**For the following section we will use the [user_data/strategies/sample_strategy.py](https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade/blob/develop/freqtrade/templates/sample_strategy.py)
Buy and sell strategies need indicators. You can add more indicators by extending the list contained in the method `populate_indicators()` from your strategy file.
You should only add the indicators used in either `populate_buy_trend()`, `populate_sell_trend()`, or to populate another indicator, otherwise performance may suffer.
It's important to always return the dataframe without removing/modifying the columns `"open", "high", "low", "close", "volume"`, otherwise these fields would contain something unexpected.
Most indicators have an instable startup period, in which they are either not available (NaN), or the calculation is incorrect. This can lead to inconsistencies, since Freqtrade does not know how long this instable period should be.
If you receive a warning like `WARNING - Using 3 calls to get OHLCV. This can result in slower operations for the bot. Please check if you really need 1500 candles for your strategy` - you should consider if you really need this much historic data for your signals.
Having this will cause Freqtrade to make multiple calls for the same pair, which will obviously be slower than one network request.
As a consequence, Freqtrade will take longer to refresh candles - and should therefore be avoided if possible.
`startup_candle_count` should be below `ohlcv_candle_limit * 5` (which is 500 * 5 for most exchanges) - since only this amount of candles will be available during Dry-Run/Live Trade operations.
Assuming `startup_candle_count` is set to 100, backtesting knows it needs 100 candles to generate valid buy signals. It will load data from `20190101 - (100 * 5m)` - which is ~2018-12-31 15:30:00.
If this data is available, indicators will be calculated with this extended timerange. The instable startup period (up to 2019-01-01 00:00:00) will then be removed before starting backtesting.
If data for the startup period is not available, then the timerange will be adjusted to account for this startup period - so Backtesting would start at 2019-01-01 08:30:00.
Edit the method `populate_buy_trend()` in your strategy file to update your buy strategy.
It's important to always return the dataframe without removing/modifying the columns `"open", "high", "low", "close", "volume"`, otherwise these fields would contain something unexpected.
Buying requires sellers to buy from - therefore volume needs to be > 0 (`dataframe['volume'] > 0`) to make sure that the bot does not buy/sell in no-activity periods.
It's important to always return the dataframe without removing/modifying the columns `"open", "high", "low", "close", "volume"`, otherwise these fields would contain something unexpected.
It is of the following format, with the dict key (left side of the colon) being the minutes passed since the trade opened, and the value (right side of the colon) being the percentage.
If your exchange supports it, it's recommended to also set `"stoploss_on_exchange"` in the order_types dictionary, so your stoploss is on the exchange and cannot be missed due to network problems, high load or other reasons.
By default, freqtrade will attempt to load strategies from all `.py` files within `user_data/strategies`.
Assuming your strategy is called `AwesomeStrategy`, stored in the file `user_data/strategies/AwesomeStrategy.py`, then you can start freqtrade with `freqtrade trade --strategy AwesomeStrategy`.
Note that we're using the class-name, not the file name.
You can use `freqtrade list-strategies` to see a list of all strategies Freqtrade is able to load (all strategies in the correct folder).
It will also include a "status" field, highlighting potential problems.
??? Hint "Customize strategy directory"
You can use a different directory by using `--strategy-path user_data/otherPath`. This parameter is available to all commands that require a strategy.
OHLCV data for these pairs will be downloaded as part of the regular whitelist refresh process and is available via `DataProvider` just as other pairs (see below).
In most common case it is possible to easily define informative pairs by using a decorator. All decorated `populate_indicators_*` methods run in isolation,
not having access to data from other informative pairs, in the end all informative dataframes are merged and passed to main `populate_indicators()` method.
When hyperopting, use of hyperoptable parameter `.value` attribute is not supported. Please use `.range` attribute. See [optimizing an indicator parameter](hyperopt.md#optimizing-an-indicator-parameter)
:param timeframe: Informative timeframe. Must always be equal or higher than strategy timeframe.
:param asset: Informative asset, for example BTC, BTC/USDT, ETH/BTC. Do not specify to use
current pair.
:param fmt: Column format (str) or column formatter (callable(name, asset, timeframe)). When not
specified, defaults to:
* {base}_{quote}_{column}_{timeframe} if asset is specified.
* {column}_{timeframe} if asset is not specified.
Format string supports these format variables:
* {asset} - full name of the asset, for example 'BTC/USDT'.
* {base} - base currency in lower case, for example 'eth'.
* {BASE} - same as {base}, except in upper case.
* {quote} - quote currency in lower case, for example 'usdt'.
* {QUOTE} - same as {quote}, except in upper case.
* {column} - name of dataframe column.
* {timeframe} - timeframe of informative dataframe.
:param ffill: ffill dataframe after merging informative pair.
"""
```
??? Example "Fast and easy way to define informative pairs"
Most of the time we do not need power and flexibility offered by `merge_informative_pair()`, therefore we can use a decorator to quickly define informative pairs.
``` python
from datetime import datetime
from freqtrade.persistence import Trade
from freqtrade.strategy import IStrategy, informative
class AwesomeStrategy(IStrategy):
# This method is not required.
# def informative_pairs(self): ...
# Define informative upper timeframe for each pair. Decorators can be stacked on same
# method. Available in populate_indicators as 'rsi_30m' and 'rsi_1h'.
Do not use `@informative` decorator if you need to use data of one informative pair when generating another informative pair. Instead, define informative pairs
manually as described [in the DataProvider section](#complete-data-provider-sample).
!!! Note
Use string formatting when accessing informative dataframes of other pairs. This will allow easily changing stake currency in config without having to adjust strategy code.
Alternatively column renaming may be used to remove stake currency from column names: `@informative('1h', 'BTC/{stake}', fmt='{base}_{column}_{timeframe}')`.
