Why do most Expert Advisors (EAs) eventually fail? According to the experts at 1kPips, it’s rarely because the strategy itself is bad—it’s because the code becomes a "fragile mess" that is impossible to maintain. In this episode, we dive deep into the MQL5 Survival Guide, exploring how to transition from writing "disposable scripts" to building long-term trading assets.

Whether you are a solo developer or managing a trading desk, this episode provides a practical framework for writing clean, maintainable code in an environment where market behaviors change constantly and bugs cost real money.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The Survival Mindset: Why clean code isn't about "academic purity," but about staying in the game long enough to win.• The Power of Separation: Why you must stop mixing indicator calculations with risk logic and how to give every block of code a single responsibility.

• Readability vs. Cleverness: Why "shorter" code is often a trap, and how descriptive variables act as built-in documentation for your future self.

• Killing Magic Numbers: The simple habit that prevents your EA from becoming a confusing puzzle of hardcoded values.

• The OnTick() Controller: How to structure your main function so it reads like English and never exceeds 70 lines

.• Refactoring for Success: A practical checklist to clean up your existing messy EAs, from removing dead code to extracting logic into reusable functions.

Key Quote:

"Treat your EA like a disposable script, and it will behave like one. Treat it like a long-term asset, and clean MQL5 code becomes a competitive advantage.

"Who This Episode Is For:

• Algorithmic traders who have abandoned profitable EAs because the code became too complex to touch.

• MQL5 developers looking to speed up their testing cycles and perform safer optimizations.

• Professional developers who want to improve their "execution quality" through better software architecture.