Read this first
Golden DeathStar is a fully automated trading robot for MetaTrader 5, designed exclusively for
XAUUSD (gold) on the M1 timeframe. It does not use martingale, grid, averaging, hedging loops or
"AI". The risk per trade is the same on every single trade you take. That's the rule.
It comes with presets that are already running live and proven to work in the right environment.
Unlike most EAs on the market, you don't need to be an engineer or have prior trading experience to run it. You just need to follow
three simple recommendations:
- Trading environment: the choice of broker is crucial. See Recommended broker setup.
- Capital diversification: split your capital across risk profiles as explained in Recommended capital diversification.
- Attach & go: drag the EA onto XAUUSD M1, load a preset, enable AutoTrading. Done.
Important
Golden DeathStar is built and tested for XAUUSD M1 only. Running it on other symbols or timeframes is unsupported and will not behave as documented.
10 essentials
The ten things that matter most. If you only remember ten rules from this entire guide, make them these. Each card links to the detailed section so you can dive deeper when you need to.
01
Trade only XAUUSD M1
Anything else, gold on a different timeframe or any other symbol, will not behave as documented and is unsupported.
02
Pick the right broker
Global Prime Raw is the reference. If you can't access it, try IC Markets or Pepperstone. What matters is the account type: it must be Raw / ECN / Zero (not a standard account).
03
Test on demo before you go live
The best way to choose: open several demo accounts and run a different preset on each for a few days. If you can, open accounts on a few different brokers too, since execution can vary from one broker (or day) to another. That way you'll see the EA's real performance on your own broker and pick the preset and broker you feel most comfortable with before risking real money.
04
Diversify your capital across three accounts
Allocate roughly 50% to a low-risk account (Ultra Conservative), 30% to a medium one (Default or Moderate), and 20% to a high-risk one (Accelerator). Three separate accounts so each profile's drawdown stays isolated.
05
One EA, one preset, one account
Never run two charts of this EA on the same account. Different magic numbers don't help. The equity is shared, so the drawdown adds up and you cannot measure either preset cleanly.
06
Never combine with another EA
Same logic as above. Any second EA running on the same account contaminates the drawdown profile and invalidates any conclusion you might draw about Golden DeathStar's behavior.
07
Don't change the preset values
Run the presets exactly as they ship. The only value you might need to adjust is Max Spread, depending on your broker, but the default should work on most.
08
Keep the News Filter enabled
XAU spreads spike on news. Disabling the filter exposes positions to slippage events that wipe out the strategy's edge for that day.
09
Skip bank holidays of London or NY
When a major market is closed, gold becomes erratic. Each Friday, scan the calendar for the upcoming week and consider pausing the EA on those days.
10
Withdraw your capital once you hit a target
When the account reaches a milestone of your choosing, for example +100% (doubling) or +50%, withdraw your original capital and keep only the profit running. From that moment on you trade with pure profit, with zero risk to your initial investment.
Installation
- Buy / activate Golden DeathStar on MQL5 Market.
- In MetaTrader 5, open the Market tab and click Install on your purchased copy.
- The EA appears under
Navigator → Expert Advisors → Market.
- Open a XAUUSD M1 chart.
- Drag the EA onto the chart, or double-click it in the Navigator.
- In the dialog that opens, go to the Common tab and make sure Allow Algo Trading is checked.
- Go to the Inputs tab. Either keep defaults, or right-click → Load to apply a preset (
.set file).
- Click OK. Confirm the AutoTrading button (top toolbar) is on (green).
News filter: one extra step on MT4 only
The News Filter behaves differently depending on your platform, and this is the single setup difference between the two versions:
- MT5: nothing to do. The EA reads the native MetaTrader 5 economic calendar, so it works out of the box with no WebRequest permission and no external URL.
- MT4: MT4 has no built-in calendar, so the EA pulls the news feed over the internet. You must allow the feed URL once, or the filter can't see upcoming news.
MT4 only, allow the news URL:
- In MT4, open Tools → Options → Expert Advisors.
- Tick "Allow WebRequest for listed URL".
- Add this exact URL to the list:
https://nfs.faireconomy.media
- Click OK and re-attach the EA (or restart MT4).
That's the whole setup.
Important: if the News Filter is on (its default) and you do
not add this URL, the EA cannot fetch the calendar, so it raises an error and
will not take any trades at all until you add it. It does not silently trade without protection: no URL, no trading.
On MT5 this step does not exist.
First run checklist
Before you let the EA take its first real trade, verify all of the following:
- Symbol is XAUUSD (or your broker's gold symbol; confirm contract specs match).
- Chart timeframe is M1.
- AutoTrading button in the toolbar is on (green icon).
- Each instance running has a unique Magic Number. Two instances with the same magic on the same symbol will fight over positions.
- Account leverage is set to a level compatible with your Risk Percent (we recommend 1:500 for full preset compatibility; see Recommended broker setup).
- News Filter default is true; leaving it off in live trading is at your own risk. On MT5 it reads the native economic calendar (no setup). On MT4 you must first allow the URL
https://nfs.faireconomy.media under Tools → Options → Expert Advisors (see Installation and the News Filter parameter).
- Spread on your broker at the time of attaching the EA is below your Max Spread threshold.
Recommended broker setup
Although Golden DeathStar runs on any broker that lists XAUUSD, the official live track record at
prometatrader.com uses Global Prime · Raw account at 1:500 leverage.
We strongly recommend a similar setup, for three reasons:
- Leverage matters per preset. Each preset has a minimum leverage requirement based on its risk per trade (see the matrix below).
- Raw / ECN spreads on XAU are essential. Fixed-spread or marked-up spread accounts will erode the edge.
- Execution quality (FOK fills + a top-tier liquidity pool) matters more than the visible spread. This is the single most important factor; see the dedicated section below.
If you can't access Global Prime: alternatives
If you can't open an account with Global Prime in your region, two solid, widely available alternatives are IC Markets (Raw Spread) and Pepperstone (Razor). We run the full preset family live on both, including the Accelerator, and they perform well.
Expect slightly lower returns than Global Prime: neither includes LMAX in its liquidity pool, and their fill mode reads as IOC (Immediate or Cancel) in the EA's log instead of GP's FOK (Fill or Kill). Both differences chip away at execution on a high-winrate strategy, but the EA is comfortably profitable on either.
