Building Your First MT5 EA

You do not need a 2000-line monster to test an idea on MT5. The smallest EA that does something useful is about 40 lines of MQL5.

The five things every EA must have

1. An entry condition (when to open)
2. An exit condition (when to close)
3. A position size rule (how big)
4. A stop loss (how much you can lose)
5. A take profit (when you are happy)

Build all five in the simplest way you can, backtest it, and only then start optimising.