Range Time Settings

• Range start hours (0-23):  The start hours should be between 0 and 23.

• Range start minutes (0-59): The start minutes should be between 0 and 59. Together with Range Start hours, they will specify when the EA will start to monitor the price and create the range. 

• Range end hours (0-23): The end hour should be between 0 and 23.

• Range end minutes (0-59): The end minutes should be between 0 and 59. Together with Range End hours, they will determine when range formation is done, and it is the time Step Ahead will set its trades

• Close hours (0-23): The close hours should be between 0 and 23.

• Close minutes (0-59): The close minutes should be between 0 and 59. Close time can be used to configure the EA to close current running trades or delete the current open orders.

• Use Manual High and Low: You can enable this flag if you are in more of a mood to set your own high and low. Two lines will appear on the screen which you can move up or down to set your high and low. This is not suitable for full auto-trading. It is more of an advantage if you do semi-automated trading.

• Draw Range: You can choose to draw the range on the chart by enabling this parameter

• Range Color: Your range, your color, choose whatever sweets your style

Entry Settings

• Include Spread: Activating this option will allow the EA to take the current spread into consideration when setting the orders, this parameter will only impact the price line.

• Shift from Range Extremum to the up or down: This parameter can be used to shift the entries from the range extremum.  The shit can be positive, for example to the outside of the range, and also negative to the inside of the range.

• Buy or Sell at market price if breakout is imminent: It may happen that your range extremity is reached on the range end hours, due to spreading your stop orders may not be placed. You can prevent this and trade directly the breakout using the current market price.

• Reverse trades (Trade inside the range): This EA works best to trade the breakout, but you can also trade reversal through sell and buy limits on the range extremities.

Double the trade Settings

This will only work for breakout trades. The same does not take into consideration if you choose the reverse settings. The main idea of this feature is sometimes the price retraces inside the range and then continues the breakout. This feature will allow you to take additional trades during the second breakout. The double order will expire on the Close time of the range.

• Open a new trade after retracement: Enabling this flag will instruct the EA to check the price and set new trades in case of retracement

• When to open a new trade: Three options are available

  1. As soon as retracement done: If the previous trade is active or not, the EA will set a new trade when retracement occurs

  2. Retracement and other position is open: A new trade is set only if the other trade is still active. Usually, previous trade will be in loss at this stage

  3. Retracement and other position is closed: A new trade is set only if the other trade is closed. Usually, previous trade will be closed due to BE, Trailing Stop, or TP hit, but we have a retracement inside the range.

• Delete order if position SL hit: If this is true, once the main trade hits the SL, the second pending order will be deleted

• Percentage of retrace in the range: This parameter will define the retracement level from the range. For example, 50 means the price retraces back 50% of the range

• Lot Size percentage Vs initial trade volume: You can define the risk you are taking on this new trade compared to the original trade. So for example, the first trade opens one lot, putting 75 as input, the second trade will be 0.75 lots.

• SL distance percentage Vs initial trade SL: The SL distance of the second trade can be configured based on the SL of the initial trade. For example, the initial trade SL is defined at 500 points. If this parameter is 100, it means the SL of the second trade will also be at 500 points.

Exit Settings

• Order expiry in minutes (0 -> Not Used): Initial orders can have a configurable expiry time in minutes. Choosing 0 means no expiration time is set.

• Close trades end of Day: At close time, if this option is set to true, any open trade or pending order will be closed

• Delete pending Order when a position is active: The default strategy sets 2 orders, one buy, and one sell. If one of them is triggered, the other can be deleted automatically

• Close trades after X minutes (0 -> Not Used): This option will allow you to close a position after X minutes after it is opened. This is usually used if you don't want to close the trades at the end of the range, and do it a couple of days after. Pay attention as long as the position is open, no new trades with the formation of a new range will be taken in the same direction.

Lot Size Settings

• Lot: Fixed Value (0 -> Auto) : Use fixed volume by defining your volume in this parameter. Is set to 0 the EA will look into the next two parameters

• Lot: Auto Value Risk from Balance (0 -> Money): If fixed lot is not used, this parameter will help you define the risk percentage you are willing to take from your current balance.

• Lot: Auto Value Risk in Money: You can simply choose to risk a money value in each trade. Please pay attention that the risk may differ a little based on the instrument you are using and its specification.

