stable/docs/configuration.md

Configure the bot

This page explains how to configure your config.json file.

Table of Contents

• Bot commands
• Backtesting commands
• Hyperopt commands

Setup config.json

We recommend to copy and use the config.json.example as a template for your bot configuration.

The table below will list all configuration parameters.

Command	Default	Mandatory	Description
max_open_trades	3	Yes	Number of trades open your bot will have. If -1 then it is ignored (i.e. potentially unlimited open trades)
stake_currency	BTC	Yes	Crypto-currency used for trading.
stake_amount	0.05	Yes	Amount of crypto-currency your bot will use for each trade. Per default, the bot will use (0.05 BTC x 3) = 0.15 BTC in total will be always engaged. Set it to 'unlimited' to allow the bot to use all avaliable balance.
ticker_interval	[1m, 5m, 30m, 1h, 1d]	No	The ticker interval to use (1min, 5 min, 30 min, 1 hour or 1 day). Default is 5 minutes
fiat_display_currency	USD	Yes	Fiat currency used to show your profits. More information below.
dry_run	true	Yes	Define if the bot must be in Dry-run or production mode.
process_only_new_candles	false	No	If set to true indicators are processed only once a new candle arrives. 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. Can be set either in Configuration or in the strategy.
minimal_roi	See below	No	Set the threshold in percent the bot will use to sell a trade. More information below. If set, this parameter will override minimal_roi from your strategy file.
stoploss	-0.10	No	Value of the stoploss in percent used by the bot. More information below. If set, this parameter will override stoploss from your strategy file.
trailing_stop	false	No	Enables trailing stop-loss (based on stoploss in either configuration or strategy file).
trailing_stop_positve	0	No	Changes stop-loss once profit has been reached.
trailing_stop_positve_offset	0	No	Offset on when to apply trailing_stop_positive. Percentage value which should be positive.
unfilledtimeout.buy	10	Yes	How long (in minutes) the bot will wait for an unfilled buy order to complete, after which the order will be cancelled.
unfilledtimeout.sell	10	Yes	How long (in minutes) the bot will wait for an unfilled sell order to complete, after which the order will be cancelled.
bid_strategy.ask_last_balance	0.0	Yes	Set the bidding price. More information below.
bid_strategy.use_order_book	false	No	Allows buying of pair using the rates in Order Book Bids.
bid_strategy.order_book_top	0	No	Bot will use the top N rate in Order Book Bids. Ie. a value of 2 will allow the bot to pick the 2nd bid rate in Order Book Bids.
bid_strategy.check_depth_of_market.enabled	false	No	Does not buy if the % difference of buy orders and sell orders is met in Order Book.
bid_strategy.check_depth_of_market.bids_to_ask_delta	0	No	The % difference of buy orders and sell orders found in Order Book. A value lesser than 1 means sell orders is greater, while value greater than 1 means buy orders is higher.
ask_strategy.use_order_book	false	No	Allows selling of open traded pair using the rates in Order Book Asks.
ask_strategy.order_book_min	0	No	Bot will scan from the top min to max Order Book Asks searching for a profitable rate.
ask_strategy.order_book_max	0	No	Bot will scan from the top min to max Order Book Asks searching for a profitable rate.
order_types	None	No	Configure order-types depending on the action ("buy", "sell", "stoploss").
exchange.name	bittrex	Yes	Name of the exchange class to use. List below.
exchange.key	key	No	API key to use for the exchange. Only required when you are in production mode.
exchange.secret	secret	No	API secret to use for the exchange. Only required when you are in production mode.
exchange.pair_whitelist	[]	No	List of currency to use by the bot. Can be overrided with --dynamic-whitelist param.
exchange.pair_blacklist	[]	No	List of currency the bot must avoid. Useful when using --dynamic-whitelist param.
exchange.ccxt_rate_limit	True	No	DEPRECATED!! Have CCXT handle Exchange rate limits. Depending on the exchange, having this to false can lead to temporary bans from the exchange.
exchange.ccxt_config	None	No	Additional CCXT parameters passed to the regular ccxt instance. Parameters may differ from exchange to exchange and are documented in the ccxt documentation
exchange.ccxt_async_config	None	No	Additional CCXT parameters passed to the async ccxt instance. Parameters may differ from exchange to exchange and are documented in the ccxt documentation
edge	false	No	Please refer to edge configuration document for detailed explanation.
experimental.use_sell_signal	false	No	Use your sell strategy in addition of the minimal_roi.
experimental.sell_profit_only	false	No	waits until you have made a positive profit before taking a sell decision.
experimental.ignore_roi_if_buy_signal	false	No	Does not sell if the buy-signal is still active. Takes preference over minimal_roi and use_sell_signal
telegram.enabled	true	Yes	Enable or not the usage of Telegram.
telegram.token	token	No	Your Telegram bot token. Only required if telegram.enabled is true.
telegram.chat_id	chat_id	No	Your personal Telegram account id. Only required if telegram.enabled is true.
webhook.enabled	false	No	Enable usage of Webhook notifications
webhook.url	false	No	URL for the webhook. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentation for more details.
webhook.webhookbuy	false	No	Payload to send on buy. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentationV for more details.
webhook.webhooksell	false	No	Payload to send on sell. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentationV for more details.
webhook.webhookstatus	false	No	Payload to send on status calls. Only required if webhook.enabled is true. See the webhook documentationV for more details.
db_url	sqlite:///tradesv3.sqlite	No	Declares database URL to use. NOTE: This defaults to sqlite:// if dry_run is True.
initial_state	running	No	Defines the initial application state. More information below.
forcebuy_enable	false	No	Enables the RPC Commands to force a buy. More information below.
strategy	DefaultStrategy	No	Defines Strategy class to use.
strategy_path	null	No	Adds an additional strategy lookup path (must be a folder).
internals.process_throttle_secs	5	Yes	Set the process throttle. Value in second.

