This article will explore the DCA bot's main settings.
The settings page has several sections that can be rearranged according to your preferences.
This article is valid for both creating a new DCA bot and editing the existing bot.
This video will help to create a DCA bot (available if BETA testing is OFF):
PLEASE REMEMBER!
If you edit the existing DCA bot and save the new settings, they will be applied ONLY to new trades! Already opened and active trades will not be affected, you will need to edit them manually!
Here is what you will see on the bot's settings page:
Main settings
Here you can give your bot a Name, choose the Exchange and choose the Bot type.
Name
Create any name for your bot, you will see it in your bots list and active trades. You can name it by trading pair or settings. But try to create a unique name for your bot so it won't get lost among other bots.
Exchange
You can choose an exchange account where the bot is going to trade.
Bot Type
You can choose Single-pair for a bot that will trade with only one coin pair.
You can also choose Multi-pair to create a bot that can trade many different coin pairs:
Pairs
Recommended pairs
There is a dynamically updated list of coin pairs with the biggest trading volume for the last 24 hours:
Note - the recommended pairs will only show depending on what exchange is used and if there is a coin/-s that was/were traded the most in the last 24hrs. Thus, sometimes this section is not displayed.
Pairs
You can choose a coin pair for the Single-pair bot to trade with or several coins for the Multi-pair bot:
You can’t choose pairs with different QUOTE currencies on the same bot!
For example, you can't select XRP/BTC, ADA/BTC, ADA/ETH, and XRP/ETH on the same Multi-pair bot. In that case, you have to set up two different bots: one for ***/BTC and another one for ***/ETH.
The button "***_ALL" will add all available coins which are traded with the selected QUOTE currency.
The button "Clear" will remove everything from the list.
Strategy
Here you can adjust more specific settings for your trading strategy.
Max active deals
❗This option is available only for Multi-pair bots.
It means how many deals the bot may open at the same time. If the bot was allowed to trade with 20 pairs, but there are only enough funds on your exchange account to support five simultaneous trades, '5' should be entered here in this field. It allows the bot to start only 5 deals with the coins that you've selected. After one of the trades finishes, the bot will look for the next one to be started by the same criteria.
Strategy
Long and Short strategies are described in this article.
Profit currency
Here you can choose which currency the bot should accumulate.
When 'Quote' is active, the bot will make profits in the QUOTE currency that stands on the right side of the pair - ETH/BTC, NEO/BTC, ADA/BTC will take profit in BTC.
When 'Base' is active, the bot will make profits in the BASE currency that stands on the left side of the pair - ETH/BTC - profit taken in ETH; XRP/BTX - profit taken in XRP; ADA/USDT profit taken in ADA and so on.
If trading on Futures, the profit can be taken only in QUOTE currency.
Base order size and type
This is the first order the bot will create when starting a new deal. If put 20 here and select ADA/USDT pair for the bot, then launch it, the bot will buy ADA with 20 USDT after the new LONG deal is opened.
In the Single-pair bot you can choose the Base order currency type:
Absolute amount in Quote currency (i.e. using 20 USDT to buy ADA).
Absolute amount in Base currency (i.e. buying 20 ADA with USDT).
% of the Total amount of Quote currency on the balance (i.e. 2% of 1000 USDT on your balance will make the Base order size equal to 20 USDT).
In the Multi-pair bot it's possible to choose only the Absolute amount in Quote currency:
IMPORTANT NOTE!
If you create a bot on the Futures market, the Base order size (and the Safety order size, as well as Manual SO) will already include the leverage. For example, if you have put 100 USDT as the Base order size, the trade will be opened with 100 USDT size, but in fact, with the x20 leverage, only 5 USDT of real funds will be used.
If you want to use 100% of your balance (which is not recommended) and you have x10 leverage, then you need to input 1000% in this field:
Start order type
Here you can determine what order type will be the Base order - Limit or Market.
If it needs to be a quick decision to enter the deal, select the Market order (it may enter the deal faster, but not at the best price). If there is a need for the bot to enter the deal at the best price, then select the Limit order. To prevent slippage for big orders, it will be placed at the best ASK price for a Long trade and at the best BID price for a Short trade. Though it might take a longer time to open this deal, there will be no slippage, and the Base order will be executed at the specified price. But if the order will not be fully filled in 40 seconds, the order will be replaced at best BID/ASK price again. It will retry until the Limit entry order will be fully filled.
Limit order type is when the order is placed in the exchange's order book and waits to be executed.
Market order type is when the order is executed immediately at the current market price. If the order size is very big and/or the liquidity is low and/or volatility is high, there may be a slippage when the order is executed at a worse price.
