Herakles Index EA

Twelve independent strategies for stock indices

Type: Multi-Strategy Style: Swing Trading Setup: Plug and Play Market: Indices Timeframe: D1 Modeling mode: 1m OHLC VPS: Required Min capital: $5k+ Account type: Any Prop-firm: With caveats

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Overview

What Herakles actually does

Herakles Index EA is a fully automated portfolio for stock indices on MetaTrader 5. Out of the box it trades DJ30, US500 and USTEC — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

What makes it different from most index robots is that it is not one strategy. It is twelve — the Labours of Herakles — and each one was developed and proven as a standalone Expert Advisor before being merged in. They are not connected to each other: no shared state, no cross-signalling. Each Labour carries its own magic number, opens and manages its own positions, and can be switched on or off without touching the others. Two Labours can even hold opposite positions on the same index at the same time, and neither will interfere with the other.

That is the whole idea. A single strategy has to be right to make money; a portfolio of twelve unrelated ones only has to be right on balance. There is no martingale, no grid and no averaging down anywhere in it — a losing position is never reinforced. Every trade carries a stop from the moment it opens, measured in multiples of the instrument's own average daily range so that it means the same thing on an index trading near 44,000 as on one near 8,000, and adjusts itself as volatility changes.

Each Labour is listed and described individually in the Inputs & settings section below.

Demo

Verified forward-test performance

A demo account — real market prices, simulated money — tracked independently on Myfxbook. These figures update automatically; confirm them yourself via the verified link.

Updated once per week. For more precise information, check Myfxbook.

Sep 9, 2026 · $100,000 Oct 9, 2026 · $102,541

Total gain

+2.52%

Average gain

+$126 (+0.13%)

Average loss

-$22 (-0.02%)

Profit factor

11.54

Max drawdown

0.2%

Balance

$102,541

Account details

Demo account Verified by Myfxbook

Broker: BlackBull Markets
Currency: USD
Tracking since: Sep 10, 2026
Deposits: $100,000
Balance: $102,541
Last updated: Oct 10, 2026

Forward-test results from a MetaTrader 5 demo account — real market prices, simulated money — tracked independently on Myfxbook. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Open the full dashboard.

Inputs

Every setting explained

These are the inputs you will see in the MT5 Inputs tab when you attach Herakles to a chart

-- Info --

Input

Default

What it does

Learn More About the Settings

link

A shortcut to the TLFX website, where every input below is explained in full. Not a setting — just a pointer to the documentation.

-- General Settings --

Input

Default

What it does

Magic Number Base

20260728

Identifies positions belonging to this EA. Each Labour takes its own number counting up from this base, which is what keeps them independent — change it only if another EA on the same account uses the same range.

Show Dashboard

true

On-chart dashboard with per-Labour stats. Disabling it during backtesting noticeably speeds up the Strategy Tester. A SEND LOGS button sits directly under the dashboard: when support asks for your log, one press (and a confirmation) sends the last two days of it, so the dashboard has to be on to use it. The EA always writes its full log to the Experts tab — there is no Debug Log switch any more.

Show Indicators on Chart

true

Draws the indicators the Labours are reading onto the chart. Purely visual — switch it off for backtesting to speed up the Strategy Tester.

Apply Color Scheme

true

Recolours the chart to the EA's colour scheme when attached. Purely cosmetic — turn it off to keep your own chart colours.

Apply Zoom Level

0 (most zoomed out)

Sets the zoom step of the attached chart and every chart Herakles opens itself, from 0 (most zoomed out) to 5 (most zoomed in); step 2 is MT5's own default. Applied once when the EA starts — you can still zoom manually afterwards.

Max Slippage

0.1 %

Maximum price deviation accepted when sending an order, expressed as a percentage of price.

Max Spread

0.1 %

Maximum spread accepted at order time, expressed as a percentage of price. Orders are skipped when the spread is wider than this.

-- Multi-Instrument Settings --

Input

Default

What it does

Enable Multi-Instrument Mode

false

Off by default: Herakles trades only the chart it is attached to. Turn it on to have a single instance trade the whole instrument list below in parallel.

Instruments

DJ30, US500, USTEC

Comma-separated list of indices to trade when multi-instrument mode is on. ⚠️ Index symbol names differ from broker to broker — check yours in Market Watch and edit this list to match exactly.

Symbol Suffix

(none)

Suffix your broker appends to symbol names (.m, .pro, …). Leave empty if it uses none.

Display All Instrument Charts

false

Opens a chart for every traded instrument automatically (and closes them again on removal). If one cannot be opened straight away, Herakles keeps retrying in the background until it appears. Convenience only — it has no effect on trading.

