Trading Strategies Guide

What are Trading Strategies?

Trading Strategies let you build your own custom trading bot inside PolyBot. You define the rules — what to trade, when to enter, when to exit — and PolyBot runs it for you around the clock. No manual watching, no missed entries. Think of it as programming your trading logic once and letting it execute automatically every time the conditions are met.

The best entries in crypto up/down markets are usually gone by the time you notice them. Trading Strategies front-load your decision-making: define the setup once — markets, entry conditions, exits — and PolyBot watches and executes automatically.

Open from the main menu or with /strategy. Filter your list by All, Active, Paused.

🔮 What a strategy controls

Every strategy has three parts:

• 🔮 Scope — which asset and timeframe it trades
• ➕ Entry rules — when to open a position and how much
• 🎯 Exit rules — how to get out (profit, loss, or trailing)

Each strategy handles one clear setup. A BTC 5-minute strategy and an ETH 1-hour strategy are different ideas — keep them separate.

🔮 Scope

Strategies work on crypto up/down markets.

• Asset: All Crypto, BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP
• Timeframe: 5m, 15m, 1h, 4h, 24h

➕ Entry rules

Each entry rule has:

• Outcome: YES, NO, or EITHER
• Trigger price — the price that fires the entry
• Order amount — how much to buy

One strategy can hold multiple entry rules — useful for scaling in:

• First entry at 42¢ for $25
• Second entry at 38¢ for $50

These fire independently, letting you average into a move at different price levels.

🎯 Exit rules

Three exit types:

🎯 Take Profit — sells when price reaches your target (fixed price or % from entry). Set a sell percentage to scale out gradually.

🛡️ Stop Loss — sells when price drops to your threshold. Same flexibility. Stop losses get execution priority — missing them poses greater risk. See the Stop Loss Guide for standalone stop-loss orders outside of strategies.

🎢 Trailing Stop — follows the highest price after entry. Set a trail % (e.g., 5%): if price climbs from 42¢ to 55¢, the stop sits at 52.25¢. Price drops to 52.25¢ → exit fires. Price keeps climbing to 60¢ → stop moves to 57¢. Lets you ride a move and only exit when momentum reverses.

Layered exits example:

• Take Profit 1: +10%, sell 30%
• Take Profit 2: +20%, sell 50%
• Trailing Stop: 5% trail, sell remaining 20%

⚙️ Execution settings

📉 Slippage

Slippage is the price difference between your trigger and your actual fill. The market moves between trigger detection and order execution.

Set your own slippage tolerance as a %. Tighter (e.g., 1%) = better price discipline but risk of no fill. Looser = more reliable fills at potentially worse prices.

• Limit Mode — only fills at exactly the trigger price
• Any Slippage — prioritizes execution regardless of price movement

Key insight: the tradeoff matters most on exits. A stop-loss that doesn't fill due to tight slippage can turn a small loss into a big one. For stop losses, lean looser.

🔄 Execution mode

• 📍 Once — strategy enters one time per market
• 🌀 Multiple — can re-enter the same market after position closure

⏰ Entry windows

Not every part of a short-duration market behaves the same. The open is chaotic, the close is thin.

• Enter From — measured after market start (e.g., 30s)
• Enter Until — measured before market end (e.g., 1m)

Combine both to restrict entries to the stable middle. Accepts custom durations (30s, 2m, 1h).

Important: entry windows only affect new entries. Exit rules (take-profit, stop-loss, trailing) still execute outside the window.

🛠️ Managing a live strategy

From the detail screen:

• ✏️ Rename, change asset/timeframe
• ➕ Add or edit entry/exit rules
• 📉 Adjust slippage
• 🔄 Change execution mode
• ⏰ Adjust entry window
• 🔔 Mute/unmute notifications
• ⏸️ Pause or ▶️ Resume
• 🗑️ Delete

⏸️ Pause when the idea still makes sense but you don't want new positions right now. 🗑️ Delete to retire it entirely.

📊 Monitoring

• 📜 Activity — recent executions, skips, and failures
• 📊 Market Overview — activity distribution across markets
• 📊 Performance — trades, capital deployed, realized/unrealized PnL, stats

Use 🧹 Reset Stats to wipe performance history without deleting the strategy.

📝 Example

BTC 5-minute markets, simple momentum:

• Scope: BTC, 5m
• Entry: Buy YES at 42¢ for $25
• Take profit: +15%, sell 100%
• Stop loss: −8%, sell 100%
• Entry window: from 30s after open, until 60s before close
• Slippage: 1%

Market opens → PolyBot waits 30s (entry window). At T+35s, price hits 42¢ → entry fires (~5,952 shares). Price climbs to 52¢ (+23.8%, exceeds 15% target) → take-profit sells the full position. Cycle done in under a minute.

If price had dropped to 38.6¢ (−8%) → stop loss fires instead, capping the loss.

💡 Tips

• Start narrow — one asset, one timeframe. Understand the behavior before broadening.
• Keep it simple first — one entry + take-profit + stop-loss. Add complexity once you trust it.
• Use partial exits — take 50% profit early, trail the rest. Avoids all-or-nothing.
• Check 📜 Activity after launch — frequent skips or no-fills mean settings need loosening.
• ⏸️ Pause over 🗑️ Delete — preserve everything while you learn.

Related guides

• Copy Trading — follow top traders instead of building your own rules
• Presets — save reusable order templates for quick manual trades
• Stop Loss — standalone stop-loss orders for individual positions
• Market Alerts — get notified on price movements without auto-trading

Commands

Command	What It Does
/strategy	Open trading strategies
/strategies	Open trading strategies