XAU Custos Prop

Launch price $299 for the first 10 copies. Then $399, then $499. Final price: $799.

XAU Custos Prop — Rule-based gold EA built around prop firm risk rules

A patient XAUUSD Expert Advisor for MetaTrader 5. It evaluates the market twice a day on 12-hour bars, trades one position at a time and sends every order with a stop loss. Daily-loss and maximum-loss guards are built in for evaluation-style account rules.

Key benefits

- No grid, no martingale, no averaging down, no hedging.

- Hard stop loss and take profit on every order, scaled to current volatility, plus time-based and trailing exits.

- Optional daily-loss pause, daily-loss close and maximum-loss stop for prop-style rules.

- Signal-only / alert mode: push alerts with entry, stop loss, take profit and a suggested lot size, for accounts where EAs are not allowed.

- Low trade frequency: about 3 trades per month on gold.

- Small-account support with an adjustable risk cap.

- 12-hour bars anchored to New York time, with daylight saving handled.

Who it is for

Prop-firm evaluation and funded traders who want risk limits set in the EA inputs; patient swing traders comfortable with a few trades per month; traders whose firm does not allow EAs and who want alerts to place trades by hand; gold traders on MT5 looking for a rule-based approach without grid or martingale. It is not designed for scalping or for traders who want daily activity.

Backtest results — real historical XAUUSD tick data, 99% history quality (MetaQuotes) (hypothetical)

MT5 Strategy Tester, XAUUSD, 1 January 2023 – 8 October 2026, versions 1.12/1.13 (identical trades), default inputs, $100,000 deposit, 1% risk per trade, leverage 1:100, loss guards off, MetaQuotes-Demo data (history quality 99%).

- Total trades: 131 (about 0.67 per week)

- Winning trades: 82.44% (108 of 131)

- Profit factor: 3.35

- Maximum equity drawdown: 2.65% ($3,249.06)

- Maximum balance drawdown: 2.34%

- Average winning trade $550.24, average losing trade −$771.16 (losing trades are larger than winning trades on average)

- Longest losing streak: 3 trades

- Net result: +$41,689.06; by calendar year +12.2% (2023), +6.8% (2024), +9.4% (2025), +8.1% (2026 to 8 Oct)

- 33 of 46 months positive, 9 negative, 4 flat; worst month −1.52%

These are simulated results. Results on other brokers, spreads, time-zone settings and risk levels will differ, and live trading may be worse. See the screenshots for the balance curve and monthly table.

How it works

- Builds its own 12-hour bars from H1 data, anchored at 17:00 and 05:00 New York time (daylight saving handled), so results do not depend on your broker's server time zone.

- Entry: a proprietary pullback setup taken only in the direction of the prevailing trend and confirmed by a volatility/regime filter. The strategy logic and its parameters are fixed and built in.

- Exit: volatility-based stop loss and take profit, a time exit, a profit-protecting exit rule, and a trailing stop that follows intraday market structure.

- One position at a time. Every order is sent with a stop loss.

Risk controls

- No grid / martingale / recovery logic.

- Risk per trade as a % of balance (default 1%).

- Optional daily-loss pause, daily-loss close and maximum-loss stop (useful for evaluation/prop-style rules).

- Full broker checks: volume limits/step, free margin, stop level, freeze level, trading permissions.

Inputs — risk %, max lot, small-account min-lot fallback + risk cap, allow short trades, time-zone settings (server GMT offset, DST rule, anchor hour), account-protection limits, signal-only / push / e-mail alerts, magic number.

Manual / signal use (for accounts where EAs are not allowed)

Some prop firms and brokers do not allow Expert Advisors, or do not offer MT5 to every trader. For those cases the EA can run in signal-only mode on a separate MT5 terminal (for example a demo account) and send you each setup, so you can decide whether to place it by hand on your own account.

- InpSignalOnly = true: the EA places no trades. It only sends alerts. (In the Strategy Tester it always trades normally.)

- InpNotify = true: alerts arrive as MT5 mobile push notifications (enter your MetaQuotes ID in Tools > Options > Notifications) and as a terminal alert. InpNotifyEmail adds an e-mail.

