stable/docs/configuration.md

Configure the bot

Freqtrade has many configurable features and possibilities. By default, these settings are configured via the configuration file (see below).

The Freqtrade configuration file

The bot uses a set of configuration parameters during its operation that all together conform to the bot configuration. It normally reads its configuration from a file (Freqtrade configuration file).

Per default, the bot loads the configuration from the config.json file, located in the current working directory.

You can specify a different configuration file used by the bot with the -c/--config command-line option.

If you used the Quick start method for installing the bot, the installation script should have already created the default configuration file (config.json) for you.

If the default configuration file is not created we recommend to use freqtrade new-config --config config.json to generate a basic configuration file.

The Freqtrade configuration file is to be written in JSON format.

Additionally to the standard JSON syntax, you may use one-line // ... and multi-line /* ... */ comments in your configuration files and trailing commas in the lists of parameters.

Do not worry if you are not familiar with JSON format -- simply open the configuration file with an editor of your choice, make some changes to the parameters you need, save your changes and, finally, restart the bot or, if it was previously stopped, run it again with the changes you made to the configuration. The bot validates the syntax of the configuration file at startup and will warn you if you made any errors editing it, pointing out problematic lines.

Environment variables

Set options in the Freqtrade configuration via environment variables. This takes priority over the corresponding value in configuration or strategy.

Environment variables must be prefixed with FREQTRADE__ to be loaded to the freqtrade configuration.

__ serves as level separator, so the format used should correspond to FREQTRADE__{section}__{key}. As such - an environment variable defined as export FREQTRADE__STAKE_AMOUNT=200 would result in {stake_amount: 200}.

A more complex example might be export FREQTRADE__EXCHANGE__KEY=<yourExchangeKey> to keep your exchange key secret. This will move the value to the exchange.key section of the configuration. Using this scheme, all configuration settings will also be available as environment variables.

Please note that Environment variables will overwrite corresponding settings in your configuration, but command line Arguments will always win.

Common example:

FREQTRADE__TELEGRAM__CHAT_ID=<telegramchatid>
FREQTRADE__TELEGRAM__TOKEN=<telegramToken>
FREQTRADE__EXCHANGE__KEY=<yourExchangeKey>
FREQTRADE__EXCHANGE__SECRET=<yourExchangeSecret>

!!! Note Environment variables detected are logged at startup - so if you can't find why a value is not what you think it should be based on the configuration, make sure it's not loaded from an environment variable.

Multiple configuration files

Multiple configuration files can be specified and used by the bot or the bot can read its configuration parameters from the process standard input stream.

!!! Tip "Use multiple configuration files to keep secrets secret" You can use a 2nd configuration file containing your secrets. That way you can share your "primary" configuration file, while still keeping your API keys for yourself.

``` bash
freqtrade trade --config user_data/config.json --config user_data/config-private.json <...>
```
The 2nd file should only specify what you intend to override.
If a key is in more than one of the configurations, then the "last specified configuration" wins (in the above example, `config-private.json`).

Configuration parameters

The table below will list all configuration parameters available.

Freqtrade can also load many options via command line (CLI) arguments (check out the commands --help output for details). The prevalence for all Options is as follows:

• CLI arguments override any other option
• Environment Variables
• Configuration files are used in sequence (the last file wins) and override Strategy configurations.
• Strategy configurations are only used if they are not set via configuration or command-line arguments. These options are marked with Strategy Override in the below table.

Mandatory parameters are marked as Required, which means that they are required to be set in one of the possible ways.