The account type matters most: it must be ECN / Raw / Zero. Do not run this on a Standard, Mini, Micro or Cent account; those eliminate the EA's edge. This matters far more than which of the three brokers you pick.
Best practice before going live: open a demo on two or three brokers and run the same preset on each for a few days. You'll see firsthand how much execution quality changes the result, and you can pick the broker (and preset) that behaves best in your own environment.
Critical · read this
Execution quality: the factor that decides everything
Of the three points above, execution quality is the one most traders underestimate. We've measured it empirically across multiple live accounts running the
exact same EA, same preset, same risk per trade. The difference between a top-tier broker and an average one is dramatic.
On this strategy, broker choice is not a preference. It's a structural component.
01
What FOK execution actually does
FOK stands for Fill or Kill. It means: fill the order at the requested price instantly, or reject it.
No partial fills. No silent slippage to a worse price. If the broker can't fill exactly where you asked, the order simply doesn't open.
The alternative most retail brokers use, IOC (Immediate or Cancel), fills whatever it can at whatever price is available right now.
Sounds harmless, but on a fast M1 strategy that takes hundreds of trades per month, a few points of negative slippage per entry compound into
real money.
02
Why visible spread is misleading
A broker can advertise a tight 10-point spread on XAU and still slip you 5 – 10 points on every entry.
The "real" cost of trading there is the spread + the slippage. Your effective spread is 15 – 20 points, not 10.
A top-tier liquidity pool (LMAX, prime banks) gives you tight quoted spread + near-zero slippage. The visible number is the actual number.
That's why you can't compare brokers by their advertised spread alone. You have to compare realized fill quality, which is invisible in the price page.
03
What the liquidity pool actually is
When you click "buy" on XAU, your broker either fills you internally (against their own book) or routes the order to liquidity providers:
real institutional counterparties (banks, prime brokers, ECNs like LMAX) that quote prices and absorb the trade.
Top-tier LPs mean: deeper book on metals, faster fills, no requotes during news, no hidden markup. Low-tier or internal-book brokers
mean: shallow depth, slow fills, requote spam, and an incentive structure where your loss is their profit.
04
The concrete impact on this strategy
Across our own live accounts running identical setups, the same preset on a top-tier ECN broker produces materially better
return-per-unit-of-drawdown than on a typical retail broker. The difference isn't subtle. It's visible from the first 100 trades onward.
Translated to dollars: the "environment cost" of a low-tier broker silently eats roughly the same amount per trade as your commission. A strategy that's
solidly profitable on the right broker can barely break even on the wrong one. The EA is the same. The math is the same. The broker is everything.
This is why we publish the live track record exclusively from Global Prime Raw and recommend the same setup for any retail trader.
See the Why Global Prime section on the home page for the full explanation.
Leverage compatibility
The leverage a preset needs depends on two things: its risk per trade and your account balance (a larger balance needs more margin than a small one, since the EA sizes positions as a percentage of equity). The figures below are rough guidelines, not hard limits. Always confirm on demo with your own balance and broker.
Ultra Conservative
2% risk per trade
Suggested leverage
1:30 – 1:500
Works on virtually any broker
The lowest-risk profiles run on almost anything, from EU-regulated 1:30 accounts up to 1:500. More leverage simply gives extra margin headroom on a larger balance. Confirm on demo with your own balance.
Moderate / Default
7.5–10% risk per trade
Suggested leverage
1:100 – 1:500
1:100 and up is comfortable
Validated live on Pepperstone Razor and Global Prime Raw. Runs from 1:100 up to 1:500; a smaller balance is fine on the lower end, a larger balance wants more headroom. If you hit a margin limit, lower the risk preset or raise leverage. Confirm on demo.
Accelerator
10% risk per trade
Suggested leverage
1:200 – 1:500
1:500 recommended
The most aggressive preset. It can work from 1:200, but 1:500 is recommended for full headroom. Validated live on Global Prime Raw (1:500). On a larger balance lower leverage can hit a margin limit. Confirm on demo, and use only with capital you accept losing.
Rule of thumb: lower-risk presets need less margin; higher risk on a larger balance needs more. If your leverage is capped (for example 1:30 on EU-regulated accounts), start with a lower-risk preset and confirm on demo what your own balance and broker actually allow. Global Prime Raw at 1:500 has headroom for every preset, which is why we use it for the live track record.
See the Why Global Prime section on the home page for the full explanation of why broker quality matters beyond just leverage.
Recommended capital diversification
Rather than running one preset on one account, we strongly recommend splitting your capital across three separate accounts
with different risk profiles. This way you diversify by risk level instead of stacking the same exposure.
Example with $10,000 of total available capital:
Account 1 · Low risk
$5,000
Ultra Conservative (2%)
The largest slice of your capital sits on the lowest per-trade risk, the foundation of the stack. Slow and steady, smallest swings, the most resilient through a string of losing trades.
Account 2 · Medium risk
$3,000
Default (7.5%) or Moderate (10%)
Faster equity growth with controlled drawdown. The middle layer that compounds noticeably while staying within reasonable swings.
Account 3 · Aggressive
$2,000
Accelerator (10%)
The smallest slice, used to capture upside while keeping the absolute dollar exposure manageable. High volatility, fast recovery, high potential return.
The math is simple: a $200 drawdown on the Accelerator $2,000 account is the same dollar amount as a 2% drawdown on your $10,000 total,
but the upside on the aggressive account compounds faster. Splitting like this gives you exposure to the high-risk profile
without putting your whole stack on it.
Why three accounts and not one with three EAs? Separating accounts isolates the drawdowns. If the Accelerator has a tough day,
it doesn't drag the low-risk account into a tough day too. Each preset breathes independently, which is the entire point of diversification.
Withdraw your initial capital progressively, then let it run
Once any account starts producing real gains, especially the Accelerator (10%) account, the smart move is to begin pulling out your initial capital
in chunks. Every time the account grows by a meaningful percentage, withdraw the surplus and bring it back to the original starting balance, until the full
original investment has been recovered.
The EA can automate this for you. The
Max Profit Until Withdraw parameter does exactly what this section describes: set a cumulative target (for example +50%), and when the account reaches it the EA locks the gain and stops, waiting for you to withdraw. Once you withdraw, it resumes on its own. It's off by default; turn it on if you want this discipline enforced automatically instead of by hand.
