How to tell if an EA is grid or martingale
Grid and martingale robots look perfect for months, then one move wipes the account. Here are the five signs that give them away, and how to check them in five minutes.
Look at the trade history, not the profit curve. A grid or martingale EA gives itself away in five places: several trades open in the same direction at worse and worse prices, lot sizes that grow after a loss, no stop-loss on each trade, a win rate above 90% with rare huge losses, and a smooth balance line while the equity line dips deep. You can check all five in about five minutes.
Grid and martingale EAs are among the best-selling robots on every marketplace, because for months they look perfect: almost every trade wins, the balance climbs in a straight line. Then one strong move wipes out the account. None of that is visible in a marketing screenshot. All of it is visible in the trade list.
What grid and martingale actually mean
Grid: the EA opens a trade, and when the price moves against it, it opens another one, and another, at fixed distances. When the price comes back a little, it closes the whole group, the “basket”, at a small profit. Losing trades are not closed; they are averaged.
Martingale: the EA makes each new trade bigger after a loss, so that one win recovers everything. Most grid EAs combine both: every new level of the grid is larger than the one before. Vendors call it “recovery”, “smart averaging” or “AI position management”.
The danger is in the arithmetic. With a lot multiplier of 1.5, the eighth trade in a basket is about 17 times the size of the first. With a multiplier of 2, the tenth is 512 times the first. The strategy only works as long as the market turns before the account runs out of margin, and sooner or later one move does not turn in time.
Five signs, and where to find them
1. Several trades open at once, same direction, worse prices
Open the trade history (MT5, Myfxbook or an MQL5 signal) and sort by open time. If you see four or five buys on the same symbol, each opened lower than the one before, and all closed at the same moment, that is a grid basket.
2. Lot sizes that grow
Read down the volume column inside one basket. Sequences like 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.05, 0.08 (about 1.5×) or 0.01, 0.02, 0.04, 0.08 (2×) are martingale. An EA that sizes trades from your balance changes lots slowly over weeks; a martingale changes them within the same hour.
3. No stop-loss on each trade
Check the S/L column. If it is empty, the only thing limiting a loss is the size of your account, or at best a stop on the whole basket. Each trade having its own stop-loss is the clearest sign of an EA that accepts small losses instead of hiding them.
4. A win rate that is too good
Compare the win rate with the average win and the average loss. Ninety-five per cent winners, with an average loss twenty times larger than the average win, is the signature of averaging: many small closed profits, and a few baskets that had to be closed at a large loss.
5. Balance smooth, equity deep
The balance line only moves when trades close, so a grid that never closes at a loss draws a perfect staircase. The equity line includes the open trades, and that is where the truth shows: deep dips while the basket is underwater. Always ask for the equity curve or the maximum equity drawdown, never just the balance.
In a backtest
- Use “Every tick based on real ticks”. Generated ticks flatter averaging strategies, because they smooth the spikes that break them.
- Read the maximum equity drawdown and the lowest margin level, not the profit line.
- Test the years with the sharpest one-way moves for the symbol, not only the most recent quiet stretch.
Not every multi-trade EA is a grid
Opening several positions is not wrong by itself. An EA that adds to a trade that is already in profit, or splits one entry into parts that each have their own stop-loss, is managing risk, not hiding it. The question is always the same: when it is wrong, does it take a small loss, or does it add more?
Questions to ask any vendor
- Does every trade have its own stop-loss?
- What is the maximum number of positions open at the same time?
- Does the lot size ever increase after a loss?
- Is there a hard equity stop, and at what level?
- What was the maximum equity drawdown, on real ticks, over several years?
A vendor who answers all five plainly has nothing to hide. One who answers with “recovery technology” has just answered the question.
Our own EA. The gold EA in Gold EA + Hosting places a stop-loss on every trade and uses no grid and no martingale; it holds nothing overnight or over the weekend. Its live results, including the maximum recorded drawdown, are published on the hosting page.
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