Parameter	Description
max_open_trades	Required. Number of open trades your bot is allowed to have. Only one open trade per pair is possible, so the length of your pairlist is another limitation that can apply. If -1 then it is ignored (i.e. potentially unlimited open trades, limited by the pairlist). More information below. Datatype: Positive integer or -1.
stake_currency	Required. Crypto-currency used for trading. Datatype: String
stake_amount	Required. Amount of crypto-currency your bot will use for each trade. Set it to "unlimited" to allow the bot to use all available balance. More information below. Datatype: Positive float or "unlimited".
tradable_balance_ratio	Ratio of the total account balance the bot is allowed to trade. More information below. Defaults to 0.99 99%). Datatype: Positive float between 0.1 and 1.0.
available_capital	Available starting capital for the bot. Useful when running multiple bots on the same exchange account.More information below. Datatype: Positive float.
amend_last_stake_amount	Use reduced last stake amount if necessary. More information below. Defaults to false. Datatype: Boolean
last_stake_amount_min_ratio	Defines minimum stake amount that has to be left and executed. Applies only to the last stake amount when it's amended to a reduced value (i.e. if amend_last_stake_amount is set to true). More information below. Defaults to 0.5. Datatype: Float (as ratio)
amount_reserve_percent	Reserve some amount in min pair stake amount. The bot will reserve amount_reserve_percent + stoploss value when calculating min pair stake amount in order to avoid possible trade refusals. Defaults to 0.05 (5%). Datatype: Positive Float as ratio.
timeframe	The timeframe (former ticker interval) to use (e.g 1m, 5m, 15m, 30m, 1h ...). Strategy Override. Datatype: String
fiat_display_currency	Fiat currency used to show your profits. More information below. Datatype: String
dry_run	Required. Define if the bot must be in Dry Run or production mode. Defaults to true. Datatype: Boolean
dry_run_wallet	Define the starting amount in stake currency for the simulated wallet used by the bot running in Dry Run mode. Defaults to 1000. Datatype: Float
cancel_open_orders_on_exit	Cancel open orders when the /stop RPC command is issued, Ctrl+C is pressed or the bot dies unexpectedly. When set to true, this allows you to use /stop to cancel unfilled and partially filled orders in the event of a market crash. It does not impact open positions. Defaults to false. Datatype: Boolean
process_only_new_candles	Enable processing of indicators only when new candles arrive. If false each loop populates the indicators, this will mean the same candle is processed many times creating system load but can be useful of your strategy depends on tick data not only candle. Strategy Override. Defaults to false. Datatype: Boolean
minimal_roi	Required. Set the threshold as ratio the bot will use to sell a trade. More information below. Strategy Override. Datatype: Dict
stoploss	Required. Value as ratio of the stoploss used by the bot. More details in the stoploss documentation. Strategy Override. Datatype: Float (as ratio)
trailing_stop	Enables trailing stoploss (based on stoploss in either configuration or strategy file). More details in the stoploss documentation. Strategy Override. Datatype: Boolean
trailing_stop_positive	Changes stoploss once profit has been reached. More details in the stoploss documentation. Strategy Override. Datatype: Float
trailing_stop_positive_offset	Offset on when to apply trailing_stop_positive. Percentage value which should be positive. More details in the stoploss documentation. Strategy Override. Defaults to 0.0 (no offset). Datatype: Float
trailing_only_offset_is_reached	Only apply trailing stoploss when the offset is reached. stoploss documentation. Strategy Override. Defaults to false. Datatype: Boolean
fee	Fee used during backtesting / dry-runs. Should normally not be configured, which has freqtrade fall back to the exchange default fee. Set as ratio (e.g. 0.001 = 0.1%). Fee is applied twice for each trade, once when buying, once when selling. Datatype: Float (as ratio)
trading_mode	Specifies if you want to trade regularly, trade with leverage, or trade contracts whose prices are derived from matching cryptocurrency prices. leverage documentation. Defaults to "spot". Datatype: String
collateral	When trading with leverage, this determines if the collateral owned by the trader will be shared or isolated to each trading pair leverage documentation. Datatype: String
unfilledtimeout.buy	Required. How long (in minutes or seconds) the bot will wait for an unfilled buy order to complete, after which the order will be cancelled and repeated at current (new) price, as long as there is a signal. Strategy Override. Datatype: Integer
unfilledtimeout.sell	Required. How long (in minutes or seconds) the bot will wait for an unfilled sell order to complete, after which the order will be cancelled and repeated at current (new) price, as long as there is a signal. Strategy Override. Datatype: Integer
unfilledtimeout.unit	Unit to use in unfilledtimeout setting. Note: If you set unfilledtimeout.unit to "seconds", "internals.process_throttle_secs" must be inferior or equal to timeout Strategy Override. Defaults to minutes. Datatype: String
unfilledtimeout.exit_timeout_count	How many times can exit orders time out. Once this number of timeouts is reached, an emergency sell is triggered. 0 to disable and allow unlimited order cancels. Strategy Override. Defaults to 0. Datatype: Integer