This is a one-time strategy, not a permanent habit. You apply it only with the initial capital, until you've recovered every dollar you originally
invested. After that, you can let the account compound normally with no further withdrawals required, because at that point every dollar in the
account is pure profit. The reason for doing this at the start is purely emotional and mathematical: a 5% drawdown on a $4,000 account is twice the
dollar pain of a 5% drawdown on $2,000, and that pain is felt much more sharply when the account is built on your real money than when it's built on profit.
Recover your principal first, then relax.
Concrete example with a $2,000 Accelerator account:
Step 1
Account at $3,000 (+50%)
Withdraw $1,000 of profit. Account back to $2,000.
Saved so far: $1,000
Step 2
Account back to $3,000 (+50% again)
Withdraw another $1,000. Account back to $2,000.
Saved so far: $2,000 (full original capital recovered)
Step 3
Original capital is fully out
Now you can let the account compound freely. From this point on, every dollar in the account is pure profit.
Risk to your real money: $0
Why this matters more on higher-risk presets: the EA sizes positions as a percentage of equity. As the account grows, the dollar risk per trade
grows with it. A 10% risk on $2,000 is $200; a 10% risk on $10,000 is $1,000. If you let the account compound without ever withdrawing, you are letting the EA
operate with progressively bigger lot sizes, all backed by your original investment until the day you finally cash out.
Pulling out the initial capital first inverts the equation. Once your original money is back in your pocket, the EA is operating purely on profit. Any drawdown
from that point on cannot touch your real investment. That is the goal: work with the EA's own profit, not with your real money.
The percentage you choose is yours. The example above uses 50% milestones because it's a clean round number, but the principle works at any
percentage you're comfortable with. Some traders prefer smaller, more frequent withdrawals (every +25%); others wait until the account has fully doubled (+100%).
What matters is that you have a rule and you follow it consistently, instead of letting compounding run unchecked on your real money.
Presets
Every Golden DeathStar account you see running live on the home page uses one of four official presets. They differ in the risk profile (the per-trade risk
and the daily target that goes with it) and in how actively they trade. The core entry logic and stop-loss are identical across all of them. Click any card to open its live, Myfxbook-audited account.
Accelerator: turn on "Max Profit Until Withdraw" at 50%. The Accelerator is our most aggressive preset (10% per trade) and the one meant to be run with a
weekly withdrawal discipline. Always enable the
Max Profit Until Withdraw parameter at
50% on this account: the EA banks the gain, stops, and waits for you to pull profit out before resuming. This is what keeps the riskiest account from compounding your real capital indefinitely. It is mandatory for the Accelerator, recommended on the rest.
Beyond the per-trade risk, each preset also tunes its other parameters (daily profit lock, news handling, session windows, trailing
behaviour) so the profile is internally consistent. Run them exactly as they ship. These values are the result of extensive optimisation and they are
the same ones running on the live accounts above, so there is nothing to improve by hand. The only setting you may need to adjust for your own broker is Max Spread.
Get the preset files
Contact us through MQL5 messaging
The preset .set files are not published openly on this site. To receive them, and to ask any question about which preset fits your account size, broker
or risk tolerance, message us directly through the MQL5 messaging system on the product page. We respond personally to every message.
Sending the presets through MQL5 is also how we keep an open channel for support: any doubts you have about configuration, deployment, or behaviour go through the
same conversation. If you've already purchased the EA, your message reaches us with your purchase verified.
Open MQL5 product page →
Choose by trading style
Match a profile to how much volatility you are comfortable with. The parameter that defines each one is Risk Percent; everything else stays at the official preset values. Each profile maps to one or more of our four official live presets.
Profile 1 · Low risk
Ultra Conservative
The lowest per-trade risk (2%). Smallest equity swings and the most resilient through a string of losing trades. Slow and steady. Best as the foundation of a multi-account stack, for larger accounts, or for traders prioritising capital preservation.
Profile 2 · Medium
Default / Moderate
The balanced middle. Faster compounding than the low-risk profile, with still-controlled drawdowns. Default is the most active, staying in the market longer to chase a 5% daily target; Moderate is calmer, taking its per-trade risk but stopping early at a modest 2.5% daily target.
Profile 3 · Aggressive
Accelerator
Maximum upside, biggest swings, fastest recovery. Pushes a 5% daily target and compounds the equity curve quickly at the cost of materially larger drawdowns. Use only with capital you are fully prepared to lose, and only on a broker offering 1:500 leverage.
For the rest of the parameters (TP, SL, trailing, news filter, sessions, protection caps), keep the official preset values exactly as they ship. They match the configuration of every live account published on the home page; the only setting you may need to adjust for your own broker is Max Spread.
Common mistakes
- Turning the EA off in a panic during a drawdown. Don't be afraid. The EA has a high win rate, and the recovery comes after a drawdown, not before it. If you switch the EA off because it's down, you lock that loss in: it can't make back what it isn't allowed to trade, so that day's drawdown becomes permanent instead of being recovered. Let the EA work calmly. And if a normal drawdown makes you uncomfortable enough to want to pull the plug, that is the signal that you picked a preset with more risk than you are willing to sit through. The fix is not to babysit the EA: lower the risk and switch to one of the lower-risk presets (see Choose by trading style).
- Running two charts of the EA on the same account at the same time. Even if you assign different magic numbers, both instances are operating on the same equity. The drawdown of the account becomes the sum of both presets' drawdowns, and you can no longer measure cleanly how either preset is actually performing. The rule is one chart per account. To run multiple presets, separate them into different accounts (this is exactly what the Recommended capital diversification is built around). And never run another EA in parallel on the same account either.
- Enabling Break Even and Trailing at the same time. They overlap. Pick one.
- Setting Trail Step larger than Trail Start. The EA will protect you, but designing it like that means you don't understand how trailing works yet. Go back to Trail Step.
- Risk Percent above 10%. The Accelerator (10%) is the most aggressive level we support and test. Push higher and a normal multi-trade losing streak can wipe the account: the strategy has a high win rate, but losing streaks still happen.
- Disabling the news filter. It's there because XAU spreads spike on news. The hour you save in trading is wiped by one slipped fill.
