We took the textbook ICT Silver Bullet and found where its trades lost from 4 November 2024 to 24 February 2026. We changed 4 things for a reason each and tuned them on those 16 months only. Then we ran it once on the next 8 months, which nobody had looked at. It made $763 on one micro contract there. The textbook lost $822.
The $50,000 account after each trade. Every trade is one micro gold contract with $2.50 a contract each side and a tick of slippage. Shaded: the 8 months nobody looked at.
The textbook ICT Silver Bullet: the first three-candle fair value gap between 10:00 and 11:00 New York. A limit order waits at the gap's near edge. The stop sits past the gap's first candle and the target is twice the risk. An order not filled by 11:00 is cancelled. It trades once a day and is flat by 15:55.
Every change we tried, in the order we tried it. Each one was judged on the first 16 months only.
Why: Gaps more than 0.2 of a day's range past the 9:30 open in the trade's direction lost $1,832 over 61 trades.
What it did: Kept at 0.1 of a day's range. At 0.2 and at ICT's strict rule of longs only below the open it also made money in all four stretches.
Why: Stops nearer than 0.08 of a day's range won 23% of the time (75 trades, −$1,853).
What it did: Kept at 0.08 of a day's range. At 0.06 it also made money in all four stretches.
Why: Gaps that formed between 10:30 and 10:45 lost in all four stretches (37 trades, −$1,219).
What it did: Kept. An order placed before 10:30 still waits until 11:00. A 10:45 cut-off also made money in all four stretches.
Why: On the textbook's own trades a 2R target lost 20.6R and a 3R target made 6.2R.
What it did: Kept. With the other changes in, 2R also made money in all four stretches.
Why: One contract risked anywhere from $13 to $620 a trade as gold's price and daily range grew.
What it did: Left out. Every sized setting fell below 70% of its score when run on one contract. The rule needs every neighbouring setting to hold up.
Why: 77 trades that hit their stop had been 1R in profit first.
What it did: Left out. On the same trades it turned a $531 loss into a $1,471 loss.
Why: Gold rose through 2025. Longs made 4.5R and shorts lost 26.1R.
What it did: Left out. Dropping shorts is a bet that the trend goes on.
The settings it runs with: the textbook's 10:00 to 11:00 window, gap entry and stop; no trade when the gap candle closed more than 0.1 of the daily average range past the 9:30 open in the trade's direction; no trade with the stop closer than 0.08 of it; no new setup from 10:30; the target at 3 times the risk; one contract a trade.
We ran it once on 24 February 2026 → 2 November 2026, after every setting was fixed. To be published it had to make money there with a profit factor of 1.1 or more and beat the textbook.
| Period | Version | Net | Worst drawdown | Profit factor | Trades | Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First 16 months (tuned on) | Textbook | −$555 | −$2,065 | 0.95 | 233 | 32.2% |
| Optimised | +$3,005 | −$1,605 | 1.77 | 82 | 51.2% | |
| 8 locked months (never seen) | Textbook | −$822 | −$1,223 | 0.91 | 122 | 35.2% |
| Optimised | +$763 | −$1,392 | 1.21 | 43 | 39.5% | |
| Both together | Textbook | −$1,377 | −$2,241 | 0.93 | 355 | 33.2% |
| Optimised | +$3,768 | −$2,997 | 1.50 | 125 | 47.2% |
What to know before you use it
The script is free. This version is tuned on MGC 5-minute over our 16 months. Your market, timeframe and months may want different settings.
$99.99 a month. A new account gets 3 months for $99.99 in its first 72 hours. Not worth it? Full refund within 30 days.
The textbook version lost $555 in the first 16 months and lost $822 in the 8 months after. Optimised on the first 16 months only, it made $3,005 there and made $763 in the 8 months it never saw. That was 43 trades with a profit factor of 1.21 from 24 February 2026 to 2 November 2026.
It means worked on, not picked from thousands of runs. We read the textbook's trades for where they lost and made each change for a reason. We tuned the settings together on the first 16 months only and kept only settings that made money in all four 4-month stretches with every neighbouring setting holding up too. Then one run on the 8 months nobody had looked at decided whether it was published.
CME's minutes for the continuous MGC contract built into 5-minute candles, from 4 November 2024 to 2 November 2026 (515 sessions). Every trade is one micro gold contract with $2.50 a contract each side and a tick of slippage.
Yes. Fit it to my account opens the Alpha Charts terminal with the script on MGC 5-minute and the Optimiser on it: it re-tunes the script's settings on the market, timeframe and months you pick, and checks the winner against random tries and months it never saw. The Optimiser is in Pro and Max. Both come with 30 days money back.