bid_strategy.price_side	Select the side of the spread the bot should look at to get the buy rate. More information below. Defaults to bid. Datatype: String (either ask or bid).
bid_strategy.ask_last_balance	Required. Interpolate the bidding price. More information below.
bid_strategy.use_order_book	Enable buying using the rates in Order Book Bids. Datatype: Boolean
bid_strategy.order_book_top	Bot will use the top N rate in Order Book "price_side" to buy. I.e. a value of 2 will allow the bot to pick the 2nd bid rate in Order Book Bids. Defaults to 1. Datatype: Positive Integer
bid_strategy. check_depth_of_market.enabled	Do not buy if the difference of buy orders and sell orders is met in Order Book. Check market depth. Defaults to false. Datatype: Boolean
bid_strategy. check_depth_of_market.bids_to_ask_delta	The difference ratio of buy orders and sell orders found in Order Book. A value below 1 means sell order size is greater, while value greater than 1 means buy order size is higher. Check market depth Defaults to 0. Datatype: Float (as ratio)
ask_strategy.price_side	Select the side of the spread the bot should look at to get the sell rate. More information below. Defaults to ask. Datatype: String (either ask or bid).
ask_strategy.bid_last_balance	Interpolate the selling price. More information below.
ask_strategy.use_order_book	Enable selling of open trades using Order Book Asks. Datatype: Boolean
ask_strategy.order_book_top	Bot will use the top N rate in Order Book "price_side" to sell. I.e. a value of 2 will allow the bot to pick the 2nd ask rate in Order Book Asks Defaults to 1. Datatype: Positive Integer
use_sell_signal	Use sell signals produced by the strategy in addition to the minimal_roi. Strategy Override. Defaults to true. Datatype: Boolean
sell_profit_only	Wait until the bot reaches sell_profit_offset before taking a sell decision. Strategy Override. Defaults to false. Datatype: Boolean
sell_profit_offset	Sell-signal is only active above this value. Only active in combination with sell_profit_only=True. Strategy Override. Defaults to 0.0. Datatype: Float (as ratio)
ignore_roi_if_buy_signal	Do not sell if the buy signal is still active. This setting takes preference over minimal_roi and use_sell_signal. Strategy Override. Defaults to false. Datatype: Boolean
ignore_buying_expired_candle_after	Specifies the number of seconds until a buy signal is no longer used. Datatype: Integer
order_types	Configure order-types depending on the action ("buy", "sell", "stoploss", "stoploss_on_exchange"). More information below. Strategy Override. Datatype: Dict
order_time_in_force	Configure time in force for buy and sell orders. More information below. Strategy Override. Datatype: Dict
custom_price_max_distance_ratio	Configure maximum distance ratio between current and custom entry or exit price. Defaults to 0.02 2%). Datatype: Positive float
exchange.name	Required. Name of the exchange class to use. List below. Datatype: String
exchange.sandbox	Use the 'sandbox' version of the exchange, where the exchange provides a sandbox for risk-free integration. See here in more details. Datatype: Boolean
exchange.key	API key to use for the exchange. Only required when you are in production mode. Keep it in secret, do not disclose publicly. Datatype: String
exchange.secret	API secret to use for the exchange. Only required when you are in production mode. Keep it in secret, do not disclose publicly. Datatype: String
exchange.password	API password to use for the exchange. Only required when you are in production mode and for exchanges that use password for API requests. Keep it in secret, do not disclose publicly. Datatype: String
exchange.uid	API uid to use for the exchange. Only required when you are in production mode and for exchanges that use uid for API requests. Keep it in secret, do not disclose publicly. Datatype: String
exchange.pair_whitelist	List of pairs to use by the bot for trading and to check for potential trades during backtesting. Supports regex pairs as .*/BTC. Not used by VolumePairList. More information. Datatype: List
exchange.pair_blacklist	List of pairs the bot must absolutely avoid for trading and backtesting. More information. Datatype: List
exchange.ccxt_config	Additional CCXT parameters passed to both ccxt instances (sync and async). This is usually the correct place for additional ccxt configurations. Parameters may differ from exchange to exchange and are documented in the ccxt documentation. Please avoid adding exchange secrets here (use the dedicated fields instead), as they may be contained in logs. Datatype: Dict
exchange.ccxt_sync_config	Additional CCXT parameters passed to the regular (sync) ccxt instance. Parameters may differ from exchange to exchange and are documented in the ccxt documentation Datatype: Dict
exchange.ccxt_async_config	Additional CCXT parameters passed to the async ccxt instance. Parameters may differ from exchange to exchange and are documented in the ccxt documentation Datatype: Dict
exchange.markets_refresh_interval	The interval in minutes in which markets are reloaded. Defaults to 60 minutes. Datatype: Positive Integer
exchange.skip_pair_validation	Skip pairlist validation on startup. *Defaults to false Datatype: Boolean
exchange.skip_open_order_update	Skips open order updates on startup should the exchange cause problems. Only relevant in live conditions. *Defaults to false Datatype: Boolean
