The most common tool you see on 3Commas is the Take Profit tool. This can be in the form of a token's value, the percentage gain of a token from the purchase price, or, in the case of DCA Bots, by using a Trade Closing Condition.
The system will close the transaction when the price rises to (or above) the price you set for Long trades, and when the price drops to (or below) the price you set for Short trades, or when it receives a signal from TradingView.
Example:
You buy 1 BTC for $34,000 and set a Take Profit of +10%, which would equal $37,400.
Next, you would need to adjust the rest of the Take Profit settings required:
Choose the Order Type - Limit or Market. More info is in this article.
Set the Price of the Take Profit Order - You can either manually input the price or the percentage of TP. To switch between these types, click on the price or % value. In our example, it’s a price of $37,400.
Set Several Take Profit Targets - More info about this feature is in this article.
Turn on the Trailing Take Profit Feature - More info is later in this article.
View Approximate Profit - Here, you can see the approximate profit.
Later, BTC continues to trade at around $34,000 for a while and then begins to rise. Eventually, the price reaches $37,400, and the system sells your BTC at this price as a Limit order (or at the market price if you choose Market Order). You will realize a profit of $3,400.
Take Profit ensures you do not miss a profitable moment at times when you're away from your computer and can’t closely watch your trades!
How Trailing Take Profit works.
Trailing Take Profit (or TTP) is a feature designed to help you capture more profits from your trades. When you set your Take Profit target, the Trailing feature will activate and try to increase your profits as much as possible. This is great when the price continues moving past your original Take Profit target. The Trailing feature will follow the price by a percentage buffer (called the deviation) that you configure. When the price reverses by the Trailing deviation percentage you configure, the trade is closed.
The drawback is that you can also lose part of the profit if the price reverses immediately after the trailing feature has been activated.
How is the Trailing Take Profit activated?
We receive a live stream of asset prices from the exchange. Whenever there is a change in price, the bot automatically checks if the price has exceeded the trailing take profit level configured in the bot settings. If it has, and the trailing is about to be enabled, the bot sends a request to the exchange to double-check the price to make sure it's not a false signal to trigger the trailing (like a fast candle "wick"). This validation process can take as little as 50 ms or as long as a couple of seconds—it depends on the load of the API connection with the exchange. During this validation, the price could move back away from the trailing level, so the bot will deactivate the trailing and wait for the price to move past the activation point again.
If the signal appears to be valid, the bot will enable trailing take profit and keep monitoring the price until it falls back to the trailing deviation percentage that is set in the bot settings. This ensures that profits are locked in and that the trader can maximize their gains.
Note: Trailing Take Profit is not recommended for illiquid markets, especially if you are trading with large order sizes, as slippage can occur when closing the trade with a Market Order. If you are trading large sums with your bot or trading in illiquid markets, it is recommended to disable Trailing Take Profit, as the bot will then place a Limit Order when the take profit target is hit.
List of the exchanges that support Trailing Take Profit for DCA bots:
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 | ➕ |
Coinbase Advanced Perpetual | ➖ |
Gate.io Spot | ➖ |
Gate.io USDT Perp. | ➖ |
Gate.io BTC Perp. | ➖ |
Gemini | ➕ |
HTX (Huobi) | ➕ |
Kraken | ➖ |
Kucoin | ➕ |
OKX Spot | ➖ |
OKX Futures | ➖ |
Note: Gate.io, Kraken, and OKX can use Trailing take profit on SmartTrades.
Cases Where You Should Not Use Trailing:
Low Daily Trading Volume - (below 100 BTC, for example).
Low Liquidity - If your trade could significantly impact the price (e.g., if the average order size transacted for the asset you wish to trade is $100, then don't use trailing if you intend to create a trade larger than $100).
High Spread - If the pair has a high spread (the difference between the buy and sell prices in the order book).
Big Breakouts (Pump and Dumps) - If you’re trying to catch a large breakout where one purchase may drive the price up by +10% or more, only to have it crash back seconds later.
Exact Price Target - If you want to sell at an exact level and not below your target.
In all these cases, it is better to use limit orders.
Enabling Trailing Take Profit
Trailing Take Profit feature is available for all types of SmartTrades (and DCA bots).
Switch the toggle to green at the top right corner of the Take Profit section to enable the Take Profit option.
Then switch the toggle to green next to the Trailing Take Profit part to enable the Trailing feature.
The feature has only one setting, called "deviation," which you can change in the same section.
Example of TP and TTP Settings
You would ask, but how can it determine when the price reverses and goes back down? That's where the deviation matters. The system will sell coins when the price drops from the latest high by the deviation percent configured.
Also, please note that Trailing Take profit will only be set for your last Take Profit step if you create more than one Take Profit target for your trade.
Detailed Example: Let’s say your trade setup is as follows:
Entry Price: 1000 USDT
Take Profit Target: +10% (1100 USDT)
Trailing Deviation: 2%
Price Movement: When the price reaches 1100 USDT, the trailing take profit is activated.
Trailing Calculation: Since the trailing deviation is set to 2%, the trailing stop will trigger if the price drops by 2% from the latest high after the TP target is hit.
If the Price Drops After Hitting TP: If the price goes up to 1100 USDT, the trailing deviation would set a stop level at 1078 USDT (2% below 1100).
Final Profit: Selling at 1078 USDT results in a profit of 7.8% from the initial entry of 1000 USDT.
Take a look at this animated example to see Trailing Take Profit in action:
Advice for Configuring the Trailing Deviation Setting
The deviation percent is the most critical setting for TTP. Treat it as the amount of profit you’re willing to lose if the price reverses immediately after the feature activates.
In volatile cryptocurrency markets, the price can touch your TP level and then quickly reverse, so the deviation represents the amount of profit you may sacrifice. If you set TTP at +10% with a deviation of -2%, you should be prepared to occasionally see only +7.8% profit.
Key Rules for Configuring Deviation
Set the deviation relative to the Take Profit target percent.
Don’t set the deviation equal to the TP target, as you would end with zero profit.
Avoid setting it to more than a quarter of your configured TP target.
Avoid using trailing on coins with very low liquidity and high spreads.
Recommended Setting Pairs:
TP +5%, deviation -1%
TP +8%, deviation -1.5%
TP +10%, deviation -2%
TP +15%, deviation -3%
Settings to Avoid:
TP +5%, deviation -5%
TP +5%, deviation -4%
TP +10%, deviation -8%
TP +15%, deviation -20%
These guidelines can be flexible if you’re experienced and willing to take on additional risk.