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DCA Bot: Using the New Creation Form (BETA Mode ON)
DCA Bot: Using the New Creation Form (BETA Mode ON)

Explore the enhanced features and customizable settings in 3Commas' new DCA bot creation form.

Updated over a month ago

You must enable the BETA testing mode to use our new DCA launcher!
Go to the Settings page and enable Beta-testing for this tool:

If you want to create a DCA bot using the old interface, just disable the BETA testing mode.


I. Where to find the new DCA bot creation form?

Fast way

Click on the "+ Start new bot" button at the top right corner of the screen and choose DCA bot:

or

Click on the "+" button beside the "DCA bot" to create the bot right away:

or

1. Go to the DCA bot page

2. Click on "+ Create DCA Bot"

3. Here is what the launcher looks like

  • Classic view:

  • Advanced view:

There is an option to choose different Advanced layouts. These layouts are designed to provide maximum convenience based on the screen and user preferences. The classic layout focuses on the form when the chart is not needed, while the advanced layout provides constant access to the chart if the bot settings are based on it. Additionally, if you use a 3-column layout, you can view the entry and safety orders table below the chart based on your DCA bot settings.

NOTE!

Advanced layouts are available starting from 1200px, and the 3-column layout is available only for the wide screens with a width equal to or bigger than 2560px.

Click on the Settings button near the Strategies button to see the available options:

🔵 New Feature: Market Data Insight

Now available in both Classic and Advanced modes, the Market Data Insight helps you identify optimal trading opportunities with technical analysis filters and sorting options. This feature makes it easier to enter deals ASAP without waiting for bot signals.

For full details, check our new article: DCA bot: Using the Market Data Insight (BETA mode ON).


II. Simple and fast ways to create a DCA bot.

1. Choose the strategy

Click on the "Strategies" button at the top right corner.

You can choose between strategies for Spot and Futures markets.

The strategies are as follows:

  • Classic trading - Long trading on Spot exchanges.

  • Super power - Long trading on Futures exchanges.

  • Super speed - Short trading on Futures exchanges.

Whatever strategy you choose, the configuration for this strategy will be automatically applied to the bot's settings. To learn more about their default settings, head to this article:

2. Choose the preset

Click on the "Presets" button at the top right corner of the page:

This will lead you to the Presets page where you can choose the presets with all needed filters applied. More detailed information about how to use Presets is in this article:


III. Create a DCA bot with advanced settings.

Main

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.

Strategy

Long and Short strategies are described in this article.

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

You can choose a coin pair for the Single-pair bot to trade with or several pairs for the Multi-pair bot.

More about the Multi-pair type of bot

For a Multi-pair type, you can choose several pairs just by clicking on them.

The tick mark says the pair is selected:

You can click on this blue icon which will open a window with a list of all selected pairs.

In this new window, you can see:

  • A counter for selected pairs, updating dynamically as pairs are added or removed.

  • A search bar for finding pairs.

  • An Unselect All button to quickly deselect all pairs.

Hovering over a pair crosses out the pair name, indicating it's ready for deletion.

To delete a pair, click on the entire pair name rather than just the "X" icon.

In 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 pairs and another one for ***/ETH pairs.

The button "*** ALL" will add all available coins that are traded with the selected QUOTE currency.

The button "Unselect all" will remove everything from the list.


With the Multi-pair bot type, there are two additional settings:

Simultaneous deals per same pair

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.

Max active deals

It means how many deals the bot may open at the same time. If the bot's settings allow you 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 using the same criteria. If the "Simultaneous deals per same pair" setting is more than one, then the bot may open the deals with the same pair.

For example, "Simultaneous deals per same pair" is 5 and "Max active deals" is 5, then all 5 trades can be opened with the same pair. This will not let other pairs to be opened.


Entry order

Base order size and type

This is the first order the bot creates when starting a new deal. If you put 20 here and select the 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:

  1. Absolute amount in Quote currency (i.e. using 20 USDT to buy ADA).

  2. Absolute amount in Base currency (i.e. buying 20 ADA with USDT).

  3. % of the Total amount of Quote currency on the balance (i.e. 20% of 100 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 about order size for Futures!