exchange.unknown_fee_rate	Fallback value to use when calculating trading fees. This can be useful for exchanges which have fees in non-tradable currencies. The value provided here will be multiplied with the "fee cost". *Defaults to None Datatype: float
exchange.log_responses	Log relevant exchange responses. For debug mode only - use with care. *Defaults to false Datatype: Boolean
edge.*	Please refer to edge configuration document for detailed explanation.
experimental.block_bad_exchanges	Block exchanges known to not work with freqtrade. Leave on default unless you want to test if that exchange works now. Defaults to true. Datatype: Boolean
pairlists	Define one or more pairlists to be used. More information. Defaults to StaticPairList. Datatype: List of Dicts
protections	Define one or more protections to be used. More information. Datatype: List of Dicts
telegram.enabled	Enable the usage of Telegram. Datatype: Boolean
telegram.token	Your Telegram bot token. Only required if telegram.enabled is true. Keep it in secret, do not disclose publicly. Datatype: String
telegram.chat_id	Your personal Telegram account id. Only required if telegram.enabled is true. Keep it in secret, do not disclose publicly. Datatype: String
telegram.balance_dust_level	Dust-level (in stake currency) - currencies with a balance below this will not be shown by /balance. Datatype: float
webhook.enabled	Enable usage of Webhook notifications Datatype: Boolean
webhook.url	URL for the webhook. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentation for more details. Datatype: String
webhook.webhookbuy	Payload to send on buy. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentation for more details. Datatype: String
webhook.webhookbuycancel	Payload to send on buy order cancel. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentation for more details. Datatype: String
webhook.webhooksell	Payload to send on sell. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentation for more details. Datatype: String
webhook.webhooksellcancel	Payload to send on sell order cancel. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentation for more details. Datatype: String
webhook.webhookstatus	Payload to send on status calls. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentation for more details. Datatype: String
api_server.enabled	Enable usage of API Server. See the API Server documentation for more details. Datatype: Boolean
api_server.listen_ip_address	Bind IP address. See the API Server documentation for more details. Datatype: IPv4
api_server.listen_port	Bind Port. See the API Server documentation for more details. Datatype: Integer between 1024 and 65535
api_server.verbosity	Logging verbosity. info will print all RPC Calls, while "error" will only display errors. Datatype: Enum, either info or error. Defaults to info.
api_server.username	Username for API server. See the API Server documentation for more details. Keep it in secret, do not disclose publicly. Datatype: String
api_server.password	Password for API server. See the API Server documentation for more details. Keep it in secret, do not disclose publicly. Datatype: String
bot_name	Name of the bot. Passed via API to a client - can be shown to distinguish / name bots. Defaults to freqtrade Datatype: String
db_url	Declares database URL to use. NOTE: This defaults to sqlite:///tradesv3.dryrun.sqlite if dry_run is true, and to sqlite:///tradesv3.sqlite for production instances. Datatype: String, SQLAlchemy connect string
initial_state	Defines the initial application state. If set to stopped, then the bot has to be explicitly started via /start RPC command. Defaults to stopped. Datatype: Enum, either stopped or running
forcebuy_enable	Enables the RPC Commands to force a buy. More information below. Datatype: Boolean
disable_dataframe_checks	Disable checking the OHLCV dataframe returned from the strategy methods for correctness. Only use when intentionally changing the dataframe and understand what you are doing. Strategy Override. Defaults to False. Datatype: Boolean
strategy	Required Defines Strategy class to use. Recommended to be set via --strategy NAME. Datatype: ClassName
strategy_path	Adds an additional strategy lookup path (must be a directory). Datatype: String
internals.process_throttle_secs	Set the process throttle, or minimum loop duration for one bot iteration loop. Value in second. Defaults to 5 seconds. Datatype: Positive Integer
internals.heartbeat_interval	Print heartbeat message every N seconds. Set to 0 to disable heartbeat messages. Defaults to 60 seconds. Datatype: Positive Integer or 0
internals.sd_notify	Enables use of the sd_notify protocol to tell systemd service manager about changes in the bot state and issue keep-alive pings. See here for more details. Datatype: Boolean
logfile	Specifies logfile name. Uses a rolling strategy for log file rotation for 10 files with the 1MB limit per file. Datatype: String
user_data_dir	Directory containing user data. Defaults to ./user_data/. Datatype: String
dataformat_ohlcv	Data format to use to store historical candle (OHLCV) data. Defaults to json. Datatype: String
dataformat_trades	Data format to use to store historical trades data. Defaults to jsongz. Datatype: String
position_adjustment_enable	Enables the strategy to use position adjustments (additional buys or sells). More information here. Strategy Override. Defaults to false. Datatype: Boolean