Leverage type (only for Futures)
Not specified - 3Commas will not set any leverage value on the exchange. Leverage will be determined by the exchange’s default values (usually x10 or x20) or the last leverage configured for the contract being traded within the exchange’s interface. It is not recommended to use “Not Specified” unless your trading strategy specifically requires this.
Cross - an entire Futures account balance is available for the bot to trade with. The more balance to use, however, the bigger risk of losing the entire amount in the situation of liquidation.
Isolated - the bot will use only the dedicated amount of funds. In the situation of liquidation, only this amount of funds can be lost.
Leverage custom value (only for Futures)
It's available only if the Cross or Isolated Leverage type is chosen.
If the "Not specified" is selected, then the last selected type and leverage on the account will be applied to this bot and its trades.
You can choose the leverage on the slider or manually type in the desired leverage.
Remember that you cannot set the lower leverage from the current leverage if you have active trades and/or bots!
If you don't want to trade with leverage it is recommended to trade on Spot account. Or at least you can choose x1 leverage and you will trade only with your own funds.
Reinvest Profit
The name of the feature speaks for itself.
More detailed information can be found in this article:
Deal start condition
Open new trade asap deal start condition is used by default!
More detailed information about different deal start conditions you can find in the following articles:
Take profit
"Percent %" tab
Target profit (%)
This is the profit target that the bot should make from each successful deal. When the bot opens a new trade, it will place the Take Profit order using the percentage that is specified in this field.
Please note - the bot will place the TP order taking into account the exchange's trading fees.
Take profit type
Percentage from base order – the bot will calculate the Take profit target using the initial (base) order size only, without taking the total bought volume into calculations. Let's say a deal was opened with an initial order size of $100 and a target profit of 5% ($5), after this the price drops. As a result, by using the safety orders the bot purchased coins for $900 more, and now the total trade volume is $1000. The bot will place a Take profit order in order to get $5 profit (5% from $100) and not 5% from $1000.
Percentage from total volume (by default) – the bot will take profit from total trade volume. From the previous example, the bot will place a Take profit order in a way to get 5% from $1000.
Single or Multiple take profit targets
More information is in this article:
Trailing
Turns on the trailing feature for the Take profit order. Order becomes Market and is not placed in the exchange's order book (see more info above).
Please remember - market order type (when trailing is active) may cause losses due to high volatility and/or big order size and/or low liquidity, especially if the deviation is too big.
Trailing Deviation - distance from the current price to the trailing take profit order line.
More detailed information about Trailing take profit feature you can find here.
Here is a list of the exchanges that support Trailing Take Profit feature:
Exchange | TTP Feature |
Demo account (Paper trading) | ➕ |
Binance Spot | ➕ |
Binance Futures USDT-M | ➕ |
Binance Futures COIN-M | ➕ |
Binance Margin | ➕ |
Binance Spot US | ➕ |
Binance TR | ➕ |
Bitget | ➖ |
Bybit Spot (incl. UTA) | ➕ |
Bybit USDT Perp. (incl. UTA) | ➕ |
Bybit Inverse Perp. (incl. UTA) | ➕ |
Coinbase Advanced | ➕ |
Gate.io Spot | ➖ |
Gate.io USDT Perp. | ➖ |
Gate.io BTC Perp. | ➖ |
Gemini | ➕ |
HTX (Huobi) | ➕ |
Kraken | ➖ |
Kucoin | ➕ |
OKX Spot | ➖ |
OKX Futures | ➖ |
"Conditions" tab
Here, you can set up your own conditions that will close the deal. Learn more about how you can use Take profit Conditions in this article:
Stop Loss
Stop Loss
If the coin price drops to or below this level, the bot will perform the selected action. The value should be below the last safety order. The bot calculates the stop loss level from the base order price and not the deal average price.
Stop Loss action
Close deal - the bot will close the deal in a loss at market rates.
Close deal & stop bot - the bot will close the deal in a loss at market rates and stop. It won’t open new deals afterward.
Trailing stop loss
It will follow the price in the direction to your Take Profit target and always stay at the configured level below the maximum price reached. Please remember following when using TSL:
TSL won't activate if its price is after liquidation price;
When you use trailing for both Take Profit and Stop Loss, only one of them can ba active at the moment. TSL will deactivate when TTP becomes active;
You can't add safety orders to the active deals with TSL enabled;
Safety orders won't be placed after the active TSL level;
When active TSL level moves over placed safety order, the SO will be canceled.
More information about Trailing Stop Loss feature is in this article:
Stop loss Breakeven
This feature helps minimize the risk of negative outcome of the deal.
More information about this feature you can find in this article:
Stop Loss timeout
This will prevent the bot from immediately executing the Stop Loss order and can be useful to prevent the bot from closing a deal due to erroneous candle wicks or Stop Loss "hunts". The timer is activated when the price reaches or exceeds the Stop Loss % you configure; if the price has not recovered before the timer expires, then the bot will close the active deal at the current chart price. The time is specified in seconds.