!!! Warning "Duplicate method names"
Methods tagged with `@informative()` decorator must always have unique names! Re-using same name (for example when copy-pasting already defined informative method)
will overwrite previously defined method and not produce any errors due to limitations of Python programming language. In such cases you will find that indicators
created in earlier-defined methods are not available in the dataframe. Carefully review method names and make sure they are unique!
- [`available_pairs`](#available_pairs) - Property with tuples listing cached pairs with their timeframe (pair, timeframe).
- [`current_whitelist()`](#current_whitelist) - Returns a current list of whitelisted pairs. Useful for accessing dynamic whitelists (i.e. VolumePairlist)
- [`get_pair_dataframe(pair, timeframe)`](#get_pair_dataframepair-timeframe) - This is a universal method, which returns either historical data (for backtesting) or cached live data (for the Dry-Run and Live-Run modes).
- [`get_analyzed_dataframe(pair, timeframe)`](#get_analyzed_dataframepair-timeframe) - Returns the analyzed dataframe (after calling `populate_indicators()`, `populate_buy()`, `populate_sell()`) and the time of the latest analysis.
-`market(pair)` - Returns market data for the pair: fees, limits, precisions, activity flag, etc. See [ccxt documentation](https://github.com/ccxt/ccxt/wiki/Manual#markets) for more details on the Market data structure.
-`ohlcv(pair, timeframe)` - Currently cached candle (OHLCV) data for the pair, returns DataFrame or empty DataFrame.
- [`orderbook(pair, maximum)`](#orderbookpair-maximum) - Returns latest orderbook data for the pair, a dict with bids/asks with a total of `maximum` entries.
- [`ticker(pair)`](#tickerpair) - Returns current ticker data for the pair. See [ccxt documentation](https://github.com/ccxt/ccxt/wiki/Manual#price-tickers) for more details on the Ticker data structure.
Due to the limited available data, it's very difficult to resample `5m` candles into daily candles for use in a 14 day RSI. Most exchanges limit us to just 500 candles which effectively gives us around 1.74 daily candles. We need 14 days at least!
This method is used by freqtrade internally to determine the last signal.
It can also be used in specific callbacks to get the signal that caused the action (see [Advanced Strategy Documentation](strategy-advanced.md) for more details on available callbacks).
The orderbook structure is aligned with the order structure from [ccxt](https://github.com/ccxt/ccxt/wiki/Manual#order-book-structure), so the result will look as follows:
``` js
{
'bids': [
[ price, amount ], // [ float, float ]
[ price, amount ],
...
],
'asks': [
[ price, amount ],
[ price, amount ],
//...
],
//...
}
```
Therefore, using `ob['bids'][0][0]` as demonstrated above will result in using the best bid price. `ob['bids'][0][1]` would look at the amount at this orderbook position.
The order book is not part of the historic data which means backtesting and hyperopt will not work correctly if this method is used, as the method will return uptodate values.
Using informative timeframes smaller than the dataframe timeframe is not recommended with this method, as it will not use any of the additional information this would provide.
To use the more detailed information properly, more advanced methods should be applied (which are out of scope for freqtrade documentation, as it'll depend on the respective need).
Stoploss values returned from `custom_stoploss` must specify a percentage relative to `current_rate`, but sometimes you may want to specify a stoploss relative to the open price instead. `stoploss_from_open()` is a helper function to calculate a stoploss value that can be returned from `custom_stoploss` which will be equivalent to the desired percentage above the open price.
??? Example "Returning a stoploss relative to the open price from the custom stoploss function"
Say the open price was $100, and `current_price` is $121 (`current_profit` will be `0.21`).
If we want a stop price at 7% above the open price we can call `stoploss_from_open(0.07, current_profit)` which will return `0.1157024793`. 11.57% below $121 is $107, which is the same as 7% above $100.
Freqtrade locks pairs automatically for the current candle (until that candle is over) when a pair is sold, preventing an immediate re-buy of that pair.
Locked pairs will show the message `Pair <pair> is currently locked.`.
Freqtrade has an easy method to do this from within the strategy, by calling `self.lock_pair(pair, until, [reason])`.
`until` must be a datetime object in the future, after which trading will be re-enabled for that pair, while `reason` is an optional string detailing why the pair was locked.
Locked pairs will always be rounded up to the next candle. So assuming a `5m` timeframe, a lock with `until` set to 10:18 will lock the pair until the candle from 10:15-10:20 will be finished.
Printing more than a few rows is also possible (simply use `print(dataframe)` instead of `print(dataframe.tail())`), however not recommended, as that will be very verbose (~500 lines per pair every 5 seconds).
Backtesting analyzes the whole time-range at once for performance reasons. Because of this, strategy authors need to make sure that strategies do not look-ahead into the future.
This is a common pain-point, which can cause huge differences between backtesting and dry/live run methods, since they all use data which is not available during dry/live runs, so these strategies will perform well during backtesting, but will fail / perform badly in real conditions.
- don't use `shift(-1)`. This uses data from the future, which is not available.
- don't use `.iloc[-1]` or any other absolute position in the dataframe, this will be different between dry-run and backtesting.
- don't use `dataframe['volume'].mean()`. This uses the full DataFrame for backtesting, including data from the future. Use `dataframe['volume'].rolling(<window>).mean()` instead
- don't use `.resample('1h')`. This uses the left border of the interval, so moves data from an hour to the start of the hour. Use `.resample('1h', label='right')` instead.
To get additional Ideas for strategies, head over to the [strategy repository](https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade-strategies). Feel free to use them as they are - but results will depend on the current market situation, pairs used etc. - therefore please backtest the strategy for your exchange/desired pairs first, evaluate carefully, use at your own risk.