- Multiple Magic Numbers identical. Two instances will trip over each other. Always increment.
- Running on a non-XAU symbol. The strategy is built for gold M1. Anything else is unsupported and will not behave as documented.
Magic Number
integer
Default: 260000
A unique identifier the EA writes into every trade it opens. MetaTrader uses this number to know which trades belong to which EA.
Think of it as the EA's "signature" on each order.
Why it matters
If you run multiple instances of Golden DeathStar (different presets, different accounts, or different timeframes),
each instance must have a different Magic Number. Otherwise, two EAs will see the same open trade as theirs and try to manage it at the same time.
You'll see weird closes, duplicated SL modifications, or conflicting trailing.
How to choose it
Any positive whole number works. We recommend a structured scheme so you can identify each instance at a glance:
These are the magic numbers our official presets ship with, so you can recognise each one in the trade history at a glance:
- 260000: Win Win Default
- 270000: Win Win Accelerator
- 360000: Win Win Moderate
- 340000: Win Win Ultra Conservative
If you run two instances of the same preset on the same account, give the second one a different number (for example, add 1) so the EAs don't fight over the same trades.
Tip: Never reuse a magic number across symbols if you trade more than one. Even if Golden DeathStar is XAU-only, keep magic numbers globally unique on each account.
Parameters · Lot Management
These three parameters together decide how big each trade is. You choose between a fixed lot size or a
percentage of equity at risk per trade. Both modes have legitimate uses; pick one and ignore the other.
Selects which sizing method the EA uses for every new position.
Options
- 0 (Fixed Lot): every trade uses the volume from Fixed Lot Size. Stop loss size has no effect on volume.
- 1 (Risk Percent): the EA computes lot size dynamically so that, if the stop loss is hit, the loss equals Risk Percent of current equity.
Which one should you use?
Risk Percent (1) is recommended for retail accounts. It scales the size of trades to your account, so as your equity grows
(or shrinks), the dollar risk grows or shrinks proportionally. Fixed Lot is suitable only when you're using copy-trading masters with
clients on different equity levels and you want exact volume parity, or when you're testing a specific lot in optimization.
Watch out: in Fixed Lot mode the EA does not protect you from oversizing on small accounts. A 0.10 lot trade on a $200 account
is gigantic. Verify the volume manually if you switch to mode 0.
Fixed Lot Size
decimal
Default: 0.01
The exact lot volume used on every trade only when Lot Mode = 0 (Fixed Lot). Ignored in Risk Percent mode.
Allowed values
From 0.001 to 0.10 by default. The actual minimum and step depend on your broker. Most ECN brokers allow 0.01 minimum,
some allow micro-lots of 0.001. The EA respects your broker's lot step.
How to size it sensibly
A useful rule of thumb on XAUUSD: 1.00 lot ≈ $100 per dollar move. So 0.01 lot = ~$1 per dollar move on gold.
With a 500-point stop loss (which is roughly $5 of distance on gold), 0.01 lot risks about $5.
The percentage of current account equity the EA risks on each trade only when Lot Mode = 1 (Risk %).
The EA reads your equity, computes the dollar value of Risk Percent, and chooses the lot size so that hitting the SL
results in exactly that loss.
Practical values
- 2%: Ultra Conservative preset. Maximum capital protection, smallest swings. One stop-loss costs about 2% of the account.
- 7.5%: Default preset. The everyday workhorse: more active, with larger but still controlled swings.
- 10%: Moderate and Accelerator both use 10% per trade, but they behave very differently. Moderate is the calmer one: it stops early at a modest 2.5% daily target. The Accelerator is the aggressive one, pushing the full 5% daily target, so deploy it only with capital you are fully prepared to lose.
Don't put all your capital on a single risk level. See
Recommended capital diversification for how to split capital across the lower-risk and higher-risk presets in independent baskets.
Higher risk is a choice, not a flaw. Every preset uses a different Risk Percent, from 2% (Ultra Conservative) to 10% (Accelerator), and they behave proportionally: more risk means bigger swings in both directions, not a different strategy. Pick the level whose drawdown you can actually stomach.
Above 10% is outside our tested range. The Accelerator (10%) is the most aggressive preset we support. Pushing Risk Percent higher can wipe an account on a bad run. Don't.
Parameters · Stop Loss / Take Profit
The EA places a stop loss and take profit on every trade. You decide whether those distances are fixed in points
or computed from a base unit using ratios. As with Lot Mode, pick one method and ignore the parameters of the other.
TP/SL Mode
enum
Default: 0 (Fixed)
Chooses how the SL and TP distances are determined.
Options
- 0 (Fixed): SL and TP use exact distances in points from Fixed Stop Loss and Fixed Take Profit.
- 1 (Ratio): the EA computes SL and TP based on a base unit multiplied by SL Ratio and TP Ratio.
All official presets use Fixed (0). Ratio mode exists for advanced users who prefer to size SL/TP as a ratio; the official presets do not use it, so leave this at Fixed.
Stop loss distance in points from entry. On XAUUSD with a 5-digit broker, 1 point = 0.01 USD,
so 500 points = $5.00 of price movement.
Recommended ranges
- 300 – 500 pts: tight scalp profile. Used by all current live presets.
- 500 – 1000 pts: wider, less stop-outs from noise, lower hit rate per trade.
- Below 300 pts: not recommended on M1 XAU. Average noise alone will trigger SLs.
Points vs pips: on a 5-digit gold broker,
1 pip = 10 points. So 500 points = 50 pips = $5 of movement on a 1.00 lot.
See the
Glossary for full explanation.
Take profit distance in points from entry. With the default 500 SL / 1000 TP combo, the static reward-to-risk ratio is 2:1. In practice, the trailing stop will exit most trades long before this static TP is reached, so this value mainly acts as a hard ceiling rather than a regular exit point.
Notes
- If Trailing Stop is enabled, most trades will not reach the static TP. They will be trailed out earlier. The TP acts as a safety ceiling.
- If Partial Close is enabled, partial TP1 will fire well before this static TP.
- Setting TP very high without trailing produces low realized win rate even if the strategy is profitable.
SL Ratio
decimal
Default: 1.0
Multiplier applied to a dynamically computed base distance, used only when TP/SL Mode = 1 (Ratio).
Ignored otherwise.