Parameters in the strategy

The following parameters can be set in the configuration file or strategy. Values set in the configuration file always overwrite values set in the strategy.

• minimal_roi
• timeframe
• stoploss
• trailing_stop
• trailing_stop_positive
• trailing_stop_positive_offset
• trailing_only_offset_is_reached
• use_custom_stoploss
• process_only_new_candles
• order_types
• order_time_in_force
• unfilledtimeout
• disable_dataframe_checks
• use_sell_signal
• sell_profit_only
• sell_profit_offset
• ignore_roi_if_buy_signal
• ignore_buying_expired_candle_after
• position_adjustment_enable

Configuring amount per trade

There are several methods to configure how much of the stake currency the bot will use to enter a trade. All methods respect the available balance configuration as explained below.

Minimum trade stake

The minimum stake amount will depend on exchange and pair and is usually listed in the exchange support pages.

Assuming the minimum tradable amount for XRP/USD is 20 XRP (given by the exchange), and the price is 0.6$, the minimum stake amount to buy this pair is 20 * 0.6 ~= 12. This exchange has also a limit on USD - where all orders must be > 10$ - which however does not apply in this case.

To guarantee safe execution, freqtrade will not allow buying with a stake-amount of 10.1$, instead, it'll make sure that there's enough space to place a stoploss below the pair (+ an offset, defined by amount_reserve_percent, which defaults to 5%).

With a reserve of 5%, the minimum stake amount would be ~12.6$ (12 * (1 + 0.05)). If we take into account a stoploss of 10% on top of that - we'd end up with a value of ~14$ (12.6 / (1 - 0.1)).

To limit this calculation in case of large stoploss values, the calculated minimum stake-limit will never be more than 50% above the real limit.

!!! Warning Since the limits on exchanges are usually stable and are not updated often, some pairs can show pretty high minimum limits, simply because the price increased a lot since the last limit adjustment by the exchange. Freqtrade adjusts the stake-amount to this value, unless it's > 30% more than the calculated/desired stake-amount - in which case the trade is rejected.

Tradable balance

By default, the bot assumes that the complete amount - 1% is at it's disposal, and when using dynamic stake amount, it will split the complete balance into max_open_trades buckets per trade. Freqtrade will reserve 1% for eventual fees when entering a trade and will therefore not touch that by default.

You can configure the "untouched" amount by using the tradable_balance_ratio setting.

For example, if you have 10 ETH available in your wallet on the exchange and tradable_balance_ratio=0.5 (which is 50%), then the bot will use a maximum amount of 5 ETH for trading and considers this as an available balance. The rest of the wallet is untouched by the trades.

!!! Danger This setting should not be used when running multiple bots on the same account. Please look at Available Capital to the bot instead.

!!! Warning The tradable_balance_ratio setting applies to the current balance (free balance + tied up in trades). Therefore, assuming the starting balance of 1000, a configuration with tradable_balance_ratio=0.99 will not guarantee that 10 currency units will always remain available on the exchange. For example, the free amount may reduce to 5 units if the total balance is reduced to 500 (either by a losing streak or by withdrawing balance).

Assign available Capital

To fully utilize compounding profits when using multiple bots on the same exchange account, you'll want to limit each bot to a certain starting balance. This can be accomplished by setting available_capital to the desired starting balance.

Assuming your account has 10.000 USDT and you want to run 2 different strategies on this exchange. You'd set available_capital=5000 - granting each bot an initial capital of 5000 USDT. The bot will then split this starting balance equally into max_open_trades buckets. Profitable trades will result in increased stake-sizes for this bot - without affecting the stake-sizes of the other bot.

!!! Warning "Incompatible with tradable_balance_ratio" Setting this option will replace any configuration of tradable_balance_ratio.

Amend last stake amount

Assuming we have the tradable balance of 1000 USDT, stake_amount=400, and max_open_trades=3. The bot would open 2 trades and will be unable to fill the last trading slot, since the requested 400 USDT are no longer available since 800 USDT are already tied in other trades.

To overcome this, the option amend_last_stake_amount can be set to True, which will enable the bot to reduce stake_amount to the available balance to fill the last trade slot.

In the example above this would mean:

• Trade1: 400 USDT
• Trade2: 400 USDT
• Trade3: 200 USDT

!!! Note This option only applies with Static stake amount - since Dynamic stake amount divides the balances evenly.

