How It Works
This page explains the approach behind Scalper and what to expect when you run it. Scalper ships pre-tuned, so this is a conceptual overview rather than a tuning guide — the strategy's internal parameters are fixed and optimised at the factory.
The Core Idea
Markets respect levels. When price approaches a meaningful high or low, one of two things happens: it rejects, or it breaks through and keeps going.
Scalper is built to capture the breakout. Rather than predicting direction, it positions itself on both sides of the current range and lets the market decide. It only commits when price genuinely pushes through a boundary — not on a touch or a near-miss. The moment it's in a trade, the focus shifts immediately to protection.
This produces an asymmetric risk profile:
- Most trades end at scratch or with a small profit
- A few trades ride a clean breakout for a real win
- Large losses are rare because protection kicks in fast
You don't need a high win rate. You need the average loss kept tiny — and that's exactly what the EA is engineered to do.
What Happens in a Trade
Every trade follows the same disciplined lifecycle:
- Wait for a real move. The EA stays patient until price breaks out with conviction. No breakout, no trade.
- Enter on the break. When price pushes through, the EA is already positioned to catch it.
- Protect quickly. As soon as the trade moves in your favour, the stop is advanced to breakeven, so a winner rarely turns into a loser.
- Trail the move. From there, the stop follows price, locking in more of the gain as the move extends — and exiting automatically when momentum fades.
- Stand aside briefly. After a trade closes, the EA pauses momentarily before looking for the next opportunity, so it doesn't immediately re-enter on the same exhausted move.
The result is a hands-off rhythm of many small, tightly-managed trades throughout active market hours.
Why breakeven matters most
Moving the stop to breakeven early is the single most important risk control in the EA. It's what keeps the average loss small and makes the overall profile work — even when individual trades don't win.
Built-in Risk Management
Scalper is conservative by design. Several protections run automatically in the background to keep risk contained:
- Daily loss limit — if the account draws down past your configured limit for the day, the EA stops opening new trades (and clears any resting orders) until the next day. This pairs naturally with prop-firm daily-loss rules.
- Position caps — a limit on how many trades can be open at once keeps exposure bounded.
- Spread protection — the EA holds off when spreads spike (typically around news or session edges), so it isn't filled at unfavourable prices.
- Post-trade cooldown — a short pause after each close avoids over-trading the same move.
- Margin-aware sizing — position size is automatically scaled to fit the account's available margin, so the EA behaves sensibly on small and large balances alike.
You control the two settings that matter most for your account — risk per trade and the daily loss limit — and the EA handles the rest. See the Inputs Reference for everything you can adjust.
Position Sizing
Scalper sizes each trade for you. In the default percentage-risk mode, it works out a lot size from your chosen risk percentage and the account balance, then automatically:
- Caps the result at your maximum lot ceiling
- Scales it down if needed so the order comfortably fits your free margin
- Respects your broker's minimum lot and lot step
Prefer full manual control? Switch to fixed-lot mode and the EA trades a constant size you specify. Either way, sizing is automatic — there's no manual lot math to do.
The On-Chart Dashboard
When enabled, Scalper draws a clean, styled status panel directly on the chart so you can see what it's doing at a glance:
- Header — product name, symbol, timeframe, version, a status chip (
ACTIVE/PAUSED/STOP), and server time - Account — balance, equity, floating P&L (green/red), and daily drawdown vs your limit
- Market — bid, ask, spread (with OK/wide colouring), and session status
- Strategy — current levels in view, the entry signal state, cooldown, and trailing status
- Footer — open positions (buy/sell breakdown) vs your cap, resting orders, daily trade count, and the instance's magic number
The panel refreshes on a one-second timer, so it stays current even when the market is closed, and it's removed cleanly when you detach the EA. This gives you a complete real-time view without digging through logs.
Off automatically in headless backtests
During a non-visual Strategy Tester run, the dashboard (and logging) are skipped entirely — there's no chart to draw on, and skipping them keeps backtests fast. Both still work in visual-mode backtests and on live charts.
What to Expect
A typical session is a steady stream of small, quickly-managed trades during active market hours. Many close around breakeven or with a modest profit; a smaller number catch a cleaner run. The EA is doing its job when losses stay small and consistent — the edge comes from that discipline over many trades, not from any single big win.
Trading involves risk
No strategy wins every trade, and past performance — including backtests — does not guarantee future results. Always test on the free Demo and a demo account before committing real capital, and only risk what you can afford to lose.
Next Steps
- ⚙️ Inputs Reference — Every available setting explained
- 🚀 Getting Started — Installation and first-run guide
- 🗒️ Changelog — Version history
- 💬 Get Support — Reach out if you have questions