House ofChento
Gold does not move evenly through the day. For a grid EA that profits from oscillation inside a range, when it is allowed to open new baskets matters almost as much as the grid settings. This is the schedule we use on Chento Gridder V2, in Pakistan Standard Time (PKT, UTC+5).
The gold day in PKT
- 03:00–07:00 Asia (Tokyo): low volume, narrow range, spreads normal. Baskets opened here often stall and get carried into London.
- 12:00–17:00 London: real volume begins, clean swings, best oscillation for grids.
- 17:30–21:00 London/New York overlap: highest volume, biggest moves, most USD news (13:30 GMT = 18:30 PKT releases).
- 21:00–02:00 New York close → rollover: volume fades; around 02:00 PKT (rollover) spreads on gold can widen 5–10× for a few minutes. Never let a grid open a level then.
What we ship as default
The SESSION module in Gridder V2 defaults to 07:00–17:00 PKT with broker GMT offset auto-detected. New baskets open only inside the window; an already open basket keeps managing itself and still closes at target outside it. Combined with the NEWS module (pauses 15 minutes around USD high-impact events) this cuts most of the equity drawdown tail we saw in testing.
Tuning for your risk
- Conservative: 12:00–17:00 PKT only (London before New York). Fewer trades, cleanest ranges.
- Default: 07:00–17:00 PKT.
- Aggressive: 07:00–21:00 PKT, but keep NEWS on and set DD STOP at 15% — you are now trading through the overlap and the news bursts.
Days to avoid
NFP Friday (first Friday of the month), FOMC days, and CPI mornings. The calendar filter handles the minutes around the release, but on those days the whole session behaves differently — many grid traders simply turn the EA off from 17:00 PKT. Monday’s first hour after the weekend gap and Friday’s last hour are also worth a manual pause.
These settings are inputs on the EA and remembered per chart. Read the risk management guide for the full protection stack, or try the free 7-day demo.