!!! Note The minimum last stake amount can be configured using last_stake_amount_min_ratio - which defaults to 0.5 (50%). This means that the minimum stake amount that's ever used is stake_amount * 0.5. This avoids very low stake amounts, that are close to the minimum tradable amount for the pair and can be refused by the exchange.

Static stake amount

The stake_amount configuration statically configures the amount of stake-currency your bot will use for each trade.

The minimal configuration value is 0.0001, however, please check your exchange's trading minimums for the stake currency you're using to avoid problems.

This setting works in combination with max_open_trades. The maximum capital engaged in trades is stake_amount * max_open_trades. For example, the bot will at most use (0.05 BTC x 3) = 0.15 BTC, assuming a configuration of max_open_trades=3 and stake_amount=0.05.

!!! Note This setting respects the available balance configuration.

Dynamic stake amount

Alternatively, you can use a dynamic stake amount, which will use the available balance on the exchange, and divide that equally by the number of allowed trades (max_open_trades).

To configure this, set stake_amount="unlimited". We also recommend to set tradable_balance_ratio=0.99 (99%) - to keep a minimum balance for eventual fees.

In this case a trade amount is calculated as:

currency_balance / (max_open_trades - current_open_trades)

To allow the bot to trade all the available stake_currency in your account (minus tradable_balance_ratio) set

"stake_amount" : "unlimited",
"tradable_balance_ratio": 0.99,

!!! Tip "Compounding profits" This configuration will allow increasing/decreasing stakes depending on the performance of the bot (lower stake if the bot is losing, higher stakes if the bot has a winning record since higher balances are available), and will result in profit compounding.

!!! Note "When using Dry-Run Mode" When using "stake_amount" : "unlimited", in combination with Dry-Run, Backtesting or Hyperopt, the balance will be simulated starting with a stake of dry_run_wallet which will evolve. It is therefore important to set dry_run_wallet to a sensible value (like 0.05 or 0.01 for BTC and 1000 or 100 for USDT, for example), otherwise, it may simulate trades with 100 BTC (or more) or 0.05 USDT (or less) at once - which may not correspond to your real available balance or is less than the exchange minimal limit for the order amount for the stake currency.

Dynamic stake amount with position adjustment

When you want to use position adjustment with unlimited stakes, you must also implement custom_stake_amount to a return a value depending on your strategy. Typical value would be in the range of 25% - 50% of the proposed stakes, but depends highly on your strategy and how much you wish to leave into the wallet as position adjustment buffer.

For example if your position adjustment assumes it can do 2 additional buys with the same stake amounts then your buffer should be 66.6667% of the initially proposed unlimited stake amount.

Or another example if your position adjustment assumes it can do 1 additional buy with 3x the original stake amount then custom_stake_amount should return 25% of proposed stake amount and leave 75% for possible later position adjustments.

--8<-- "includes/pricing.md"

Understand minimal_roi

The minimal_roi configuration parameter is a JSON object where the key is a duration in minutes and the value is the minimum ROI as a ratio. See the example below:

"minimal_roi": {
    "40": 0.0,    # Sell after 40 minutes if the profit is not negative
    "30": 0.01,   # Sell after 30 minutes if there is at least 1% profit
    "20": 0.02,   # Sell after 20 minutes if there is at least 2% profit
    "0":  0.04    # Sell immediately if there is at least 4% profit
},

Most of the strategy files already include the optimal minimal_roi value. This parameter can be set in either Strategy or Configuration file. If you use it in the configuration file, it will override the minimal_roi value from the strategy file. If it is not set in either Strategy or Configuration, a default of 1000% {"0": 10} is used, and minimal ROI is disabled unless your trade generates 1000% profit.

!!! Note "Special case to forcesell after a specific time" A special case presents using "<N>": -1 as ROI. This forces the bot to sell a trade after N Minutes, no matter if it's positive or negative, so represents a time-limited force-sell.

Understand forcebuy_enable

The forcebuy_enable configuration parameter enables the usage of forcebuy commands via Telegram and REST API. For security reasons, it's disabled by default, and freqtrade will show a warning message on startup if enabled. For example, you can send /forcebuy ETH/BTC to the bot, which will result in freqtrade buying the pair and holds it until a regular sell-signal (ROI, stoploss, /forcesell) appears.

This can be dangerous with some strategies, so use with care.

See the telegram documentation for details on usage.

