Intro to Automated Grid Trading

A Beginners Guide to Grid Trading

Over the past several months, I have decided to dip my toes into the world of cryptocurrency. One of the most interesting aspects of crypto for me was that of automated grid trading. Although, grid trading can require a significant learning curve, tools are available to utilize others expertise.

Playing with House Money

Before describing how I use BitUniverse, here are some of my referral links to receive free crypto. In my mind, it is easier to test automated grid trading with “free” money.

Coinbase - Complete Short Tutorials for Free Crypto

• XML - $10 (Not including referrals)
• OTX - $12 (Not including referrals)
• EOS - $10 (Not including referrals)

Download Brave

Automated Grid Trading with BitUniverse

One of the more interesting tools I have found is BitUniverse. According to BitUniverse on Medium, it is defined as:

… the leading all-in-one cryptocurrency portfolio manager and trading terminal in the world. With BitUniverse, you’ll enjoy an easier investment life due to our amazing functions, auto-tracking the balance and profit of your portfolio using API Key, checking realtime market price, analyzing the candlestick charts with 22 indicators, and also trading multiple exchanges using BitUniverse without switching from one client to another.

BitUniverse supports a variety of exchanges including Kucoin, Pionex, Binance, Bitfinex, Bittrex, Poliniex, Coinbase, Kraken, Huobi, and others.

By using the API from an exchange you are using, you can utilize their pre-built AI Strategy bots or other user defined bots. BitUniverse also gives you the option to define your own manual grid. Particularly for a beginner, the AI Strategy bots and other bot templates are invaluable. For the rest of this post, I will focus on using the AI Strategy/Template bots.

Using AI Strategy/Template bots

1. To use BitUniverse, you need to sign up on the BitUniverse website.

2. Download the BitUniverse app from either the Apple App store ($4.99) or Google Play (Free). I am using the iOS version.

3. Add your exchange API to the BitUniverse app. I have personally used both Kucoin, Pionex. I prefer Kucoin because it is very friendly for small traders (<$20). Most of the available trading pairs in Pionex require a higher starting investment. Coinbase’s trading fees are higher.

   

   Figure 1. KuCoin API Management

4. In Kucoin, via a desktop or laptop browser, go to your account -> “API Management” (Figure 1).

5. Click the “Create API” button, and fill out the form. Be sure to click the Permissions: General and Trade. (Figure 2)

   

   Figure 2. Kucoin - Create API

6. In the BitUniverse App (iOS), go to “Portfolio” and click the plus in the upper right corner (Figure 3).

   

   Figure 3. BitUniverse - Portfolio

7. In BitUniverse, select the Kucoin Exchange (Figure 4). You can also check out the other exchanges available.

   

   Figure 4. BitUniverse - Exchanges

8. Complete the Form and Import the API (Figure 5). There is a tutorial in the app or you can also get support from the BitUniverse Telegram Group.

   

   Figure 5. BitUniverse - Import API

9. You are now ready to begin grid trading. In BitUniverse, go to the “Trade” screen, and click “Create” (Figure 6). The “Create” screen lists a variety of pre-made grid trades with the estimated annualized return. You can also click the “Bot” button to explore other trading pairs.

   

   Figure 6. BitUniverse - Create Bot Trade

10. In this case, I am going to select “XRP/USDT” (Figure 7).

    

    Figure 7. BitUniverse - XRP/USDT

11. Select the amount you want to trade (Figure 8). In this case, I will trade all my XRP (~$32)

    

    Figure 8. BitUniverse - Amount to Trade

12. In some cases, BitUniverse will need to sell some of your crypto to start the grids (Figure 9).

    

    Figure 9. BitUniverse - Start Grid

13. Keep an eye on your grid profits. You want to make sure the profits are greater than the trading fee multiplied by 2 (Figure 10). In the case of Kucoin the fee is .1 Maker/Taker. Therefore, the grid profit needs to be at least .2 to not lose money.

    

    Figure 10. Grid Profit

Your Automated Grid Trading is now running. Be sure to keep a sharp eye on the grid profits. In Figure 10, you will notice that my current trade is losing money. In this case I will let it run for some time (a day or 2) and see if the grid profits will increase.

Disclaimer: Trading and investing in cryptocurrency involves risk. Investing in crypto is not suitable for every investor. This is article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. I am just learning about crypto and am sharing my experiences.

References:

A Quick Guide to Automated Bot Trading

Crypto Trading Bots · A helpful guide for beginners 2019

Best Grid Trading Bot in Swinging Market

Photo by André François McKenzie on Unsplash