The definition of each config parameters is in misc.py.

Understand stake_amount

stake_amount is an amount of crypto-currency your bot will use for each trade. The minimal value is 0.0005. If there is not enough crypto-currency in the account an exception is generated. To allow the bot to trade all the avaliable stake_currency in your account set stake_amount = unlimited. In this case a trade amount is calclulated as currency_balanse / (max_open_trades - current_open_trades).

Understand minimal_roi

minimal_roi is a JSON object where the key is a duration in minutes and the value is the minimum ROI in percent. 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 is optional. If you use it, it will take over the minimal_roi value from the strategy file.

Understand stoploss

stoploss is loss in percentage that should trigger a sale. For example value -0.10 will cause immediate sell if the profit dips below -10% for a given trade. This parameter is optional.

Most of the strategy files already include the optimal stoploss value. This parameter is optional. If you use it, it will take over the stoploss value from the strategy file.

Understand trailing stoploss

Go to the trailing stoploss Documentation for details on trailing stoploss.

Understand initial_state

initial_state is an optional field that defines the initial application state. Possible values are running or stopped. (default=running) If the value is stopped the bot has to be started with /start first.

Understand forcebuy_enable

forcebuy_enable enables the usage of forcebuy commands via Telegram. This is disabled for security reasons by default, and will show a warning message on startup if enabled. You send /forcebuy ETH/BTC to the bot, who buys the pair and holds it until a regular sell-signal appears (ROI, stoploss, /forcesell).

Can be dangerous with some strategies, so use with care See the telegram documentation for details on usage.

Understand process_throttle_secs

process_throttle_secs is an optional field that defines in seconds how long the bot should wait before asking the strategy if we should buy or a sell an asset. After each wait period, the strategy is asked again for every opened trade wether or not we should sell, and for all the remaining pairs (either the dynamic list of pairs or the static list of pairs) if we should buy.

Understand ask_last_balance

ask_last_balance sets the bidding price. Value 0.0 will use ask price, 1.0 will use the last price and values between those interpolate between ask and last price. Using ask price will guarantee quick success in bid, but bot will also end up paying more then would probably have been necessary.

Understand order_types

order_types contains a dict mapping order-types to market-types. This allows to buy using limit orders, sell using limit-orders, and create stoploss orders using market. This can be set in the configuration or in the strategy. Configuration overwrites strategy configurations.

If this is configured, all 3 values ("buy", "sell" and "stoploss") need to be present, otherwise the bot warn about it and will fail to start. The below is the default which is used if this is not configured in either Strategy or configuration.

    "order_types": {
        "buy": "limit",
        "sell": "limit",
        "stoploss": "market"
    },

What values for exchange.name?

Freqtrade is based on CCXT library that supports 115 cryptocurrency exchange markets and trading APIs. The complete up-to-date list can be found in the CCXT repo homepage. However, the bot was tested with only Bittrex and Binance.

The bot was tested with the following exchanges:

• Bittrex: "bittrex"
• Binance: "binance"

Feel free to test other exchanges and submit your PR to improve the bot.

What values for fiat_display_currency?

fiat_display_currency set the base currency to use for the conversion from coin to fiat in Telegram. 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 central bank currencies, a range of cryto currencies are supported. The valid values are: "BTC", "ETH", "XRP", "LTC", "BCH", "USDT".

Switch to dry-run mode

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

To switch your bot in Dry-run mode:

1. Edit your config.json file
2. Switch dry-run to true and specify db_url for a persistent db

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

3. Remove your Exchange API key (change them by fake api credentials)

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

Once you will be happy with your bot performance, you can switch it to production mode.

Switch to production mode

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

To switch your bot in production mode:

1. Edit your config.json file

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

"dry_run": false,

3. Insert your Exchange API key (change them by fake api keys)

"exchange": {
        "name": "bittrex",
        "key": "af8ddd35195e9dc500b9a6f799f6f5c93d89193b",
        "secret": "08a9dc6db3d7b53e1acebd9275677f4b0a04f1a5",
        ...
}

If you have not your Bittrex API key yet, see our tutorial.

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_full.json.example

"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

Embedding Strategies

FreqTrade provides you with with an easy way to embed the strategy into your configuration file. This is done by utilizing BASE64 encoding and providing this string at the strategy configuration field, in your chosen config file.

Encoding a string as BASE64

This is a quick example, how to generate the BASE64 string in python

from base64 import urlsafe_b64encode

with open(file, 'r') as f:
    content = f.read()
content = urlsafe_b64encode(content.encode('utf-8'))

The variable 'content', will contain the strategy file in a BASE64 encoded form. Which can now be set in your configurations file as following

"strategy": "NameOfStrategy:BASE64String"

Please ensure that 'NameOfStrategy' is identical to the strategy name!

Next step

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