-- Risk Settings --

Input

Default

What it does

Risk Mode

Risk in %

How position size is calculated: a fixed lot size, a percentage of the account, or an amount in account currency. Percentage and currency modes size against the stop distance, so the lot adapts to each index's volatility.

Risk Value

Meaning depends on Risk Mode — lots, percent, or currency amount. At the default this is 1 % per trade.

Cent Account Handling

Auto-Detect

How Herakles treats a cent account when sizing lots. Auto-Detect reads it from the deposit currency (e.g. USC); or force Normal / force Cent manually.

Use Individual Risk per Labour

false

Off by default: every Labour uses the single Risk Value above. Turn it on to give each Labour its own risk figure, using the Individual Risk field next to each toggle below.

-- The Labours of Herakles --

One switch per Labour, all twelve enabled by default. Each is a self-contained strategy with its own magic number, so you can run all twelve, just one, or any combination — turning one off never affects another Labour's open positions. Each toggle carries an Individual Risk field beside it, used only when "Use Individual Risk per Labour" above is switched on.

Input

Default

What it does

The Nemean Lion (Oversold Dip)

true

The quick fade. It steps in when an index has sold off sharply over a very short stretch, and lets go again once the move has swung back the other way. The most frequent of the fade Labours.

The Lernaean Hydra (Short-Term Low)

true

Buys when the index closes at the low point of its recent run and steps back out when it closes at the high of one. It reads nothing but closing prices, which is why it fires on different days from the momentum-based Labours.

The Ceryneian Hind (Fading Momentum)

true

The patient one. Rather than reacting to a single reading it waits for a whole shape to form across several sessions — a staged, persistent slide rather than one sharp drop — so it trades far less often than the Nemean Lion despite watching the same kind of momentum.

The Erymanthian Boar (Volatility Dip)

true

The diversifier. It judges how stretched a fall is relative to how volatile that index has been lately, so what counts as "too far" widens in turbulent markets and tightens in calm ones. That makes it fire on different days from the Labours that use fixed measures.

The Augean Stables (Down Days)

true

The simplest rule in the set: it counts sessions that closed lower one after another and buys once the index has ground down several in a row, then leaves once it has strung together higher closes. It often overlaps with the Lernaean Hydra without being the same test.

The Stymphalian Birds (Composite Oversold)

true

A composite. It blends how far the index has fallen, how long the losing run has lasted, and how unusual the move is measured against that index's own history. Two of those three ask questions nothing else in the portfolio asks, which is what earns it a place beside the other fade Labours.

The Cretan Bull (Day of Week)

true

The day-of-week Labour. When a particular weekday closes lower it buys the following open and holds for a set stretch, harvesting a long-documented tendency for that specific weakness to be bought back.

The Mares of Diomedes (Benchmark)

true

The control — and it has no edge on purpose. It buys every session and closes on the next with no filter at all, so its result is simply the index's own return minus what trading it really costs. That makes it the yardstick: any Labour that cannot clearly beat the Mares is producing exposure rather than edge. Switch it off if you only want the Labours that claim one.

The Belt of Hippolyta (Breakout)

true

The only trend follower in the portfolio. It buys strength — a push to a fresh high — and holds until price breaks back down through a recent low. Expect a low hit rate with a handful of large winners; that is how breakout systems pay, so judge it on total return rather than its win column.

The Cattle of Geryon (Slow Trend)

true

The slowest Labour of all. It follows a single long-term average, stepping in once price has settled above it and stepping back out quickly once price closes beneath. Slow in, fast out — it can hold a position for months.

The Apples of the Hesperides (Seasonal)

true

The seasonal one. It is long inside a handful of calendar windows and flat for the rest of the year, trading the date rather than the price — the same idea behind Demeter Seasonality EA.

The Three-Headed Cerberus (Drawdown Recovery)

true

Three independent heads that buy into a decline at three escalating depths, measured from the index's own highest close. One switch controls all three, and because each head is a separate strategy they can each hold their own position at the same time.

Individual Risk (per Labour)

The risk figure that Labour uses when "Use Individual Risk per Labour" is on. Ignored while that switch is off.

-- Trend Filter --

Input

Default

What it does

Trend Filter

false

Off by default. When on, long trades are only taken above a moving average — a simple way to keep the portfolio on the right side of a longer-term trend. The Three-Headed Cerberus is exempt from this filter by design.

Trend Filter MA Period

200

Length of the moving average used by the filter above.

Trend Filter MA Method

Simple

Averaging method for the filter's moving average (simple, exponential, smoothed or linear-weighted).

Setup

What you need to run Herakles

Platform

MetaTrader 5 — hedging account type. Netting accounts will not work: the Labours are independent and two of them may legitimately hold opposite positions on the same index, which a netting account would cancel out.