Please note that when editing the bot, it doesn’t affect already opened deals' stop-loss action. Edit active deals individually in the trade if you want to change the stop loss action immediately. For example, you have a bot with an active deal, the bot has stop loss action set to “Close deal & stop bot.” If you edit the bot by changing the stop loss action to “Close deal”, and you don't edit the deal, the bot will still stop if the deal reaches stop loss level.
Risk reduction
This feature allows lowering the potential losses when the market is going in the wrong direction.
More detailed information can be found in this article:
Safety Orders
The bot is going to place safety orders after you have opened the trade to average your buy price if the coin goes in an unfavorable direction:
Safety order size
This setting determines the volume of safety orders. If put 0.003 here and keep other settings as they are, when the deal opens, the bot will place 5 safety orders on -1%, -2%, -3%, etc., from the starting price of each 0.003 BTC in size.
Price deviation to open safety orders (% from initial order)
Distance in percent between Base order and 1st Safety order. If put 1 here and start a new deal at $100, the first safety order will be placed at $99.
Max safety orders count
The maximum amount of safety orders that can be placed and executed for one deal.
Max active safety orders count
This means how many safety orders the bot will keep open on the exchange at the same time. Let’s say there is an amount of three active orders and ten maximum safety orders. When the bot begins a new deal, he will automatically place three safety orders and keep seven more to spare. If the price drops and the first safety order fills, the bot will put another one, thus, still having three active safety orders at the same time and six more in spare. Thus, when the price is going down, and safety orders are filling, the bot will open new ones until he reaches the maximum amount of ten. If set "Max safety trades count" and "Max active safety trades count" with the same number, the bot will place all available safety orders for a new deal just after it is opened.
Safety order volume scale
The scale will multiply the volume of each new safety order.
Let's assume there is a bot with safety trade size 0.1 BTC and a scale is 2. Safety order volumes would be:
0.1 BTC.
Last safety order volume multiplied by scale. 0.1 * 2 = 0.2 BTC.
Last safety order volume multiplied by scale. 0.2 * 2 = 0.4 BTC.
0.4 * 2 = 0.8 BTC
0.8 * 2 = 1.6 BTC
...
Safety order step scale
The scale will multiply the step in percent between safety orders.
Let's assume there is a bot with a safety order price deviation 1% and the scale is 2. Safety order prices would be:
It's the first order, we use deviation to place it: 0 + -1% = -1%.
Previous safety order step multiplied by the scale and then added to the last order percentage. The last step was 1%, the new step will be 1% * 2 = 2%. The order will be placed: -1% + -2% = -3%.
Step: 2% * 2 = 4%. Order: -3%+ -4% =-7%.
Step: 4% * 2 = 8%. Order: -7%+ -8% =-15%.
Step: 8% * 2 = 16%. Order: -15%+ -16% =-31%.
...and so on
Safety orders conditions
You can now activate the “Safety orders condition” and choose one or several indicators to trigger it! The Safety orders settings will function as filters, with the minimum deviation percentage and specific conditions or webhook signals.
More information can find in this article:
DCA bot: Safety orders by technical indicators
Advanced settings
Don't start deal(s) if the daily volume is less than
The bot will start a new deal ONLY if the pair on the selected exchange has 24h trading volume more than specified in this field.
For example, we create a bot with BTC_ALL pairs and set the number in this field to 500 BTC (it's calculated in BTC for any type of pairs). In this case the bot will open the trades for only those pairs that will have 24h trading volume of no less than 500 BTC on the selected exchange.
NOTE!
24 hours are calculated before the deal is opened! It's not 24 hours for the past day.
Minimum price to open deal and Maximum price to open deal
The bot will only open a new deal if the current price is higher than the min price or lower than the max price. For Single-pair bots, you need to type in the MIN and MAX prices of the coin. In the Multi-pair bots, you need to enter the % deviation from the initial price.
The initial price is saved when the feature is enabled and the bot is started.
But the initial price will be updated only when you update MIN/MAX fields - other settings can be changed at any time.
If you change old values in the MIN/MAX filter and save the bot, then the current price will be updated.
The lowest value can be -95% and the highest can be 1000% (yes, thousand percent).
For example:
If the coin's current price is 10000, then allowing your bot to open a deal between 5000 and 6000 would mean that you should set the MIN price to open deal to -50% and the MAX price to open deal to -40%.
Cooldown between deals
The bot won't open a new trade until the specified number of seconds passes after closing the previous trade. A Multi-pair bot has different and independent timers for each pair.
Open deals & stop
The bot will stop running after opening the required number of deals. An empty value will disable this option.
The bot will count only opened trades and will ignore the number of completed/canceled trades. For example, is we put 10 in this field, bot will stop running right after opening the 10th deal, no matter how many deals were closed/canceled before.
