NFP/FOMC times in broker server time (DST automatic).
• InpUseAutoNFP = true — safety fallback if the calendar is empty.
• InpTradeNFP = true, InpTradeFOMC = false (FOMC optional; more whipsaw-prone).
• InpCalRefreshMin = 30 — re-check the schedule every 30 minutes.
• InpRiskPercent = 1–3 — risk per trade (start conservative).
• InpSLpips = 20, InpBEtriggerPips = 15, InpTrailStepPips = 20.
• InpExpiryMinutes = 2 — reaction window (skip if no news move).

How to use — Backtesting

Note: the MT5 economic calendar is not available inside the Strategy Tester. For backtests, feed the event dates via a CSV (recommended) or use the auto first-Friday schedule.

1. Open the Strategy Tester: Expert = Gold News Striker, Symbol = XAUUSD, Period = M1, Model = "1 minute OHLC" (or Every tick / real ticks if your broker provides them).
2. Choose how the tester gets the event dates (Option A or B).
3. Use the same risk and exit inputs as live.

Option A — CSV calendar (most accurate): place a file in the terminal's Common\Files folder, one event per line in broker server time (format: YYYY.MM.DD HH:MM), for example "2025.12.05 15:30". Then set InpNewsCSV = yourfile.csv and InpUseMT5Calendar = false.

Option B — Auto first-Friday (quick): set InpUseAutoNFP = true, leave InpNewsCSV empty, and set InpNewsHour / InpNewsMinute to the NFP release time in your broker's server time (for example 15:30 for GMT+2/+3 brokers that follow US DST, such as ICMarkets).

Server-time tip: brokers that follow US DST keep NFP at 15:30 all year; brokers on a fixed GMT offset shift by season, so a CSV with explicit per-event times is the most reliable for backtesting.

Key inputs

• InpRiskPercent — risk per trade (% of balance).
• InpSLpips — stop-loss distance (defines lot size).
• InpStopDistPips — pending distance from price (default 5).
• InpBEtriggerPips — move stop to break-even at +N pips.
• InpTrailStepPips — step-trailing increment.
• InpExpiryMinutes — reaction window; cancel unfilled pendings N minutes after the event.
• InpUseMT5Calendar / InpTradeNFP / InpTradeFOMC — calendar source and which events.
• InpCalRefreshMin / InpCalShiftHours — live calendar re-check and timezone safety.

Important notes & disclaimer

• News trading involves fast markets, spread widening, and slippage; real fills can differ from backtests, especially in the first seconds after a release.
• This is a high-impact event strategy — it trades infrequently (about 8–12 events per month at most) and is not a grid or martingale system.
• Past performance and backtests do not guarantee future results. Trade only with risk capital.
• Always forward-test on a demo account first to validate event timing on your broker.