spin Live trading
Paper and live trading, how to turn live trading on, the limits that the guard enforces, and how to pause the bot.
Paper and live
An active Spinner with a saved strategy trades in one of two ways:
| Mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Paper | The bot follows its strategy on the live market, but it uses no money. It records what it would have done. Paper results include the same 0.5% fee as live trades. |
| Live | The bot trades with real ETH from the Spinner's wallet, within the limits that you set. |
Every Spinner starts on paper. The Money control at the top of the Spinner's page shows the mode. While live trading is not set up, it shows how many of the four steps are done, and a Set up live trading button.
Test a strategy on paper first. Watch its results on the Performance tab, and see each decision on the Activity tab.
The four steps
The Live trading card on the Wallet tab lists four steps. Each step gets a check mark when it is done:
- The Spinner is active. Read Activation.
- The bot has its trading key.
- Limits set for each trade and each day.
- The Spinner wallet holds ETH. Read The Spinner's wallet.
Steps 2 and 3 happen together, when you click Allow live trading.
Turn on live trading
Set your limits
On the Live trading card, type:
- Most per trade: the most ETH that one buy can spend.
- Most per day: the most ETH that all buys together can spend in one day. It must be at least the limit per trade.
- For: the number of days that the permission lasts, from 1 to 365.
The form starts at 0.05 ETH a trade, 0.5 ETH a day, for 30 days. Change these to amounts that you are ready to lose.
Allow live trading
Click Allow live trading. Your wallet asks you to approve the transactions:
- Set up the Spinner's wallet, if it is not set up yet.
- Give the bot its trading key.
- Set the bot's limits.
Fund the wallet
If the Spinner's wallet has no ETH, deposit some on the Spinner wallet card.
Switch to live
When all four steps have a check mark, the switch says "Ready. Switch on to trade with real ETH." Turn the switch from Paper to Live. You can use the switch on the Live trading card or the Money switch at the top of the page.
To go back to paper, turn the switch from Live to Paper.
The limits
The guard contract, SpinBotGuard, checks every live trade before it lets it through:
- Most per trade. A buy that would spend more than this is refused.
- Most per day. Buys stop when the day's total reaches this limit. The day starts at 00:00 UTC.
- For. After the last day, the permission ends and the bot cannot trade live. Set up live trading again to continue.
The limits count all the ETH that leaves the wallet for a buy: the amount, the 0.5% fee and the gas of the trade.
Sells do not count against the limits. A limit never stops an exit.
When a limit stops a buy, the bot page shows a notice, for example "A buy was over your limit per trade" or "Your daily limit stopped a buy".
To change the limits, type new values and click Update limits.
The guard also lets the bot trade only on approved venues, and it lets the bot send funds only back to the Spinner's wallet. The bot can never withdraw. Read Safety.
Revoke the bot's key
Click Revoke the bot's key and limits to stop live trading at once. Your wallet asks you to approve the transaction. After that, the bot cannot trade live. Switch the mode to Paper, or allow live trading again.
Revoking also stops live sells
Without its key, the bot cannot sell the tokens that it bought live. To exit those positions, allow live trading again, or withdraw the tokens on the Tokens card. The same is true when the permission ends after its last day.
Pause the bot
The Bot switch at the top of the Spinner's page turns the bot on and off:
| Switch | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Running | The bot trades by its strategy. |
| Paused | No new trades. Open positions still exit by their rules. |
| Off | The Spinner is not active. Activate it to switch its bot on. |
Pausing does not change the mode or the limits. Turn the switch back to Running to start again.
Who can change these
Only the wallet that holds the Spinner can set limits, revoke the key and switch between paper and live. A sale or transfer cancels the trading key and the limits. Read Transfers.