Small Inside Bar Strategy
This EA trades the Inside Bar candlestick pattern, entering breakout trades when a smaller candle forms entirely within the range of the previous mother bar. It uses the high/low breakout of the inside bar as entry signals with stop loss placed beyond the mother bar extremes.
Open the interactive view (equity curve, symbol switch)Key facts
Backtest results (H1, about 1 year)
| Symbol | P&L | Annual | Max DD | Trades | Win rate | Sharpe | Recovery | Losing streak | Per trade | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EURUSD | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | Not convertible yet |
| GBPUSD | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | Not convertible yet |
| USDJPY | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | Not convertible yet |
| XAUUSD | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 0 | — | — | — | — | — | Not convertible yet |
Why this EA never traded: no entry rule survived the conversion.
Converted from MQL5 to Python and run with the same rules for every EA. Positions use MT5 lot sizes (100,000 units per FX lot, 100 oz per gold lot) with 1:100 leverage, one order at a time, and a stop-out below 10% of the starting balance. Sharpe is computed from the equity curve. Results marked as unreliable are shown for completeness only.
Blow-up risk: No blow-up pattern found
- Has no stop loss or trailing stop
On its own this is not a typical blow-up pattern, and the account was not stopped out in our backtests. That is not a guarantee: any EA can lose money.
High: stopped out in our backtest, or martingale/grid sizing without a stop loss. Elevated: martingale or grid sizing with a stop loss, or several positions at once without a stop loss. What the label means and what we found →
Strategy analysis
The strategy centers on the classic Inside Bar breakout pattern from price action trading. Entry conditions require the current bar's high to be lower than the previous bar's high and its low to be higher than the previous bar's low, forming an inside bar; a buy is triggered when price breaks above the inside bar's high, and a sell when it breaks below the low. Exit conditions place stop loss beyond the mother bar's extremes (above the high for shorts, below the low for longs), with take profit set as a multiple of the stop loss distance or a fixed pip target. Position sizing typically uses a fixed lot size, though some versions may include percentage-based sizing. Money management is relatively straightforward without dynamic position adjustment. The overall logic is clean and represents a well-known price action methodology that profits from directional resolution after market consolidation.
Strengths
- Strategy logic is simple and clear, based on a classic price action pattern that is easy to understand and verify
- Inside bars represent market consolidation, and breakouts often carry strong momentum continuation
- Stop loss placed beyond the mother bar extremes is logically sound with controllable risk-reward ratio
Weaknesses
- Inside bar breakouts frequently produce false signals in ranging markets, leading to repeated stop losses
- Lacks multi-timeframe confirmation, limiting signal reliability from a single timeframe perspective
- Fixed lot sizing cannot dynamically adjust to market volatility, resulting in suboptimal capital utilization
Possible improvements
- Add multi-timeframe filtering to only trade inside bar breakouts aligned with the higher timeframe trend
- Introduce ATR-based dynamic stop loss, take profit, and position sizing to adapt to varying market volatility
- Incorporate volume or momentum indicators as breakout confirmation filters to reduce false breakouts
Risk assessment
Overall risk: Medium
- Lack of multi-timeframe confirmation may lead to counter-trend trades with increased loss probability
- Frequent false breakouts in ranging markets can accumulate significant losses through consecutive stop hits
Evaluation scores
Parameters
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
LotSize | 0.1 | Fixed lot size per trade |
StopLoss_Pips | 20 | Stop loss in pips (based on mother bar range or fixed) |
TakeProfit_Pips | 40 | Take profit in points |
MagicNumber | 12345 | Magic number identifier for EA orders |
TimeFrame | H1 | Trading timeframe |
MaxSpread | 30 | Maximum allowed spread; no entry if exceeded |
MinMotherBarPips | 10 | Minimum mother bar pip range, filters small patterns |
Similar Candlestick Pattern EAs
Backtests are historical simulations and do not guarantee future results. Not financial advice.