diff --git a/freqtrade/configuration/configuration.py b/freqtrade/configuration/configuration.py
index 85a156fab..237346e37 100644
--- a/freqtrade/configuration/configuration.py
+++ b/freqtrade/configuration/configuration.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ This module contains the configuration class
 import logging
 import warnings
 from argparse import Namespace
-from typing import Any, Callable, Dict, Optional, List
+from typing import Any, Callable, Dict, List, Optional
 
 from freqtrade import OperationalException, constants
 from freqtrade.configuration.check_exchange import check_exchange
@@ -59,16 +59,16 @@ class Configuration(object):
             # Merge config options, overwriting old values
             config = deep_merge_dicts(load_config_file(path), config)
 
-        return config
-
-    def _normalize_config(self, config: Dict[str, Any]) -> None:
-        """
-        Make config more canonical -- i.e. for example add missing parts that we expect
-        to be normally in it...
-        """
+        # Normalize config
         if 'internals' not in config:
             config['internals'] = {}
 
+        # validate configuration before returning
+        logger.info('Validating configuration ...')
+        validate_config_schema(config)
+
+        return config
+
     def load_config(self) -> Dict[str, Any]:
         """
         Extract information for sys.argv and load the bot configuration
@@ -77,12 +77,6 @@ class Configuration(object):
         # Load all configs
         config: Dict[str, Any] = Configuration.from_files(self.args.config)
 
-        # Make resulting config more canonical
-        self._normalize_config(config)
-
-        logger.info('Validating configuration ...')
-        validate_config_schema(config)
-
         self._validate_config_consistency(config)
 
         self._process_common_options(config)