Leave it at the default. All official presets use Fixed SL/TP mode, so this value never comes into play unless you deliberately switch to Ratio mode.
TP Ratio
decimal
Default: 2.0
Multiplier for the take profit side in Ratio mode. Default of 2.0 means TP is twice the SL distance, giving a 2:1 reward-to-risk.
Ignored when TP/SL Mode = 0.
Parameters · Break Even
Once a trade has moved a defined number of points in your favor, the EA can move the stop loss to entry (or slightly above entry).
This is called "break even". Beyond that point, the trade can no longer become a loss.
Master switch for the break-even logic. When false, the other two BE parameters are ignored.
Why is it disabled by default?
Trailing Stop and Break Even cover overlapping use cases. The official presets rely on Trailing Stop instead, because trailing
captures more profit on extended moves. If you prefer the simpler "lock to entry then forget" behavior, enable BE and disable trailing.
Running both at the same time is supported but not recommended.
How far the trade must move in your favor (in points) before the SL is moved to break even. Active only when Enable Break Even = true.
How to choose
- Smaller values (100 – 200 pts): triggers BE quickly. Reduces losers but also reduces winners that retrace before extending.
- Default 300 pts: balance between protection and giving the trade room to breathe.
- Larger values (500+ pts): only triggers on very strong moves. The trade is mostly unprotected until then.
How many points beyond entry the SL is set to when break even triggers. Locks in a small profit instead of true zero.
Notes
- 0: SL moves to exact entry. Pure break even, no profit locked, no extra fees.
- 50 (default): SL moves to entry + 50 points (≈ $0.50 of locked profit). Covers commission on most ECN brokers, so the trade can no longer cost you money even after fees.
- >100: aggressive. Locks meaningful profit but increases the chance the trade gets stopped out on a normal pullback.
Parameters · Trailing Stop
A trailing stop moves the SL behind the trade as it moves in your favor, locking in progressive profit while letting the trade run.
All current official presets use trailing instead of break-even.
Master switch for trailing stop behavior. When off, the trade only exits at the static TP or SL.
How far the trade must move in your favor (in points) before trailing kicks in. Until this threshold is reached,
the SL stays at its original position.
Trade-off
- Smaller Trail Start (50 – 100 pts): trailing engages early. Captures more in tight moves, but gets shaken out on normal pullbacks.
- Larger Trail Start (200+ pts): trailing only engages on real moves. Smoother SLs, fewer premature exits, but you give back more profit on reversals.
The distance between the current price and the trailing SL. Once trailing is active, the SL is kept this many points behind the best price reached.
Critical rule: the Trail Step must be less than or equal to the Trail Start, otherwise the new SL would jump
ahead of price and immediately close the trade. The EA enforces this internally, but designing presets with step ≤ start avoids surprises.
Tested combinations
- 50 / 25 (tighter scalp): tight trail, captures small profits aggressively. Recommended only on Global Prime, or on a broker with identical execution quality (close latency under 20 ms + FOK fills). The trail is too tight to forgive slippage on the close.
- 200 / 100 (Standard): wider, better for choppy environments where small pullbacks are common.
- 100 / 50: middle ground, decent performance across conditions.
Parameters · Partial Close
Partial close lets the EA take a portion of profit at a defined intermediate target, leaving the rest of the position to run.
Useful in volatile markets where banking a chunk early reduces the emotional cost of giving back the rest.
Master switch for partial-close behavior. When off, all related parameters are ignored.
Distance in points from entry where the partial close fires. When price reaches this distance in your favor,
the EA closes a fraction of the position equal to Partial Volume (%).
Percentage of the original lot size that gets closed when Partial TP is hit. The rest continues running with the SL/TP/trailing logic.
Examples
- 30%: small partial. You keep 70% of the position running. Best when you trust the trade.
- 50% (default): classic partial. Half off the table, half running. Lower variance.
- 75%+: aggressive. Most of the trade is locked in. The remaining "runner" is tiny but fully de-risked.
When true, after the partial close fires, the EA also moves the SL on the remaining position to break even (entry).
This converts the rest of the trade into a "free trade". You've banked profit and the runner can no longer become a loss.
Parameters · Spread & Slippage
Filters that block the EA from entering trades when conditions on your broker are bad. Critical on a fast-paced M1 strategy on XAU.
When true, the EA refuses to open a new trade if the current spread exceeds Max Spread.
Do not disable this in live operation. Spreads on XAU widen dramatically on news, session opens, and rollover.
Without this filter the EA will enter trades that are mathematically broken from the first tick.
Maximum acceptable spread (in points) for the EA to allow a new entry. Active only when Spread Filter = true.
Recommended values
- 15 – 20 pts: Global Prime Raw and most major ECN brokers in normal market hours. The default and what most official presets use.
- 5 – 10 pts: only on the very tightest brokers (e.g. IC Markets at off-peak hours), or with a very tight trailing config that can't tolerate wider spreads.
- 20 – 30 pts: retail accounts with markup, or off-hours trading.
- >50 pts: almost certainly losing money to spread alone. Avoid.
When true, the EA enforces a maximum slippage on order execution. Orders that would fill beyond the threshold are rejected.
Maximum allowed slippage between requested price and fill price, in points. Only used when Slippage Filter = true.
10 points is a sensible default for most ECN brokers. Raise it only if your broker frequently rejects orders due to fast markets.
Parameters · Position Management
Master switch that caps how many trades the EA can have open at the same time on this instance.
Max Open Positions
integer
Default: 1
The maximum number of simultaneous open trades the EA will hold for this Magic Number. New signals are ignored
while the cap is full.
The official presets all use 1. Golden DeathStar is single-position by design. Risk per trade is the rule, and risk per trade
only makes sense if there is one trade. Setting Max Positions higher stacks risk in a way the strategy was not built for.
Parameters · News Filter
Major economic releases (NFP, FOMC, CPI…) cause violent moves and spread spikes on gold. The news filter pauses the EA around scheduled events.
Master switch for news avoidance. When true, the EA blocks new entries (and optionally manages exits) inside a window
around any news event matching the importance level filter.
Where the news data comes from (MT5 vs MT4)
On MT5 the filter uses the platform's native economic calendar. There is nothing to configure: no WebRequest permission, no URL, no external file. It just works.