Stop loss Settings

• SL: Fixed in Points (0 -> % of Range is considered): SL can be set in points, if this option is 0, then the percentage from range is used 

• SL: Percentage from Range: Using this option your SL becomes more dynamic and adapts to the current range size. For example, using 100 your SL will be set on the other extremity of the Range

Take Profit Settings

• TP: Fixed in Points (0 -> % of Range is considered): TP can be set in points, if this option is 0, then the percentage from range is used 

• TP: Percentage from Range (0 -> No TP Set): Using this option your TP becomes more dynamic and adapts to the current range size. If you choose to trade without TP, putting this parameter to 0 will help you achieve the same

Time-Based Partial Take-Profit Settings

This routine is executed once if the trade is not in profit at this specific time, then no partials will be took.

• TP:  Take Partial TP if trade in profit: This flag activates or not the time-based partials

• TP:  Partial TP hours (0-23): This determines the hour to look for a partial TP

• TP:  Partial TP minutes (0-59): This will determine the minutes to look for a partial TP

• TP:  % to take off of current trade: This parameter will define how much to take out of your trade.

Price-Based Partial Take-Profit Settings

Two partial take profit levels can be configured based on price levels in points or range size.

• TP1: Partial Profit 1 Active: This parameter allows you to activate or not the first partial TP1

• TP1: In Points or From Range %: You can choose to calculate the trigger even in points or a percentage of your range for TP1

• TP1: Trigger in Points or Range %: In this input goes the trigger level in points or percentage of your range for TP1

• TP1:  % to take off of current trade: Here, you can specify the percentage to take out of your trade for TP1

• TP2: Partial Profit 2 Active: This parameter allows you to activate or not the first partial TP2

• TP2: In Points or From Range %: You can choose to calculate the trigger even in points or a percentage of your range for TP2

• TP2: Trigger in Points or Range %: You can choose to calculate the trigger even in points or a percentage of your range for TP2

• TP2:  % to take off of current trade: Here, you can specify the percentage to take out of your trade for TP2

Breakeven Settings

• Use Breakeven: This parameter allows you to activate or not the break-even

• BE Type: You can choose to calculate the trigger even in points or a percentage of your range

• BE Trigger in Points or Range %: In this input goes the trigger level in points or percentage of your range

• BE Buffer to cover commission: Here, you can specify a buffer to move your SL from your entry and cover your commission

Trailing Settings

• Use trail stop: This option will allow you to activate or deactivate the use of trailing stop

• TS Type: Points or Range %: Two options are available here to choose your trailing based on a distance in points or a percentage from the range

• Trail Stop Trigger in Points or Range %: This input will define the trigger value in points or a percentage of the range.

• Trail stop step in Points or Range %: This input will determine the step. Using the default trailing stop, the SL will only move if it has room to be in front of the entry price to protect the trade.

• Override Step by Candle High/Low: This feature will allow you to override the step defined previously by Candle as a step. So for example, you can configure the EA to trail stop based on the low of candle 5. The EA will get the lowest point of candles 1 to 5 and trail the SL on it.

• Trail only when SL in profit: When using candle step trailing, you can specify if you want to trail your SL even if it is not protecting yet the position.

• Candle index: Here, you will define the index of the candle range. 1 is the most recent closed candle, two is the one after, and so on.

• Candle timeframe: You can specify to trail stop based on a higher timeframe candle if needed

Volatility Filter Settings

The volatility filter will help you stop trading or only trade in specific conditions where the size of the formed range respects your criteria. The range is calculated based on the daily ATR value.

• Use Volatility Filter: Enable or disable volatility filter

• Volatility Action: You can choose to trade or not to trade if the range respects your criteria. For example, I may need to trade if the range is between 20% and 50% of the ATR, or I want not to trade if the range is bigger than 70% of the ATR

• Volatility Condition: Three options are available: 

  1. Range > max

  2. Range < min

  3. min < Range < max   

• ATR Period: this will be used to define the period used for the ATR

• Min Range % From ATR: Define the minimum percentage 

• Max Range % From ATR: Define the maximum percentage

Trend Filter Settings

• Open buy: Enable or disable buy trades

• Open sell: Enable or disable sell trades

• Trade with daily momentum: If this is true, only buy will be set if the previous day was bullish, and only sell in case the previous day is bearish

• Trade with the trend: This option if enabled, will only place trades with the current trend, using an MA that you can configure with the parameters below

• MA timeframe: Define the timeframe of your MA

• MA period: Define the period of your MA

• MA mode: Define the mode of your MA (EMA, SMA,...)

• MA applied price: Define the applied price

Day Filter

• Use Day Control: Enable day filtering to prevent the EA of trading certain weekdays.

• Trade Monday? : True/False

• Trade Tuesday?  : True/False

• Trade Wednesday?  : True/False

• Trade Thursday?  : True/False

• Trade Friday?  : True/False

• Trade Saturday?  : True/False

• Trade Sunday?  : True/False