Description
Gold Trend Rider is a trend-following cBot built for XAUUSD on the H1 chart. It waits for the price to break a Donchian channel extreme in the direction of a long-term EMA, then rides the move with an ATR chandelier trailing stop rather than a fixed target.
This is a low win rate strategy by design. It aims to lose small and often, and win large and rarely. If you are looking for a high win percentage, this is not the cBot for you.
How it enters
- Price must close beyond a 200-period EMA, setting the permitted direction
- The bar must break the highest high or lowest low of the last N bars
- Three optional RSI divergence filters can veto the breakout (see below)
- One position at a time, with an optional cooldown after each exit
How it exits
- ATR chandelier trailing stop, anchored to the highest high (or lowest low) reached since entry
- Optional fixed take profit, off by default β the trail is the primary exit
- Optional Friday close before the weekend gap
- Trail state is rebuilt from history if cTrader restarts mid-trade, so a restart does not reset your stop
Divergence filters
A single "Divergence Filter" setting selects Off, Standard or Strict. These filter out breakouts that occur while RSI is diverging against the trade:
- Confirmed divergence veto β blocks entries for a window after an opposing divergence confirms
- Live divergence gate β detects divergence that is still forming, with no confirmation lag
- RSI range filter β refuses buys after a recent overbought reading, and sells after a recent oversold reading
Advanced users can override every underlying value individually. Everyone else should leave the preset alone.
Risk and capital management
- Position size from a fixed percentage of equity, or a fixed lot size
- Stop distance scales with ATR, so size adjusts to current volatility
- Daily loss limit measured on equity, including floating loss, with a configurable reset hour
- On breach, the cBot optionally closes the open trade and stops entering until the next day
- Default daily limit is 5%, which meets the common prop firm daily drawdown rule
Suitable for
- Traders who understand and can sit through losing streaks of five or six trades
- Swing and position traders, not scalpers β expect a low trade frequency
- Prop firm accounts, with the daily loss limit enabled
Not suitable for
- Traders who need frequent activity or a high win percentage
- Very small accounts, where the ATR-scaled stop forces minimum lot size and breaks the risk calculation
Specifications
- Strategy type: Trend-following breakout
- Target symbols and periods: XAUUSD, H1
- Suggested leverage: 1:100 or higher
- Suggested account size: $[FILL] or equivalent
- Broker requirements: none specific; tested on [FILL β your Pepperstone feed]
- Default settings: optimised for XAUUSD H1 (see default parameters screenshot)
- Backtesting: [FILL β e.g. "full results for 2023β2026, see backtesting screenshots"]
Important limitations
- Validated on XAUUSD H1 only. Other symbols and timeframes are untested, and the cBot will warn you in its log if you run one.
- Divergence filters use RSI pivots, which require history to warm up. The startup log reports whether each filter is actually active.
- Gold is a volatile instrument. Stop distances of several hundred pips are normal and intentional.
Trading involves risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Summary
Exits are governed primarily by an ATR-based chandelier trailing stop anchored to the highest or lowest price since entry, with optional fixed take profit and Friday close settings. The trailing stop state persists through platform restarts. Position sizing can be set as a fixed lot size or a fixed percentage of equity, with stop distances scaled by ATR to adapt to volatility. A daily loss limit, defaulting to 5%, monitors equity including floating losses and can halt trading upon breach.
This cBot suits swing and position traders comfortable with low win rates and infrequent trades, and it is optimized for use with leverage of 1:100 or higher. It has been backtested on XAUUSD from August 2023 to August 2026. The strategy is not intended for scalpers or very small accounts.