On MT4 there is no built-in calendar, so the EA downloads ForexFactory's weekly calendar over the internet. For that to work you have to allow the feed URL once, otherwise MT4 blocks the download and the filter has no events to read.
MT4 only, allow the news URL (one-time setup):
- Open Tools → Options → Expert Advisors.
- Tick "Allow WebRequest for listed URL".
- Add this exact address:
https://nfs.faireconomy.media
- Click OK, then re-attach the EA (or restart MT4).
If the News Filter is on (its default) and this URL is not allowed, the EA cannot read the calendar, so it
raises an error and stops taking trades until you add it. It will not trade unprotected: no URL, no trading. The Experts log tells you exactly which URL to add.
None of this applies to MT5.
Required for full preset performance. Disabling the news filter exposes positions to unpredictable spread blowouts.
We do not publish performance numbers without it.
How many minutes before a news event the EA stops opening new trades.
30 minutes is the default and the value used in all live presets. Increase it if your broker widens spreads earlier than the standard pre-news window.
How many minutes after a news event the EA waits before resuming entries.
Selects the minimum impact level of events the filter reacts to.
Options
- 0 (Low and above): filters every event. Blocks the EA most of the trading day. Not recommended.
- 1 (Medium and above): filters medium and high. Reasonable for very conservative profiles.
- 2 (High only, default): filters only top-tier releases (NFP, FOMC, CPI, central bank decisions). What all official presets use.
Bank holidays and market closures
The News Filter handles scheduled events automatically. There is one related case it cannot handle: full-day bank holidays in major markets.
When London or New York is closed for a public holiday, XAU liquidity becomes thin and the price tends to behave erratically because it is being driven only
by the markets that remain open. We have observed this directly on Labour Day, for example.
This cannot be implemented as an automatic EA parameter because there is no clean, reliable per-market holiday calendar exposed to MetaTrader. So we treat it as a
manual recommendation rather than a built-in filter.
Recommended habit: every Friday, scan the week ahead, on MT5 via the built-in calendar (View → Economic Calendar), or on MT4 simply check ForexFactory.com. If any of the major markets (especially London or New York) will
be closed on a given day, we recommend not running the EA that day as a precaution.
What happens if you do trade through a holiday
Nothing breaks. The worst case is that the day produces a larger-than-usual drawdown. Since the daily drawdown cap is off by default, the EA keeps trading and typically recovers over the following sessions; a single bad day rarely defines the equity curve. (If you have enabled the Daily Drawdown Limit, it would close out and pause for the rest of that day.)
That said, the impact scales with the risk profile of the preset you are running:
- Lower-risk preset (Ultra Conservative, 2% risk): the impact is limited. A single rough day rarely matters.
- Aggressive (Accelerator, 10% risk per trade): the same erratic conditions can produce a much larger swing. Worth being more cautious about skipping holidays.
If skipping the holiday is feasible for your setup (for example, you can pause the VPS or simply disable AutoTrading that morning), it is the safer play.
Parameters · Trading Sessions
Each parameter is a master switch for one of the four global FX sessions. When false, the EA does not open new trades during that session.
Existing positions continue to be managed normally.
Sydney session covers approximately 22:00 – 07:00 GMT (varies with daylight saving).
Tokyo (Asia) session covers approximately 00:00 – 09:00 GMT.
London (Europe) session covers approximately 07:00 – 16:00 GMT.
New York (US) session covers approximately 12:00 – 21:00 GMT.
All four sessions enabled by default. Disabling sessions reduces total trade count proportionally. Don't disable a session because you "feel" gold doesn't move there. Verify in your own backtest.
Parameters · Account Protection
Caps that close open trades and pause the EA when a threshold is hit: two daily caps (drawdown and profit) plus a cumulative "until withdrawal" cap.
In our official presets the daily profit cap is ON (it locks each day once the target is reached) and the daily drawdown cap is OFF, so the EA can trade through an intraday dip and recover instead of freezing the loss. The cumulative cap is off by default.
When true, the EA tracks the day's running P/L and triggers a hard stop if it drops below Max Daily Drawdown. Off in our official presets: with the daily DD cap disabled, the EA can trade through an intraday dip and recover, instead of freezing the loss by stopping mid-drawdown.
Max Daily Drawdown (%)
decimal
Default: 15.0%
Percentage of the day's starting balance the EA is allowed to lose before it forcibly closes all open trades and stops trading until the next day.
How it works
At 00:00 server time, the EA captures the current account balance as the day's reference. Throughout the day,
if floating + closed P/L drops to −Max Daily Drawdown% of that reference, all trades close immediately and no new ones open
until the next day's reset.
When true, the EA stops trading for the day once daily profit reaches Max Daily Profit. This acts as a daily lock: once you have made your target, the EA stands down and waits for the next day's reset instead of giving back gains by overtrading.
Max Daily Profit (%)
decimal
Default: 5.0%
Percentage of the day's starting balance at which the EA closes all open trades to lock the gain and stops opening new ones for the day. The close happens at market the moment the target is reached, so the profit can't be given back by a position that later reverses.
A cumulative profit cap, not a daily one. It measures how much the account has grown on top of the real money you put in, since your last deposit or withdrawal. When that growth reaches Max Total Profit, the EA closes all open trades to lock the gain and stops trading until you withdraw.
How the target is measured (this is the important part)
The cap is calculated over your capital base, which the EA reads directly from your broker's balance operations: it takes the current balance and works backwards through every deposit and withdrawal in the account history. The result is your real invested capital, and the profit is measured purely on top of that.
That means deposits and withdrawals are never counted as profit or loss. If you wire in another $1,000, the target does not suddenly trigger; the base simply grows by $1,000. If you withdraw, the base shrinks by the same amount. Only money the EA actually earned counts toward the percentage. This is why the feature keeps working correctly across restarts, crashes, and any manual transfer you make.
What happens when it triggers
The EA closes everything to secure the profit and stops opening trades. When you withdraw the gain, the base re-bases to your remaining capital and the EA resumes on its own: hit the target, withdraw, repeat. Off by default so you can backtest and demo-test freely.
Mandatory on the Accelerator. This parameter is recommended on every account, but on the Accelerator (10% risk, the high-risk preset) it is not optional. Always run the Accelerator with this turned on at 50%: it forces you to bank the profit and pull your capital out of the riskiest account on a regular cycle. It ships false only so you can test it first; the moment you go live on the Accelerator, turn it on.