Ignoring expired candles

When working with larger timeframes (for example 1h or more) and using a low max_open_trades value, the last candle can be processed as soon as a trade slot becomes available. When processing the last candle, this can lead to a situation where it may not be desirable to use the buy signal on that candle. For example, when using a condition in your strategy where you use a cross-over, that point may have passed too long ago for you to start a trade on it.

In these situations, you can enable the functionality to ignore candles that are beyond a specified period by setting ignore_buying_expired_candle_after to a positive number, indicating the number of seconds after which the buy signal becomes expired.

For example, if your strategy is using a 1h timeframe, and you only want to buy within the first 5 minutes when a new candle comes in, you can add the following configuration to your strategy:

  {
    //...
    "ignore_buying_expired_candle_after": 300,
    // ...
  }

!!! Note This setting resets with each new candle, so it will not prevent sticking-signals from executing on the 2nd or 3rd candle they're active. Best use a "trigger" selector for buy signals, which are only active for one candle.

Understand order_types

The order_types configuration parameter maps actions (buy, sell, stoploss, emergencysell, forcesell, forcebuy) to order-types (market, limit, ...) as well as configures stoploss to be on the exchange and defines stoploss on exchange update interval in seconds.

This allows to buy using limit orders, sell using limit-orders, and create stoplosses using market orders. It also allows to set the stoploss "on exchange" which means stoploss order would be placed immediately once the buy order is fulfilled.

order_types set in the configuration file overwrites values set in the strategy as a whole, so you need to configure the whole order_types dictionary in one place.

If this is configured, the following 4 values (buy, sell, stoploss and stoploss_on_exchange) need to be present, otherwise, the bot will fail to start.

For information on (emergencysell,forcesell, forcebuy, stoploss_on_exchange,stoploss_on_exchange_interval,stoploss_on_exchange_limit_ratio) please see stop loss documentation stop loss on exchange

Syntax for Strategy:

order_types = {
    "buy": "limit",
    "sell": "limit",
    "emergencysell": "market",
    "forcebuy": "market",
    "forcesell": "market",
    "stoploss": "market",
    "stoploss_on_exchange": False,
    "stoploss_on_exchange_interval": 60,
    "stoploss_on_exchange_limit_ratio": 0.99,
}

Configuration:

"order_types": {
    "buy": "limit",
    "sell": "limit",
    "emergencysell": "market",
    "forcebuy": "market",
    "forcesell": "market",
    "stoploss": "market",
    "stoploss_on_exchange": false,
    "stoploss_on_exchange_interval": 60
}

!!! Note "Market order support" Not all exchanges support "market" orders. The following message will be shown if your exchange does not support market orders: "Exchange <yourexchange> does not support market orders." and the bot will refuse to start.

!!! Warning "Using market orders" Please carefully read the section Market order pricing section when using market orders.

!!! Note "Stoploss on exchange" stoploss_on_exchange_interval is not mandatory. Do not change its value if you are unsure of what you are doing. For more information about how stoploss works please refer to the stoploss documentation.

If `stoploss_on_exchange` is enabled and the stoploss is cancelled manually on the exchange, then the bot will create a new stoploss order.

!!! Warning "Warning: stoploss_on_exchange failures" If stoploss on exchange creation fails for some reason, then an "emergency sell" is initiated. By default, this will sell the asset using a market order. The order-type for the emergency-sell can be changed by setting the emergencysell value in the order_types dictionary - however, this is not advised.

Understand order_time_in_force

The order_time_in_force configuration parameter defines the policy by which the order is executed on the exchange. Three commonly used time in force are:

GTC (Good Till Canceled):

This is most of the time the default time in force. It means the order will remain on exchange till it is cancelled by the user. It can be fully or partially fulfilled. If partially fulfilled, the remaining will stay on the exchange till cancelled.

FOK (Fill Or Kill):

It means if the order is not executed immediately AND fully then it is cancelled by the exchange.

IOC (Immediate Or Canceled):

It is the same as FOK (above) except it can be partially fulfilled. The remaining part is automatically cancelled by the exchange.

The order_time_in_force parameter contains a dict with buy and sell time in force policy values. This can be set in the configuration file or in the strategy. Values set in the configuration file overwrites values set in the strategy.

The possible values are: gtc (default), fok or ioc.

"order_time_in_force": {
    "buy": "gtc",
    "sell": "gtc"
},

!!! Warning This is ongoing work. For now, it is supported only for binance and kucoin. Please don't change the default value unless you know what you are doing and have researched the impact of using different values for your particular exchange.