- Each entry alert contains: symbol, direction, entry price, stop loss, take profit, a suggested lot size for the balance and risk % of the terminal running the EA, and the time until which the signal is valid.

- Follow-up alerts tell you when to move the stop loss (trailing stop), when the exit rule says close, and when the stop or target was reached.

- Signals are generated about twice a day at fixed 12h bar closes (05:00 and 17:00 New York time), about 3 setups per month on gold.

Please note: manual execution will differ from automated results (entry delay, spread, missed alerts). Recalculate the lot size for your own account size and risk. Push delivery depends on MetaQuotes servers and your phone and is not guaranteed. Before using alerts on a prop firm or funded account, check that firm's rules on EAs, signal services, copy trading and third-party trading; you are responsible for complying with them. Alerts are not investment advice and no result or evaluation pass is promised.

Requirements and notes

- Recommended: XAUUSD on a broker with low spreads. Other symbols are allowed but untested (the EA logs a warning).

- Small accounts (min-lot fallback, ON by default): when % risk sizing comes out below the broker's minimum lot, the EA trades the minimum lot only if that trade risks at most InpMaxRiskPctFallback % of equity (default 5%); otherwise it skips and logs why. This means the real risk per trade on small accounts can be HIGHER than your risk % (up to the cap). With gold near $4,000+, a 0.01-lot trade typically risks $60–110, so at the default 5% cap gold needs roughly $1,300–2,200+ to trade; smaller accounts mostly skip on gold. Set InpMinLotFallback=false to never exceed your risk %. Larger accounts are unaffected.

- Set the time-zone inputs correctly for backtests (the Strategy Tester cannot detect the server offset). Default: GMT+2 winter / US DST (New York-close servers).

- Trade frequency is low (about 3 trades per month on gold). Losing streaks and flat periods will happen.

Risk disclosure

Trading leveraged products such as CFDs and forex carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. You can lose some or all of your deposit. This product does not provide investment advice, and nothing here is a promise or indication of future profit. Past or simulated results do not guarantee future results. Use on a demo account first.

CFTC RULE 4.41 — HYPOTHETICAL OR SIMULATED PERFORMANCE RESULTS HAVE CERTAIN LIMITATIONS. UNLIKE AN ACTUAL PERFORMANCE RECORD, SIMULATED RESULTS DO NOT REPRESENT ACTUAL TRADING. ALSO, SINCE THE TRADES HAVE NOT BEEN EXECUTED, THE RESULTS MAY HAVE UNDER-OR-OVER COMPENSATED FOR THE IMPACT, IF ANY, OF CERTAIN MARKET FACTORS, SUCH AS LACK OF LIQUIDITY. SIMULATED TRADING PROGRAMS IN GENERAL ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO THE FACT THAT THEY ARE DESIGNED WITH THE BENEFIT OF HINDSIGHT. NO REPRESENTATION IS BEING MADE THAT ANY ACCOUNT WILL OR IS LIKELY TO ACHIEVE PROFIT OR LOSSES SIMILAR TO THOSE SHOWN.

QUICK START

1. Attach to any XAUUSD chart (timeframe doesn't matter).

2. Set server GMT offset + DST rule to match your broker (default GMT+2 / US DST).

3. Set risk % (default 1%). Enable daily/total loss guards if your account has those rules.

4. Run on demo for at least 2–4 weeks before going live.

FAQ

- Why so few trades? ~3/month by design; it waits for trend pullbacks on 12h bars.

- Does it work on other symbols? Untested; it warns in the log. Gold only is supported.

- Small account? By default the EA uses the minimum lot when your risk % is too small for it, but only if that trade risks at most 5% of equity (adjustable cap); otherwise it skips. Risk per trade on small accounts can therefore be higher than your chosen %. Turn InpMinLotFallback off to never exceed it.

- My firm does not allow EAs. Can I still use it? Run it in signal-only mode on a separate terminal and place trades by hand from the push alerts, if your firm's rules allow trading from signals. Check the rules first.

- Prop accounts? Guards help respect daily/total loss rules; you're responsible for your firm's rules. No pass is promised.

Note: each trade is opened as up to 3 positions with staggered targets (fewer on small accounts). Check your prop firm's open-position limits.