MT4 note: set your terminal's Account History to "All History" so the EA can see the original deposit; otherwise it stays inactive (fail-safe) rather than miscalculating the base.
Max Total Profit Until Withdraw (%)
decimal
Default: 50.0%
The cumulative profit percentage, measured over your capital base (deposits minus withdrawals), that triggers the "until withdrawal" lock above. Only used when Enable Max Profit Until Withdraw is on. Example: on a $1,000 base, 50% means the EA locks and stops once the account reaches $1,500, then waits for you to withdraw. For the Accelerator preset, use 50% (mandatory, see the parameter above).
Parameters · Friday Early Close
Most weekend gaps on XAU happen because of news that breaks while the market is closed. Closing all positions early on Friday avoids the gap risk.
Master switch for the Friday close-out logic.
On Friday, after this hour (server time), the EA stops opening new positions. Existing positions continue to be managed.
On Friday, at this hour (server time), the EA forcibly closes any remaining open position so nothing is held over the weekend.
Sanity check: Close All Hour must always be greater than Stop New Trades Hour. Otherwise, the EA closes trades and then
opens new ones. Pointless.
Parameters · Chart Appearance
Cosmetic only. They never affect trading. The EA applies a custom dark / golden theme to the chart by default to match the
Prometatrader visual identity. Override or disable as you like.
Background Color
colorDefault: dark navy
Color used for the chart background.
Foreground Color
colorDefault: light gray
Color used for chart axes, labels and the foreground grid (when grid is on).
Bull Candle Color
colorDefault: light gray
Body fill color for bullish (up-closing) candles.
Bear Candle Color
colorDefault: dark gray
Body fill color for bearish (down-closing) candles.
Bull Border Color
colorDefault: gold
Outline color for bullish candles.
Bear Border Color
colorDefault: dark gold
Outline color for bearish candles.
Whether to render the chart grid. Off by default to keep the chart clean.
Shows / hides the on-chart info panel with current account stats, daily P/L and EA status. Cosmetic only; disabling it does not affect trading.
Glossary
- Point
- The smallest price movement on a 5-digit broker. On XAUUSD, 1 point = 0.01 USD of price movement. 1 pip = 10 points.
- Pip
- Traditional unit of price movement. On XAUUSD, 1 pip = 0.10 USD. We use points throughout the parameters because they're broker-independent.
- Spread
- Difference between the bid (sell) and ask (buy) price. On gold, ECN spreads sit at 5 – 25 points in normal hours and can blow out to 100+ on news.
- Slippage
- Difference between the price you requested and the price you got filled at. Can be positive (in your favor) or negative.
- Magic Number
- A unique integer signature each EA writes into its trades, so MetaTrader (and the EA) know which trades belong to which instance.
- Risk Percent
- The fraction of account equity you're willing to lose if the SL is hit. The EA computes lot size to make this exact.
- Drawdown
- The peak-to-trough decline in account equity. Daily drawdown is the same metric measured within a single trading day.
- Break Even
- Moving the SL to the entry price (or slightly beyond) so the trade can no longer become a loss.
- Trailing Stop
- SL that follows behind the price as the trade moves in your favor, locking in progressive profit.
- Partial Close
- Closing only a fraction of the position at an intermediate target, leaving the rest to run.
- Lot
- Standardized trading volume unit. On XAU, 1.00 lot ≈ $100 per dollar of price movement. 0.01 lot is the minimum on most ECN brokers.
- FOK / IOC
- Order execution modes. Fill or Kill (FOK) requires the entire order to fill instantly or cancel. Immediate or Cancel (IOC) fills what it can and cancels the rest. Golden DeathStar uses the broker's default.
- ECN / Raw
- Account types where the broker passes raw market spreads through and charges commission separately. Required for tight scalping on M1 gold.
- Server time
- The internal clock of your broker's MT5 server, set by the broker. It is almost never the same as the time on your own computer. For example, if you live in Argentina (GMT−3) and your broker hosts its server in Cyprus (GMT+2 or GMT+3), there is a 5 to 6 hour difference between your screen clock and the broker's clock. The EA always follows the broker's server clock, not yours, when deciding which session is currently active (Sydney, Tokyo, London, New York) and when to stop opening trades on Friday before the weekend.
- GMT offset
- The number of hours of difference between the broker's server clock and Greenwich Mean Time (the reference timezone used internationally). For example, a broker on GMT+3 has a +3 hour offset. The EA needs this number to translate server time into the correct session windows. It detects the offset automatically on startup and rechecks it every 5 minutes, in case the broker silently changes server during the trading day.
Troubleshooting
The EA is attached but no trades are firing.
Common causes (check in this order):
- AutoTrading button in the top toolbar is off (gray instead of green).
- Allow Algo Trading in the EA's Common tab is unchecked.
- You're inside a news window (check the info panel for "News block").
- You're outside an enabled session.
- Current spread is above Max Spread. This is one of the most common silent reasons. If your broker's XAU spread sits above your configured threshold (default 15 points), the EA refuses to open new trades and waits until conditions normalize. Watch the live spread on the chart and compare it to your Max Spread setting.
- You already hit your Daily Profit target for the day (or the Daily Drawdown Limit, if you've enabled it).
"[Trade] Order pre-validation did not pass broker requirements... AutoTrading disabled by client" appears in the Experts log.
If you see a line in the Experts log like:
[Trade] Order pre-validation did not pass broker requirements [Broker Code: 10027, Margin: 0.00, Balance: 0.00, Broker Msg: AutoTrading disabled by client]
Don't panic, this is not a broker problem and it's not an EA bug. It means AutoTrading is not fully enabled on your terminal. Many users have the terminal minimised, glance at the log later, see this message, and assume something is wrong with the EA on that broker. It isn't. There are three independent switches in MetaTrader 5 that all need to be ON for the EA to send orders. If any one of them is off, you get this exact error.
Check all three:
- Top toolbar shortcut: the AutoTrading button at the top of MT5 must be green (not gray / red).
- EA Common tab: right-click the EA on the chart → Properties → Common tab → make sure Allow Algo Trading is ticked.
