How to handle increased spreads after market close in Metatrader

Hi 🙂

Everyday in Metatrader 1 hour after NY PM session closes (5pm EST, 23:00 UTC+2, 00:00 UTC+3 (Market Watch time)), spreads for all forex pairs increases significantly. Some from 0 to 50, some from 10 to 200. Over the next hour the spreads will slowly decrease, but will not return to “normal” before 1 hour later.

If you are trading very low timeframes like 1m or 5m and have a stoploss, there is good chance this spike in spreads will take out your trade. This risk is of course less on 15M and above, but as you might be developing your strategy on 2 pips spreads and your pair might have 1 hour a day with 10 pips spreads, this will impact your profitability.

My question is, how are people handling this when developing their strategies?

As price most often return to the same price range when spreads normalizes, I wonder if code should simply remove the SL 1 minute before that hour and reinstate it 1 hour later.

1. avoid lower timeframes (my personal preference)

2. avoid trading just before the daily candle close and a few minutes after.

3. use limit orders.