Strategies / Trend / Triple Band Market Model

Triple Band Market Model: Three EMA Bands for Long Trends

The model builds three bands from EMAs of highs and lows over 50, 100 and 200 bars. Each band flips up or down depending on which side price closed, and a long opens only when the close is above the active line of all three. The trade ends as soon as that stops being true.

TrendLong onlySwingGoldDaily

2.27Profit factor

3,315Net profit EUR

31.03%Win rate

203Trades

-809Max drawdown

16.33Avg trade

Best run of 31. Gold, Daily, spread 0.6, from run pf:2026-09-24-GOLD-D.tsv:2.

Entry rules, long

Three bands are built from EMAs of the highs and of the lows (50, 100 and 200 bars, previous bar)
Each band points up after a close above its high EMA and down after a close below its low EMA
Members only

Exit rules

Members only
No stop loss or target

Test conditions

Period	Up to 2026-09-25
Instrument	Gold, Daily
Spread	0.6 points
Contracts	1
Starting capital	1,000,000
Costs	Spread only. Commissions and overnight financing are not included.
Bars	Up to 200,000 bars, fewer where the instrument has less history
Last tested	2026-09-25

Parameters

positionSize Contracts per trade	1
fastPeriod Fast band: EMA of highs and of lows	50
midPeriod Middle band	100
slowPeriod Slow band	200

Every run

Markets and timeframes tested

Market	Timeframe	PF	Trades	Win %	Net	Max DD
GoldBest run	Daily	2.27	203	31.03	3,315 EUR	-809
USD/JPY	30 min	1.14	2,655	28.74	516,700 JPY	-124,400
USD/JPY	Daily	n/a	186	29.03	644,780 JPY	-579,750
USD/JPY	1 hour	n/a	1,860	29.57	491,890 JPY	-349,120
EUR/USD	2 min	n/a	3,176	19.40	188,989 USD	-76,432
EUR/USD	Daily	n/a	169	27.81	50,918 USD	-36,021
Nikkei 225	Daily	n/a	178	31.46	44,429 USD	-14,716
Silver	4 hours	n/a	409	28.36	33,015 USD	-13,293
Nikkei 225	1 hour	n/a	1,461	27.45	21,719 USD	-11,048
Dow Jones	Daily	n/a	240	35.42	19,700 EUR	-8,491
Nasdaq 100	Daily	n/a	198	35.35	14,713 EUR	-3,714
Nikkei 225	4 hours	n/a	406	29.80	14,200 USD	-11,158
Dow Jones	1 hour	n/a	597	28.64	10,754 EUR	-5,895
Dow Jones	4 hours	n/a	171	35.67	10,535 EUR	-5,287
Nasdaq 100	4 hours	n/a	533	34.71	9,508 EUR	-4,145
DAX 40	Daily	n/a	316	28.48	9,207 EUR	-5,564
Nasdaq 100	30 min	n/a	3,124	30.79	8,690 EUR	-4,381
DAX 40	30 min	n/a	2,974	27.37	7,740 EUR	-4,044
Nasdaq 100	1 hour	n/a	1,882	28.96	7,667 EUR	-5,051
DAX 40	1 hour	n/a	1,669	28.76	6,875 EUR	-3,807
Nasdaq 100	15 min	n/a	2,880	28.26	6,738 EUR	-3,594
US Crude Oil	Daily	n/a	172	36.05	6,647 EUR	-5,468
Nasdaq 100	10 min	n/a	2,824	27.76	6,102 EUR	-4,452
Nasdaq 100	5 min	n/a	2,882	26.34	4,067 EUR	-2,986
Gold	4 hours	n/a	397	31.99	3,155 EUR	-1,179
S&P 500	Daily	n/a	257	31.91	2,727 EUR	-1,019
Gold	30 min	n/a	2,710	29.85	2,323 EUR	-792
Gold	1 hour	n/a	1,574	28.53	1,870 EUR	-1,449
S&P 500	4 hours	n/a	531	32.39	1,453 EUR	-802
S&P 500	30 min	n/a	3,128	30.95	1,403 EUR	-1,331
Gold	15 min	n/a	2,835	24.37	934 EUR	-929

Charts

Results by run

Profit factor by run

Above 1.0 made money, below 1.0 lost money.