If the bot is already active when the setting is enabled, only newly opened deals after that moment will be counted.
Simultaneous deals per same pair
Available for Multi-pair bots only.
A bot can open several deals with the same trading pair. By default, the bot is configured to open one deal per the same pair. When the bot receives a signal to open a new deal, but the deal with this pair already exists, the bot will ignore the signal. If you change the Simultaneous deals per same pair setting, the bot will open additional deals when it gets signals to start a new deal with the same pair.
Every deal on the same pair is just like any deal with other pairs. It means that deals on the same pair will affect the maximum deals limit (see above in the article). For example, you configured a bot to open a maximum of 3 active deals, and you set the simultaneous deals per the same pair to 3 too. If the bot opens 2 deals on, let's say, ADA/USDT pair, it can open one more deal on either the same ADA/USDT pair or another pair. If the bot opens 3 deals on ADA/USDT pair, it won't open any new deal on any pair until at least one of the active deals is closed.
Autoconvert to SmartTrade
After opening a trade on a DCA bot and executing a Base order, this feature will automatically convert every new trade into a SmartTrade keeping all the settings the same, except for the Safety orders - they will not be placed in the SmartTrade. After converting to ST the initial bot's deal becomes canceled.
Important:
If the auto-convert function is enabled for the bot, then the "Max active deals" setting will be ignored - the DCA bot will automatically convert all deals to ST.
Thus, avoid turning on this setting with the "ASAP" deal start condition!
Close deal after timeout
Some traders like to open deals for a specific amount of time. For example, they open the trade at 13:30 each day, but they want the trade to close automatically, whether in profit or loss if it hasn't reached the Take Profit target configured.
This can be useful if you have an automated signal to start new bot deals during times of peak trading volume, such as New York session times, for example.
The time can be specified in minutes, hours or days and the counter starts as soon as a new deal has started.
Active limit of DCA bot deals
There is also one more DCA bots' trades-related setting that you won't find on the creating new DCA bot page. It's called Active limit of DCA Bot deals:
This feature limits the number of DCA bots' active trades on the specific exchange. Like if you have a limited amount of funds on your balance but you have several bots running and you don't want to limit the deals on each bot. So you can limit the number of active deals hear, no matter how many bots you have.
To find this setting you need to go to the My Portfolio page and click on the eye (👁️🗨️) icon to view the exchange's information. Then you need to scroll all the way down to find this setting.
Assistant
When everything is set, you can view the bot's "Assistant" window for concluding information on how much funds the bot will require and other useful information.
"Assistant" tab
Here the available balance is displayed and also the amount that the bot will need to function properly (including all averaging). There is also the maximum deviation of the price of the last safety order in percentage and the percentage of funds used by the bot:
"Chart" tab
It shows how evenly you use the funds with the bot and safety orders.
The green line represents the total amount of funds used in the deal after either Safety order is executed.
The blue line represents the Base and the Safety order sizes on each step.
"Table" tab
Clicking on the Table tab displays a detailed breakdown of each step. Here you can see exactly how much funds the bot will use in one trade, in accordance with the number of executed safety orders:
This table will display the multiple take profit targets if you enable them.
Here is what the table consists of:
Order № - shows how many Safety orders you have enabled for this bot.
Deviation, % - shows how far the Safety order is from the Base order in %.
Order, Size (Base) - the size of each order in Base currency (calculated according to the price when the settings are changed; depends on the chosen order currency type).
Order, Size (Quote) - the size of each order in Quote currency (calculated according to the price when the settings are changed; depends on the chosen order currency type).
Price - the possible price of the order (based on the current price when the settings are changed).
Average price - shows what will be the average price after the certain Safety order is executed (based on the current price when the settings are changed).
Target profit shows the price of the Take profit order after the BO or SO is executed, and in brackets, the percentage distance from the executed order price to the new Take profit order.
Total, Size (Base) - shows what will be the size of the trade in a Base currency if the order is executed.
Total, Volume (Quote) - shows what will be the size of the trade in a Quote currency if the order is executed.
Starting and reviewing the bot
As you can see above, on Spot exchanges, if you don't have enough funds to fill all Base and Safety orders, you will see the warning notification, and you will be offered to Add Funds:
You can still Start the bot, even if you don't have enough funds, but sooner or later, the bot will start displaying Insufficient Funds errors.
If you have sufficient funds on your balance, you can click on the Start button:
On Futures exchanges, the Start button is active and lets you start the bot, but please beware that the Insufficient Funds may appear later.
After clicking on OK button, you will be forwarded to the page with all the information about your bot's settings where you can Stop, Edit, Copy, Share the bot if needed:
More information about this page you can find in this article:
Manage active DCA bots.