How Dexter trades gold
A breakout straddle on the 5-minute chart, with a stop loss on every trade.
1. Waiting on both sides
Gold spends a lot of time drifting in small ranges, then suddenly moves several dollars in minutes. Dexter doesn't try to guess the direction. At the start of every 5-minute candle it places a buy stop a fixed distance above the price and a sell stop the same distance below it. If price drifts, the orders are moved with it on the next candle.
2. Following the break
When price moves far enough to hit one of the orders, that order becomes a trade and Dexter immediately deletes the other one. This is called OCO: one cancels the other. Dexter only ever has one trade open.
3. Stop loss, break-even, trailing stop
Every order is sent with its stop loss attached, so the stop sits on your broker's server from the very first second. Once the trade moves in profit, Dexter moves the stop to just past the entry price (break-even). If the move continues, the stop follows the price at a fixed distance (trailing stop) until the market turns and closes the trade.
There is no fixed take profit. Small moves often end around break-even; the trades that matter are the fast moves where the trailing stop can follow the price a long way. Read more in stop loss, break-even and trailing stops explained.
Filters that keep Dexter out of bad moments
- Spread filter: no new orders when the spread is wide compared with the stop loss.
- Rollover: no new orders between 23:45 and 01:15 server time, when spreads often jump.
- Weekend: no new orders on Friday evening.
What you set
Only your risk per trade, between 0.1% and 5% of your balance. Dexter calculates the lot size so that a full stop loss costs roughly that percentage.
What Dexter is not
Dexter is not a grid or martingale robot. It never adds to a losing trade and never trades without a stop. It also isn't magic: when gold chops back and forth, Dexter will take small losses while waiting for the next real move.
Try Dexter on a free demo account first. Spreads and execution differ between brokers, and the only honest test is your own.