Introduction to Algorithmic trading
An educational thread/post about Algo trading – what you won’t learn anywhere else.
1 year ago, I started bot trading and coding TV algos in Pinescript. My goal has been the same since the beginning: find a way to have a bot that trades automatically for me, day in and day out, whether the market goes up, down or ranges. This, without any human interaction whatsoever. Cherry on the cake if I can get at least 1% per day.
1 year later, I have achieved this goal, I now have a bot running day in and day out, producing on average that 0.5 to 1.5 % a day. Bear market? Bring it on, I am ready for it.
This is pretty nice because now I have time to write and share with you everything I have learned, which I could not do before since I hadn’t reach that goal. In addition, because now I have this thing running for me, I don’t necessarily need to convince you about anything I will write or try to sell you. I do this to share what I have learned, and I believe I have some pretty unique stuff to share.
ALGO TRADING – What will I talk to you about?
0. Position Sizing
1. Winning rate
2. Compounding
3. Best Entries
4. Fees and compounding
5. Trading System (Varp)
6. Leveraged Trading Fees
7. DCA Bots and bag holding
8. Small TF and Large TF
9. Leverage is not necessary – Long term vision
10. Don’t build an algo that fits the past
11. How can I be sure that my algo will work in the future?
12. Analyze your risk in crypto and have options
How did I learn what I learned?
Once I read a book written by Tony Robbins that talked about investing with a DCA strategy (I won’t go into the detail of Dollar Cost Averaging, you can google it). I thought maybe I can find a way to use a DCA strategy to get into crypto. I google “DCA crypto” and the very first thing that popped up was 3Commas, with their DCA bots.
I went on 3Commas and it looked super hyper complicated. Way too many things I did not know and needed to learn. So, I went on Youtube and I searched for 3Commas tutorials. From there, I found Moonin papa and The Better Traders group.
The Better Traders, they sell online courses about how to be a better trader overall, with a big focus on using 3Commas as a tool. I have to say, everything I have learned for the first time was with Moonin Papa and the Better Trader community. For anyone looking for great strategies and/or to learn 3Commas inside out, this is a good spot. This is also one of the most serious, reliable and educational trading group out there. I don’t use their tools anymore since I have developed my owns, but let’s say you don’t find what you are looking for in these lines, you can go to The Better Traders they will take good care of you. I am not affiliated with them, they just provide a good service.
The first reason I left the 3Commas and The better Trader community is because I got impatient and wanted to create better/faster ways to generate returns. I was also not a big fan of Bag Holding (which I talk about in Tutorial #7).
I tried the PSAR bot from Swing Trade Pros, this is a great tool, but once I got liquidated an undisclosed amount of money. The hardest lessons are the most expensive ones. I thought to myself, If I can get liquidated ALL my money for barely 1% a day, it is not worth it. Swing Trade Pros is also a great community. They have some pretty smart people running it and these guys are cool overall.
I tried Market Cipher also. This is like the Better Traders and Swing Trade Pros, they have a cool community. Market Cipher is a great tool. This is by far one of the best indicator I find. Throughout my learning, I was able to discover most of the indicators they use in MC, and furthermore understand them. I don’t have any bots/algo running on it, but I explored a lot their algo.
After seeing all these guys, my experience with 3C and some other bots, I very quickly understood I needed to learn to write algos in Pine Script, which I did. It took me about 6 months to be good at it. Now I can do almost anything I want. There are still things I don’t fully master but I find ways to code what I need without mastering all of it.
After coding great algos, I hooked them up to 3Commas and very quickly I understood that I was going to be VERY limited with 3C. For example, if you want to enter trades with only limit orders to reduce fees, well you can’t – if you have a strategy that trades 100’s of time a day, fees add up and compound. I talk about it in Tutorial 4.
So I looked for another tool to give me full flexibility in placing orders on exchanges, and I found something great – which I still use today. This is now my number 1 go to service/platform, to run my bots. It is MUCH cheaper than 3Commas, and it has the capability to build exactly the same stuff. If is just not as “shinny looking” as 3C.
Once I had my bot platform and my algos, I just had to run them and see live what it does. SO – I can tell you right now that 100% of the strategies you will find on Trading View (the ones with the high profit factors, or the great returns, the climbing account balance charts) are NOT what you will get when you run them live!! This is IMPOSSIBLE to get the same return as the strategy. This is the same as many algos that people sell online, they show high returns but once you pay and run the bot, you realize you lose half of the gains on fees and the other half on slippage – and that is without talking about the delay between Tradingview and your bot platform (API).
Because of these (Fees, Slippage and API delay), any algo I had back tested myself with great returns, would in reality not be profitable at all. From that point the long road of trying to find an algo that would be profitable on paper AND live on the exchange started.
For about 6 months, I tried countless algos and bots to try to make it. It was honestly hard, and a lot of times I thought about giving up and just do the 3Commas and bag holding. I told myself I would not give up and I kept searching.
Today I have that 1 algo that can run on its own day in day out no matter which state the market is in. Will this work for ever? I have absolutely no idea, but it works now and because I have learned so much, I have additional algos that I can run side by side (with a little watching/maintenance here and there), for which I am sure they will perform for ever.
Next step for me is to set up some accounts for my family, and on we go!