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)

  • 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.

  • Exchange-defined - (only for multi-pair bots) Selecting Exchange-defined allows the bot to utilize leverage settings directly from the exchange for each individual trading pair. This means that the leverage settings are applied based on the parameters defined at the exchange level, which can vary per pair.

Note: The Exchange-defined option is available only for multi-pair bots. Single-pair bots will continue to use either the Cross or Isolated leverage options.

Leverage custom value (only for Futures)

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.


Deal start condition

PAY ATTENTION!

"Open new trade asap" deal start condition is used by default!

You need to enable the toggle if you want to change the Deal start condition:

More detailed information about different deal start conditions you can find in the following articles:


Safety Order

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:

  1. 0.1 BTC.

  2. Last safety order volume multiplied by scale. 0.1 * 2 = 0.2 BTC.

  3. Last safety order volume multiplied by scale. 0.2 * 2 = 0.4 BTC.

  4. 0.4 * 2 = 0.8 BTC

  5. 0.8 * 2 = 1.6 BTC

  6. ...

Safety order step scale

The scale will multiply step in percents 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:

  1. It's the first order, we use deviation to place it: 0 + -1% = -1%.

  2. 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%.

  3. Step: 2% * 2 = 4%. Order: -3%+ -4% =-7%.

  4. Step: 4% * 2 = 8%. Order: -7%+ -8% =-15%.

  5. Step: 8% * 2 = 16%. Order: -15%+ -16% =-31%.

  6. ...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


Exit order

Take profit - "Percent %" tab

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.

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.

Single or Multiple take profit targets

If your Base order size is big enough, you can set up to 4 Take profit targets! More information is in this article:

Trailing

Turns on the trailing feature for the Take profit order. Single Take profit or the last Take profit step 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 the Trailing take profit feature you can find here:

Here is a list of the exchanges that support the 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

Take profit - "Conditions" tab

Here, you can set up your own conditions that will close the trade. Learn more about how you can use Take profit Conditions in this article:

Reinvest Profit

The name of the feature speaks for itself - you can reinvest the profit into the next Entry orders. More detailed information can be found in this article:


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.

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.

Stop loss Breakeven

This feature helps minimize the risk of negative outcome of the deal. It's available ONLY if you set at least 2 Take profit targets. More information about this feature you can find in this article:

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:

Risk reduction

This feature allows for the potential losses to be lowered when the market is going in the wrong direction. It's available only if you enable the Stop Loss feature. By default, it's set to 100%. More detailed information can be found in this article:


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.


Advanced

Minimum daily volume

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 USDT_ALL pairs and set the number in this field to 500 BTC (it's measured 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 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 x 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.

Autoconvert new deals 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, which will not be placed in the SmartTrade. After converting to ST, the initial bot's deal is 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 SmartTrades. Thus, avoid turning on this setting with the "ASAP" deal start condition!


Summary

When everything is set, you can view the bot's "Summary" window for concluding information on how much funds the bot will require and other useful information.

Here, you can see the following information:

  • Balance available on your exchange;

  • Max amount for bot usage - it is the amount that the bot will need to function properly (including all averaging);

  • Max safety order price deviation - it shows the distance from the Base order price to the last Safety order in percent;

  • % of available balance to be used by the bot - represents how much from the available balance the bot will use at most.

  • Deal start condition - to make sure you chose a correct one.

TradingView chart

By clicking on this button, the TradingView chart will open so you can see the current situation of the selected pair's price. If you enable the Multi-pair bot, you will see the first pair's chart.

Details

Clicking on this button 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 safety orders and Take profit targets:

Safety orders are listed at the top of the table and the Take profit targets are listed on the left side of the table.

Here is what the table consists of:

  • 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. The same logic applies to each take profit step if you enable several of them.

  • Total, Size (Base) - shows the size of the trade in a Base currency if the order is executed.

  • Total, Volume (Quote) - shows the size of the trade in a Quote currency if the order is executed.

Graph

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.


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.

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