Overview and a Skill Worth Mastering
Manual Trading may not be as easy as setting up a bot and forgetting about it, but some good old fashion charting and predicting the future can result in some of the best profit. For example, several users have noted that 20% of their profit using TradeCraft Pro comes from the Advanced Bot. The other 80% is from charting, and setting up their manual trades.
It takes time to be able to read a chart and decipher the future, but it is where real treasure lays. Once you know how you want to trade, the Manual Trade section will be your new best friend.
Manual Trading Layout
Trade Information
This section lists all the exchange data about your Coin/Pair. You will find information on the minimum trade requirements, your balance, and a record of how many trades you have made using.
Trades
The Trades section contains all of the trades that the bot will execute. These trades can be nested to be performed sequentially, or not, and done in parallel.
Currently pictured is an example of a nested trade. There is one root trade containing 3 nested trades. The 3 nested trades will not trigger until the root trade is met.
The Buttons
Save
Saves all of your data, which is highly recommended to do. The saved files will be stored in your Documents folder under TradeCraft Pro in the manual_trade.json file.
Reset
Resets the trade and volume counter of your tab.
Add Trade
This creates a popup to help you create a new trade. See below.
Add Loop
This creates a popup to help you create a new loop. See below.
Enable Trading
Clicking this enables the bot to start trading your plan. Regardless of if trading is enabled when the app is closed, TradeCraft Pro will always start with trading disabled. This is done to protect your trades in case market conditions change drastically between uses.
Remove Tab
Deletes the current tab and trading pair. If there is only 1 tab left, this does nothing
Add Tab
Creates a new tab of a new trading pair.
Adds a nested trade to your trade.
Edits the trade. You can chnage a buy into a sell, make it a stop, etc.
Removes the trade.
Creating a Trade
When you click the Add Trade button, a popup will appear asking for basic information. There are 6 kinds of trades you can add: Buy, Trailing Buy, Stop Buy, Sell, Trailing Sell, Stop Sell.
Buy
This trade executes a buy order when the price drops below the target price.
Trailing Buy
The trade is activated when the price drops below the target, but will not buy right away. Instead the trail price will be set the a % above the target price. As the price falls, the trail price will as well, but when the price raises, the trail price stays the same. When the price goes above the trail price, the bot executes a buy order.
Stop Buy
Normally a buy is triggered when the price drops below the target. However, in a a Stop Buy, the bot will buy when the price raises above the target price.
Sell
This trade executes a sell order when the price raises above the target price.
Traing Sell
Also known as a Trailing Stop Loss, the trade is activated when the price raises above the target, but will not sell right away. Instead the trail price will be set the a % below the target price. As the price raises, the trail price will as well, but when the price drops, the trail price stays the same. When the price drops below the trail price, the bot executes a sell order.
Stop Sell
Referred to as a Stop Loss, the bot will sell when the price drops below the target price.
It is usually a great idea to trade with a Stop Sell present.
Nested Trades: Adding Depth to Your Strategy
Typically, when you are setting up your trades, you will want a natural If Then statement. If this Buy goes through, then I will want a Take Profit Sell and a Stop Loss Sell to become activated. This is achieved in TradeCraft Pro using Nested Trades.
Each Trade can have another trade nested under it by using the + button. These trades only become activated once the trade it is nested under is executed.
You can have as many layers of nested trades as you want. Any contingency you can think of can typically be input into TradeCraft Pro.
Nested Trades appear inside the card of the nesting trade. They have a thin grey border and grey space in between. In the above example, the Stop Loss and Sell Order are nested under the Buy order.
Creating a Loop
A Loop is a simple, but very useful tool. Essentially, it consists of a buy and sell order that reset each other. When the Buy order is made, the Sell order is reactivated, and visa-versa.
This tool is incredibly useful for sideways trading markets as you may be able to catch many buys and sell as long as your targets are met.
A Bitcoin Example: Putting it all Together
Consider the above example chart. You believe that Bitcoin is moving sideways, but know it will break out either to the top or to the bottom. Before that point, you want to capture some profits, but you also want to trade well once the breakout occurs.
If Bitcoin were to go high, you want to buy back into it (since the top side of the Loop is a sell), but then set up a stop loss and a trailing sell. This way you can let your profits ride.
Conversely, if Bitcoin falls out, you want to be ready with a stop loss, and then a trailing buy to get back in at a discounted price.
To input this scenario into TradeCraft Pro, check out the image to the left (or below). It contains a Loop, a Sell with a nested Trailing Buy, and a Buy with nested Sell orders.
Conclusion
Manual Trading is powerful. But it also relies on your technical analysis abilities to make the most out of it. It is not simple as fire and forget as the Advanced Bot. However, if you are willing to put in the time to learn, it can have amazing rewards.
Here are the remaining sections of the guide.