Understanding the Error Message
If you have Telegram linked to your 3Commas account (on the Settings page) or you review your bot’s Last Events (accessible by clicking the bot’s name on the 3Commas web interface), you may occasionally encounter this message:
“The bot was unable to close the trade as the price moved below the profitable area too fast. The trailing has been disabled and the trade reverted to the initial status, now it is waiting for trailing activation condition again.”
What This Means
This error typically occurs when:
The bot is preparing to close a trade using the Trailing Take Profit feature.
A sudden price drop (a “candle wick”) temporarily triggers trailing take profit, but the price falls back too quickly.
Executing a Market Order under such conditions could lead to an unpredictable closing price, potentially causing a loss, especially on futures exchanges.
In response, the bot:
Cancels active averaging orders.
Reverts the trade to its initial status and waits for the trailing activation condition to be met again.
How to Mitigate This Error
If you frequently encounter this error, consider the following strategies to optimize your bot settings and trading approach:
1. Analyze Coin Charts
Review the coin charts your bot trades on, focusing on the 1-minute timeframe.
Watch for signs of poor liquidity, such as:
Gaps between candles.
Candles without bodies or with large wicks (shadows) exceeding the size of the surrounding candle bodies.
Action: Avoid using Trailing Take Profit with coins that show these characteristics. Instead:
Split your funds between two bots:
One bot with Trailing Take Profit enabled and trading liquid pairs with minimal wicks.
Another bot without Trailing Take Profit, configured to trade pairs with higher volatility or wicks.
2. Adjust averaging order settings
Set Max active averaging orders per trade to 1 in your bot settings.
This ensures that if Trailing Take Profit is triggered and then deactivated, only one active averaging order is skipped or canceled.
Remaining averaging orders can still be placed correctly when the trailing condition reactivates.
3. Manually recreate skipped averaging orders
Use the Add Funds option to recreate skipped or canceled averaging orders.
Click the "+$ Add Funds" button next to the running bot trade.
View the current chart for the coin pair and identify strong support levels to strategically place new averaging orders.
How Trailing Take Profit Works
Activation Process
The bot monitors live asset prices from the exchange.
When the price exceeds the trailing take profit level, the bot validates the signal by sending a request to the exchange.
This double-check helps avoid false triggers caused by fast candle wicks.
The validation process can take 50ms to several seconds, depending on the exchange’s API load.
Execution Process
If the signal is valid:
The bot enables trailing take profit and tracks the price until it falls by the trailing deviation percentage set in the bot settings.
The trade is then closed to secure profits.
If the price moves away from the trailing activation point during validation, the bot disables trailing and waits for the activation condition to be met again.
Key Recommendations
Avoid Illiquid Markets:
Trailing Take Profit is not recommended for illiquid markets or large order sizes due to the risk of slippage.
In these scenarios, disable Trailing Take Profit to allow the bot to use Limit Orders for closing trades.
Optimize Bot Settings:
Adjust trailing deviation percentages and averaging order limits to align with the coin’s price behavior and market conditions.
Monitor Charts Regularly:
Continuously analyze the liquidity and volatility of the coins your bot trades to ensure optimal performance.
By implementing these strategies, you can minimize the occurrence of this error and enhance your trading efficiency.