Symbols

DJ30, US500 and USTEC by default. ⚠️ Index symbol names are not standardised — the same index may be DJ30, US30, WS30 or DJIA depending on the broker. Check the exact names in Market Watch and put those in the Instruments list, otherwise Herakles will not trade them.

Leverage

1:100 minimum. Higher leverage does not change your risk per trade — that is set by the Risk settings — but it does free up margin, which matters here because twelve Labours can hold a number of index positions at once.

Capital

From $5,000 upwards. Twelve Labours each sizing off your risk setting need genuine headroom — with much less, the broker's minimum index lot size and a 1 % risk no longer line up, and you end up either over-risking a trade or unable to open one at all.

VPS

Recommended, not required — Herakles works off higher-timeframe signals and is not latency-sensitive. What a VPS buys you is uptime, so a signal is never missed because the PC slept. See the FXVM section on the Tools page.

Broker

Fusion Markets or Ultima Markets — not a prop-firm account. Before opening the account, check the index range — the symbols offered, their spreads and their contract sizes differ between brokers, so confirm your indices are quoted on the account type you choose.

Full step-by-step installation walkthrough: How to install an EA.

FAQ

Frequently asked

Which indices should I run Herakles on?

It ships configured for DJ30, US500 and USTEC — the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq. Those three are what the Labours were developed against, so start there. The catch is that index symbol names are not standardised: what one broker calls DJ30 another calls US30, WS30 or DJIA. Open Market Watch, find the exact names your broker uses, and put those in the Instruments list. If a name does not match, Herakles simply will not trade that instrument.

Do I have to run all twelve Labours?

No. Every Labour is a complete strategy in its own right, with its own magic number and its own positions, so you can run all twelve, a handful, or a single one. All twelve are enabled by default because that is the point of the EA — twelve unrelated ideas sharing one account means no single one has to be right for the portfolio to work. Turning one off never touches another Labour's open trades.

Does Herakles use martingale or a grid?

No. There is no martingale, no grid and no averaging down anywhere in it — a losing position is never reinforced. Position sizing comes from your risk setting and the stop distance, and every trade carries a stop from the moment it opens. The way Herakles spreads risk is by holding many independent positions from unrelated strategies, not by stacking more size onto a trade that is already wrong.

How does the stop loss work across indices with such different prices?

The stop is measured in multiples of each instrument's average daily range rather than in points. A points-based stop is meaningless across a portfolio where one index trades near 44,000 and another near 8,000 — the same number would be a scratch on one and a catastrophe on the other. Sizing the stop by daily range means it means the same thing on every instrument, and it widens or tightens by itself as volatility changes.

Do I need a hedging account?

Yes. The Labours are fully independent and two of them can legitimately hold opposite positions on the same index at the same time. On a netting account those would cancel each other out and the portfolio would not behave as designed. Make sure your MT5 account is the hedging type — Fusion Markets and Ultima Markets both offer it.

Does Herakles need a VPS?

It is recommended rather than required. The Labours work off higher-timeframe signals, so Herakles is not latency-sensitive the way a scalper like Ares is — a few hundred milliseconds makes no difference to it. What a VPS does buy you is uptime: if your home PC sleeps or your connection drops when a signal fires, you miss that trade entirely. If you are running it on real money, a VPS is worth the small monthly cost.

Get a low-latency VPS (FXVM)

Can I use Herakles on a prop-firm account?

Not recommended — Herakles is not built for prop-firm accounts, which is why the E8 Markets route on the main page is offered for Forex Flipper and Chronos Forex, not for Herakles. There is no news filter and no master switch to close everything at a profit target, so a firm's daily-loss and maximum-drawdown limits would be entirely yours to manage. If prop trading is your main goal, ORB Revolution is the tool that was actually built for it.

Which broker should I pick for Herakles?

Fusion Markets or Ultima Markets — Herakles is not built for prop-firm accounts, so the E8 Markets route does not apply to it. The thing to check before you open the account is the index range: spreads, the exact symbols offered and the contract sizes all differ between brokers, so confirm that DJ30, US500 and USTEC — or your broker's equivalents — are actually quoted on the account type you are opening. The broker comparison on the main page covers the rest.

Open a Fusion Markets account Open an Ultima Markets account

Why is there no backtest on this page?

Because a live, independently verified track record is worth more than a historical simulation, and that is the direction the whole site is moving in. Herakles is new, so its live account is still building history — the moment there is something real to show, this page will display the verified Myfxbook curve automatically. In the meantime, run your own backtest: the settings are all documented above and you should always test an EA yourself before going live.

How to backtest an EA

Ready to run Herakles?

Get your free license by opening an account with one of the partner brokers, or buy Herakles directly on MQL5 if you would rather skip the affiliate route.

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