BTCUSDT
An educational thread/post about Algo trading – what you won’t learn anywhere else.
1 year ago, I started bot trading and coding TV algos in Pinescript. My goal has been the same since the beginning: find a way to have a bot that trades automatically for me, day in and day out, whether the market goes up, down or ranges. This, without any human interaction whatsoever. Cherry on the cake if I can get at least 1% per day.
1 year later, I have achieved this goal, I now have a bot running day in and day out, producing on average that 0.5 to 1.5 % a day. Bear market? Bring it on, I am ready for it.
This is pretty nice because now I have time to write and share with you everything I have learned, which I could not do before since I hadn’t reach that goal. In addition, because now I have this thing running for me, I don’t necessarily need to convince you about anything I will write or try to sell you. I do this to share what I have learned, and I believe I have some pretty unique stuff to share.
ALGO TRADING – What will I talk to you about?
0. Position Sizing
1. Winning rate
2. Compounding
3. Best Entries
4. Fees and compounding
5. Trading System (Varp)
6. Leveraged Trading Fees
7. DCA Bots and bag holding
8. Small TF and Large TF
9. Leverage is not necessary – Long term vision
10. Don’t build an algo that fits the past
11. How can I be sure that my algo will work in the future?
12. Analyze your risk in crypto and have options
How did I learn what I learned?
Once I read a book written by Tony Robbins that talked about investing with a DCA strategy (I won’t go into the detail of Dollar Cost Averaging, you can google it). I thought maybe I can find a way to use a DCA strategy to get into crypto. I google “DCA crypto” and the very first thing that popped up was 3Commas, with their DCA bots.
I went on 3Commas and it looked super hyper complicated. Way too many things I did not know and needed to learn. So, I went on Youtube and I searched for 3Commas tutorials. From there, I found Moonin papa and The Better Traders group.
The Better Traders, they sell online courses about how to be a better trader overall, with a big focus on using 3Commas as a tool. I have to say, everything I have learned for the first time was with Moonin Papa and the Better Trader community. For anyone looking for great strategies and/or to learn 3Commas inside out, this is a good spot. This is also one of the most serious, reliable and educational trading group out there. I don’t use their tools anymore since I have developed my owns, but let’s say you don’t find what you are looking for in these lines, you can go to The Better Traders they will take good care of you. I am not affiliated with them, they just provide a good service.
The first reason I left the 3Commas and The better Trader community is because I got impatient and wanted to create better/faster ways to generate returns. I was also not a big fan of Bag Holding (which I talk about in Tutorial #7).
I tried the PSAR bot from Swing Trade Pros, this is a great tool, but once I got liquidated an undisclosed amount of money. The hardest lessons are the most expensive ones. I thought to myself, If I can get liquidated ALL my money for barely 1% a day, it is not worth it. Swing Trade Pros is also a great community. They have some pretty smart people running it and these guys are cool overall.
I tried Market Cipher also. This is like the Better Traders and Swing Trade Pros, they have a cool community. Market Cipher is a great tool. This is by far one of the best indicator I find. Throughout my learning, I was able to discover most of the indicators they use in MC, and furthermore understand them. I don’t have any bots/algo running on it, but I explored a lot their algo.
After seeing all these guys, my experience with 3C and some other bots, I very quickly understood I needed to learn to write algos in Pine Script, which I did. It took me about 6 months to be good at it. Now I can do almost anything I want. There are still things I don’t fully master but I find ways to code what I need without mastering all of it.
After coding great algos, I hooked them up to 3Commas and very quickly I understood that I was going to be VERY limited with 3C. For example, if you want to enter trades with only limit orders to reduce fees, well you can’t – if you have a strategy that trades 100’s of time a day, fees add up and compound. I talk about it in Tutorial 4.
So I looked for another tool to give me full flexibility in placing orders on exchanges, and I found something great – which I still use today. This is now my number 1 go to service/platform, to run my bots. It is MUCH cheaper than 3Commas, and it has the capability to build exactly the same stuff. If is just not as “shinny looking” as 3C.
Once I had my bot platform and my algos, I just had to run them and see live what it does. SO – I can tell you right now that 100% of the strategies you will find on Trading View (the ones with the high profit factors, or the great returns, the climbing account balance charts) are NOT what you will get when you run them live!! This is IMPOSSIBLE to get the same return as the strategy. This is the same as many algos that people sell online, they show high returns but once you pay and run the bot, you realize you lose half of the gains on fees and the other half on slippage – and that is without talking about the delay between Tradingview and your bot platform (API).
Because of these (Fees, Slippage and API delay), any algo I had back tested myself with great returns, would in reality not be profitable at all. From that point the long road of trying to find an algo that would be profitable on paper AND live on the exchange started.
For about 6 months, I tried countless algos and bots to try to make it. It was honestly hard, and a lot of times I thought about giving up and just do the 3Commas and bag holding. I told myself I would not give up and I kept searching.
Today I have that 1 algo that can run on its own day in day out no matter which state the market is in. Will this work for ever? I have absolutely no idea, but it works now and because I have learned so much, I have additional algos that I can run side by side (with a little watching/maintenance here and there), for which I am sure they will perform for ever.
Next step for me is to set up some accounts for my family, and on we go!
BTCUSDT