- Global setting: Tools → Options → Expert Advisors → make sure Allow Algorithmic Trading is ticked at the global level.
Any of those three being off is enough to trigger this message. As soon as you enable the missing one, the message stops appearing and the EA resumes sending orders normally.
"[Trade] Not enough free margin available to open this position" appears in the log.
You will see something like:
[Trade] Order pre-validation did not pass broker requirements [Broker Code: 10019, Margin: 0.00, ...]
[Trade] Not enough free margin available to open this position - reduce risk % or add funds
This means the position size the EA computed is larger than your account's available margin can support. The EA will not open the trade and will keep emitting this message every time a new signal fires until something changes. This is not a bug, it's the EA correctly refusing to send an order the broker would reject anyway.
The typical cause is a mismatch between account size, broker leverage, and preset risk. For example: a $200 account on 1:30 leverage trying to run the Accelerator (10%) preset will not work, because 10% of $200 sized through a 500-point SL on XAU requires more margin than 1:30 allows on a small account.
Three ways to fix it:
- Switch to a preset compatible with your leverage. See the leverage compatibility matrix. If you hit a margin limit, drop to a lower-risk preset or raise your leverage. The exact requirement depends on your account balance, so test on demo to see what your setup allows.
- Use a broker with higher leverage. Global Prime Raw offers 1:500, which gives ample headroom for any preset.
- Add funds to the account so the lot size becomes proportional to the available margin again.
The principle: you cannot run any preset on any account at any leverage. Match the three properly. The Recommended capital diversification section shows the recommended split.
"[Risk] DAILY MAX DRAWDOWN HIT" or "DAILY MAX PROFIT HIT" appears, and the EA stops trading for the day.
You'll see one of these two lines:
[Risk] DAILY MAX DRAWDOWN HIT: X.XX% (limit: Y.YY%). Trading paused until tomorrow.
[Risk] DAILY MAX PROFIT HIT: X.XX% (limit: Y.YY%). Trading paused until tomorrow.
Both messages mean the EA is working exactly as designed. One of the daily protection caps was hit (drawdown floor or profit ceiling), so the EA closed open trades and will not open new ones until the next trading day's reset at 00:00 server time. From the next day onwards, it operates normally with no manual action needed.
If it fires more often than you expect, review your Max Daily Drawdown (%) and Max Daily Profit (%) values. By default the profit cap is 5% and the daily drawdown cap is off; individual presets may set different values.
"[GMT] *** BROKER SERVER TIMEZONE CHANGED ***" appears in the log.
You'll see something like:
[GMT] *** BROKER SERVER TIMEZONE CHANGED *** Old: +X hours -> New: +Y hours. Likely cause: MT5 auto-failover to broker server in different timezone.
This is the EA telling you that MetaTrader silently switched to a broker server with a different timezone (some brokers run multiple regional servers, and MT5 can fail over between them without warning). The EA detects the change automatically within 5 minutes and re-adjusts its session windows and Friday-close logic accordingly. No action is required from you.
That said, repeated server changes during the day are a sign that your broker connection is unstable. If you see this message frequently, log into the broker manually and pick a single server: File → Login to Trade Account → Server field, choose the one you want, save. This stops the auto-failover.
Trades close immediately at break-even.
You probably set Trail Step > Trail Start. Re-read Trail Step / Distance and adjust so step ≤ start.
"Broker rejected ... due to fast market / price change" appears in the Experts log (Trailing, Partial Close, or Position close).
The Experts tab in the terminal shows the step-by-step of what the EA is doing. You may see lines from any of these three modules:
[Trailing] Broker rejected SL update due to fast market / price change (normal behavior) - EA will retry on next tick [Ticket: …, Broker Code: 10036]
[PartialClose] Broker rejected partial close due to fast market / price change (normal behavior) - EA will retry automatically [Ticket: …, Broker Code: …]
[Position] Broker rejected close request due to fast market / connection (normal behavior) - EA will retry automatically [Ticket: …, Broker Code: …]
All three have the same root cause: the broker is not allowing the EA to modify or close the position at the price requested. The broker is effectively delaying the action. The EA does not give up: it retries on the next tick, and on the tick after that, until the broker eventually accepts. So you may see the same message several times in a row for the same ticket. That is by design.
This is not an EA error. It is the broker pushing back against closing the trade or locking in profit. It does not happen on brokers whose execution model genuinely aligns with the trader, even when the account type is ECN. This is one of the reasons we always recommend Global Prime: under their FOK execution, this rejection pattern is extremely rare.
You may occasionally see it on brokers like IC Markets or Pepperstone. On Global Prime, you'll see it very rarely. If it happens consistently and on every trade, your broker is the issue, not the EA.
Lot size looks wrong.
Confirm Lot Mode. In Risk Percent mode the EA computes lot from equity and SL distance, so if your SL distance is small, the lot will be large. Double-check by looking at the "Account / Lot info" line in the Experts log right after a trade opens.
News filter not working / no events detected.
On MT5: the EA uses the native economic calendar and no WebRequest permission is required. If no events show up, open View → Economic Calendar in MT5 and confirm events are loading there. The calendar pulls automatically from MQL5 servers.
On MT4: the most common cause is the WebRequest URL not being allowed. Go to Tools → Options → Expert Advisors, tick "Allow WebRequest for listed URL", and make sure https://nfs.faireconomy.media is in the list, then re-attach the EA. Check the Experts tab: the EA logs whether the URL is allowed and whether the feed downloaded. Note the feed provider throttles to roughly two downloads every five minutes, so give it a moment after attaching.
EA performance differs from the published track record.
Most likely your broker is not Global Prime Raw. Spread, slippage and execution quality measurably affect this strategy. See Why Global Prime on the home page for the full breakdown.
You can verify this for yourself in a few days, with no real money at stake. Open demo accounts at three or four different brokers, run the exact same preset with the exact same starting capital on each one, and let them run in parallel. The difference in execution quality becomes obvious very quickly. Some brokers will track the published curve closely; others will visibly underperform on the same trades.
This is something you should do if you can't access Global Prime in your region for any reason. A professional EA is sensitive to the trading environment, and the environment is something the broker provides. Comparing brokers side by side under identical conditions is the only way to rule out the wrong ones and find the right one for your situation. The same preset, the same capital, different brokers, and the answer reveals itself.