Chandelier Exit Strategy v3.1
A trend-following system built on the Chandelier Exit — an ATR-anchored trailing level that flips direction when price closes through it. The flip is the entry signal, gated by an H1 50-EMA bias so the M5 engine only trades with the higher-timeframe trend. Stops sit 1.5×ATR from entry, targets at a fixed 2R, with a break-even move at 1R and a 2×ATR trailing stop behind the position; an opposite Chandelier flip closes early. Signals are evaluated on the closed bar and filled at the next bar's open, so the backtest carries no look-ahead. Ported 1:1 from a Pine v3 original.
CE_Strategy_v3_1.mq5How it trades
- Signal
- Chandelier Exit direction flip — ATR 21, multiplier 3.0, close-based extremums
- Trend filter
- Price on the correct side of the H1 50 EMA
- Stop
- 1.5 × ATR from entry
- Target
- Fixed 2R, plus an early exit on the opposite Chandelier flip
- Break-even
- Stop moves to entry once the trade reaches 1R
- Trailing stop
- 2 × ATR(14) behind the position once running
- Sizing
- Fixed-fractional, 1% of equity per trade — see the caveat below
- Execution
- Evaluated on the closed bar, filled at the next bar open (no intrabar repaint)
- Filters held off
- The ADX and ATR-percentile gates exist in the code but were disabled for this run
- Positions
- One at a time — the EA flips rather than stacking
Performance
- Net return
- 206.36%
- Profit factor
- 1.11
- Max drawdown
- 44.60%
- Win rate
- 64.68%
- Total trades
- 603
- Expectancy
- $0.34
- Sharpe
- 4.99
- Recovery factor
- 2.55
Test conditions
- Period
- 2026-01-01 → 2026-06-20
- Initial deposit
- $100
- Risk per trade
- 1.0% per trade
- Modelling
- 100% real ticks
- Broker / server
- Exness Technologies Ltd
How to read these numbers
- The 1% risk setting never bound. On a $100 deposit a 1%-risk position sizes below the broker's 0.01 lot minimum, so all 603 trades were floored at the minimum lot — risking a median of $8.59, or about 8.6% of the starting deposit, and $38.76 on the worst loss. The +206% headline reflects a heavily over-leveraged micro-account, not the configured risk model.
- Normalised, the same 603-trade sequence is worth +32.1R. Compounded at the intended 1% risk it returns roughly +35%, not +206% — that is the figure to judge the edge on.
- A 1.11 profit factor is thin: $2,040 of gross profit against $1,834 of gross loss. The edge is real but small, and a 44.6% peak-to-trough drawdown along the way is not a risk profile most accounts would tolerate.
These are historical backtest results, not live trading returns. Backtests exclude slippage variance, requote behaviour, and swap changes that a live account would experience. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Equity curve
Account balance and drawdown across every closed trade.
Unretouched MetaTrader 5 report — the source of the figures above.
Trade journal
Every closed position from the test, in order.
| # | Opened | Closed | Side | Lots | Entry | Exit | R | P/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 02 Jan 26, 07:55 | 02 Jan 26, 08:07 | Buy | 0.01 | 4380.63 | 4385.63 | +0.96 | +$5.00 |
| 2 | 02 Jan 26, 13:15 | 02 Jan 26, 13:20 | Buy | 0.01 | 4399.92 | 4394.49 | -1.01 | −$5.43 |
| 3 | 05 Jan 26, 02:30 | 05 Jan 26, 02:52 | Buy | 0.01 | 4402.39 | 4407.39 | +0.36 | +$5.00 |
| 4 | 05 Jan 26, 05:55 | 05 Jan 26, 06:01 | Buy | 0.01 | 4410.30 | 4415.30 | +0.95 | +$5.00 |
| 5 | 05 Jan 26, 14:00 | 05 Jan 26, 14:02 | Buy | 0.01 | 4416.89 | 4421.93 | +0.55 | +$5.04 |
| 6 | 05 Jan 26, 19:00 | 05 Jan 26, 19:06 | Buy | 0.01 | 4448.78 | 4442.54 | -1.00 | −$6.24 |
| 7 | 06 Jan 26, 01:55 | 06 Jan 26, 02:01 | Buy | 0.01 | 4447.86 | 4452.90 | +0.67 | +$5.04 |
| 8 | 06 Jan 26, 06:35 | 06 Jan 26, 07:08 | Buy | 0.01 | 4464.56 | 4469.57 | +0.84 | +$5.01 |
| 9 | 06 Jan 26, 08:25 | 06 Jan 26, 08:27 | Buy | 0.01 | 4469.31 | 4474.31 | +0.92 | +$5.00 |
| 10 | 06 Jan 26, 11:35 | 06 Jan 26, 12:23 | Buy | 0.01 | 4460.61 | 4465.63 | +0.90 | +$5.02 |
| 11 | 06 Jan 26, 14:10 | 06 Jan 26, 14:33 | Buy | 0.01 | 4471.48 | 4476.50 | +0.69 | +$5.02 |
| 12 | 06 Jan 26, 20:45 | 06 Jan 26, 20:57 | Buy | 0.01 | 4489.93 | 4494.95 | +1.03 | +$5.02 |
| 13 | 07 Jan 26, 07:40 | 07 Jan 26, 07:47 | Buy | 0.01 | 4459.06 | 4464.08 | +0.71 | +$5.02 |
| 14 | 07 Jan 26, 15:15 | 07 Jan 26, 15:27 | Sell | 0.01 | 4426.70 | 4437.89 | -1.00 | −$11.19 |
| 15 | 07 Jan 26, 20:20 | 07 Jan 26, 20:56 | Buy | 0.01 | 4460.02 | 4454.42 | -1.00 | −$5.60 |
| 16 | 08 Jan 26, 01:10 | 08 Jan 26, 01:33 | Buy | 0.01 | 4459.39 | 4453.54 | -1.01 | −$5.85 |
| 17 | 08 Jan 26, 01:35 | 08 Jan 26, 01:44 | Sell | 0.01 | 4452.19 | 4447.16 | +0.76 | +$5.03 |
| 18 | 08 Jan 26, 08:40 | 08 Jan 26, 08:53 | Sell | 0.01 | 4421.18 | 4428.17 | -1.01 | −$6.99 |
| 19 | 08 Jan 26, 11:55 | 08 Jan 26, 12:01 | Sell | 0.01 | 4423.97 | 4418.90 | +0.99 | +$5.07 |
| 20 | 08 Jan 26, 13:10 | 08 Jan 26, 13:18 | Sell | 0.01 | 4418.75 | 4426.15 | -1.01 | −$7.41 |
| 21 | 08 Jan 26, 20:05 | 08 Jan 26, 20:22 | Buy | 0.01 | 4457.95 | 4463.02 | +1.04 | +$5.07 |
| 22 | 09 Jan 26, 01:55 | 09 Jan 26, 02:00 | Buy | 0.01 | 4467.37 | 4472.39 | +0.72 | +$5.02 |
| 23 | 09 Jan 26, 05:35 | 09 Jan 26, 05:44 | Buy | 0.01 | 4471.08 | 4466.47 | -1.00 | −$4.61 |
| 24 | 09 Jan 26, 13:35 | 09 Jan 26, 14:10 | Buy | 0.01 | 4487.07 | 4492.14 | +0.59 | +$5.06 |
| 25 | 09 Jan 26, 18:35 | 09 Jan 26, 19:06 | Buy | 0.01 | 4501.18 | 4493.01 | -1.01 | −$8.17 |
Showing 25 of 603 closed trades
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