What values can be used for fiat_display_currency?

The fiat_display_currency configuration parameter sets the base currency to use for the conversion from coin to fiat in the bot Telegram reports.

The valid values are:

"AUD", "BRL", "CAD", "CHF", "CLP", "CNY", "CZK", "DKK", "EUR", "GBP", "HKD", "HUF", "IDR", "ILS", "INR", "JPY", "KRW", "MXN", "MYR", "NOK", "NZD", "PHP", "PKR", "PLN", "RUB", "SEK", "SGD", "THB", "TRY", "TWD", "ZAR", "USD"

In addition to fiat currencies, a range of crypto currencies is supported.

The valid values are:

"BTC", "ETH", "XRP", "LTC", "BCH", "USDT"

Using Dry-run mode

We recommend starting the bot in the Dry-run mode to see how your bot will behave and what is the performance of your strategy. In the Dry-run mode, the bot does not engage your money. It only runs a live simulation without creating trades on the exchange.

1. Edit your config.json configuration file.
2. Switch dry-run to true and specify db_url for a persistence database.

"dry_run": true,
"db_url": "sqlite:///tradesv3.dryrun.sqlite",

3. Remove your Exchange API key and secret (change them by empty values or fake credentials):

"exchange": {
    "name": "bittrex",
    "key": "key",
    "secret": "secret",
    ...
}

Once you will be happy with your bot performance running in the Dry-run mode, you can switch it to production mode.

!!! Note A simulated wallet is available during dry-run mode and will assume a starting capital of dry_run_wallet (defaults to 1000).

Considerations for dry-run

• API-keys may or may not be provided. Only Read-Only operations (i.e. operations that do not alter account state) on the exchange are performed in dry-run mode.
• Wallets (/balance) are simulated based on dry_run_wallet.
• Orders are simulated, and will not be posted to the exchange.
• Market orders fill based on orderbook volume the moment the order is placed.
• Limit orders fill once the price reaches the defined level - or time out based on unfilledtimeout settings.
• In combination with stoploss_on_exchange, the stop_loss price is assumed to be filled.
• Open orders (not trades, which are stored in the database) are reset on bot restart.

Switch to production mode

In production mode, the bot will engage your money. Be careful, since a wrong strategy can lose all your money. Be aware of what you are doing when you run it in production mode.

When switching to Production mode, please make sure to use a different / fresh database to avoid dry-run trades messing with your exchange money and eventually tainting your statistics.

Setup your exchange account

You will need to create API Keys (usually you get key and secret, some exchanges require an additional password) from the Exchange website and you'll need to insert this into the appropriate fields in the configuration or when asked by the freqtrade new-config command. API Keys are usually only required for live trading (trading for real money, bot running in "production mode", executing real orders on the exchange) and are not required for the bot running in dry-run (trade simulation) mode. When you set up the bot in dry-run mode, you may fill these fields with empty values.

To switch your bot in production mode

Edit your config.json file.

Switch dry-run to false and don't forget to adapt your database URL if set:

"dry_run": false,

Insert your Exchange API key (change them by fake API keys):

{
    "exchange": {
        "name": "bittrex",
        "key": "af8ddd35195e9dc500b9a6f799f6f5c93d89193b",
        "secret": "08a9dc6db3d7b53e1acebd9275677f4b0a04f1a5",
        //"password": "", // Optional, not needed by all exchanges)
        // ...
    }
    //...
}

You should also make sure to read the Exchanges section of the documentation to be aware of potential configuration details specific to your exchange.

!!! Hint "Keep your secrets secret" To keep your secrets secret, we recommend using a 2nd configuration for your API keys. Simply use the above snippet in a new configuration file (e.g. config-private.json) and keep your settings in this file. You can then start the bot with freqtrade trade --config user_data/config.json --config user_data/config-private.json <...> to have your keys loaded.

**NEVER** share your private configuration file or your exchange keys with anyone!

Using proxy with Freqtrade

To use a proxy with freqtrade, add the kwarg "aiohttp_trust_env"=true to the "ccxt_async_kwargs" dict in the exchange section of the configuration.

An example for this can be found in config_examples/config_full.example.json

"ccxt_async_config": {
    "aiohttp_trust_env": true
}

Then, export your proxy settings using the variables "HTTP_PROXY" and "HTTPS_PROXY" set to the appropriate values

export HTTP_PROXY="http://addr:port"
export HTTPS_PROXY="http://addr:port"
freqtrade

Next step

Now you have configured your config.json, the next step is to start your bot.