Rowan Stingray

These figures do not depend on position size. A percentage return would: it is decided by the lot size and money management chosen when the test was run, so the same trades can be made to show a modest gain or a spectacular one without a single entry changing. Profit factor and return-per-drawdown are unaffected by that, and they mean the same thing on one instrument as on another. Both include spread, commission and swap. Because we hand over the strategy itself rather than a locked program, you can re-run it at whatever size you actually intend to trade and see the money figures for yourself.

StrategyQuant divided this backtest on 2022-01-07, holding back 292 trades as out-of-sample — marked on the chart. We do not count it as independent evidence: strategies whose held-back period disappointed were never published, so that period took part in choosing this one. The split is in the trade list, which you can download and check.

* Fewer than 30 live trades so far. Ratios over a sample this small are withheld rather than shown, because a flattering win rate across a handful of trades says nothing about the strategy.

Catch gold when momentum breaks out — and don't hold it into the weekend.

This strategy watches gold on the hourly chart for shifts in momentum, using an RSI reading alongside a volatility filter to decide when a move is worth joining, then enters as price confirms the breakout rather than trying to anticipate it. Risk and reward are both defined as a fixed percentage of the entry price, keeping the stop loss and profit target proportional wherever gold happens to be trading. Once a trade accumulates 185 in profit, the stop is moved to breakeven, taking the initial risk off the table. Orders that haven't triggered within 7 bars are cancelled, and any open position is closed out ahead of the weekend so no gold exposure carries over the Saturday/Sunday gap.

Entries are placed as stop orders based on a 30-period RSI reading combined with a 20-period Average True Range, a pairing designed to identify momentum shifts that come with genuine volatility behind them rather than noise. Both the initial stop loss and the profit target are set as 7.7% of the entry price, so the trade's risk and reward scale together with the instrument's price level rather than using a fixed pip distance. Once profit reaches 185, the stop is shifted to breakeven, removing downside risk from the position while it continues toward its target. Pending stop orders that haven't been triggered within 7 bars are automatically cancelled rather than left waiting indefinitely, and regardless of how a trade is progressing, all positions are closed before the weekend to avoid holding gold exposure over the gap.

Instrument / Timeframe

Gold (XAUUSD), H1

Entry logic

RSI-based momentum signal filtered by Average True Range

Order type

Stop entry (enters on confirmed price movement, not in advance)

Risk management

7.7% percentage-based initial stop, 7.7% percentage-based profit target, breakeven shift at 185 profit

Time management

7-bar pending order expiry

Session rules

Closes all positions before the weekend

Backtest window

October 2, 2017 - August 25, 2026