Net profit against max drawdown

Net profitMax drawdown

The code

ProBuilder, rewritten to house standard

Every file in the library uses the same header, the same section order and the same variable names. The numbers above were produced by the original version before the rewrite, and the rewrite has not yet been compiled in ProRealTime.

// ============================================================
// Triple Band Market Model
// ProRealAlgos Strategy Library  |  prorealalgos.com
// Type: Trend
// Direction: Long only
// Timeframe tested: Daily
// ============================================================

// --- Settings ---
DEFPARAM CumulateOrders = false

// --- Parameters ---
positionSize = 1          // contracts per trade
fastPeriod = 50           // fast band: EMA of highs and of lows
midPeriod = 100           // middle band
slowPeriod = 200          // slow band

// --- Indicators ---
// Each band is an EMA of highs and an EMA of lows (previous bar).
// Its direction flips up above the high line and down below the low line,
// and the active line is the low line in an uptrend, the high line in a downtrend.
ONCE fastDirection = 0
ONCE midDirection = 0
ONCE slowDirection = 0

fastUpperMA = ExponentialAverage[fastPeriod](high)[1]
fastLowerMA = ExponentialAverage[fastPeriod](low)[1]
IF CustomClose > fastUpperMA THEN
  fastDirection = 1
ELSIF CustomClose < fastLowerMA THEN
  fastDirection = -1
ENDIF
IF fastDirection = -1 THEN
  fastLine = fastUpperMA
ELSE
  fastLine = fastLowerMA
ENDIF

midUpperMA = ExponentialAverage[midPeriod](high)[1]
midLowerMA = ExponentialAverage[midPeriod](low)[1]
IF CustomClose > midUpperMA THEN
  midDirection = 1
ELSIF CustomClose < midLowerMA THEN
  midDirection = -1
ENDIF
IF midDirection = -1 THEN
  midLine = midUpperMA
ELSE
  midLine = midLowerMA
ENDIF

slowUpperMA = ExponentialAverage[slowPeriod](high)[1]
slowLowerMA = ExponentialAverage[slowPeriod](low)[1]
IF CustomClose > slowUpperMA THEN
  slowDirection = 1
ELSIF CustomClose < slowLowerMA THEN
  slowDirection = -1
ENDIF
IF slowDirection = -1 THEN
  slowLine = slowUpperMA
ELSE
  slowLine = slowLowerMA
ENDIF

aboveFast = fastLine < close
aboveMid = midLine < close
aboveSlow = slowLine < close

14 more lines: the entry and exit rules.

Read this first

Known weaknesses

There is no stop loss or target. The only exit is the close falling below one of the active lines.
The win rate is low, 31.03% on Gold Daily, so most trades are small losers.
USD/JPY Daily had a 579,750 JPY drawdown against 644,780 JPY of profit.
Long only, and most runs outside the headline have no recorded profit factor.

Indicators used

EMA

How to load it

Copy the code with the copy button above the code block.
In ProRealTime, open a chart of the instrument and timeframe you want to test, then open ProOrder > New trading system and choose "Create with programming".
Paste the code, give the system a name and save it.
Click "Backtest", set your own spread and position size, and run it before you consider trading it live.

Questions

About this strategy

Can it be run in ProOrder?

Yes, the band logic and exit are automated. With no stop, set a maximum loss at account level.

Where was it tested?

Gold Daily made 3,314.50 EUR over 203 trades. Every run in the table was profitable, across USD/JPY, EUR/USD, Nikkei 225, Silver, Dow Jones, Nasdaq 100, DAX 40, US Crude Oil, S&P 500 and Gold.

What drawdown at 1 contract?

With 1 contract and a 0.6 point spread, the Gold Daily run had a max drawdown of 808.80 EUR.

Why daily bars for the headline?

Bands of 50 to 200 bars describe the main trend best on daily charts. Gold Daily gave the highest profit factor, 2.27.

Monday Dip Buy

Uses the same indicator.

n/a PF · 146 trades

RSI(2) Trend Filter

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1.73 PF · 254 trades

Big Bar Fade

A similar profit factor.

2.28 PF · 172 trades

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Past backtest results do not guarantee future results. This is not financial advice. Curated and maintained by ProRealAlgos. ProRealTime™ is a trademark of ProRealTime SAS. prorealalgos.com Stats Docs