Trading · 69 / 86 · 3 min
Bots, grids, and copy trading
A bot follows a rule when you are not watching. A grid places orders above and below a price. Copy trading follows someone else's clicks. All three still pay fees, and all three can follow you off a cliff.
A grid, a bot, or a copied trader still pays fees, and can follow a move you would have refused.
A worked case
A grid places orders above and below a price. The price trends one way and never returns. The bot keeps buying the fall. Each fill pays a fee. The person is asleep, which was the point, and the point is why they did not switch it off.
What they do
They remove hesitation. Hesitation is sometimes the only thing that stopped a bad click. A grid in a trend can buy all the way down. A copied trader can be paid to be copied, not paid because you profit.
The delay and the fee
You copy late. You pay the fee they also paid. Their size is not your size. Their exit can be a post, while your exit is a worse fill.
If you cannot explain the rule in one sentence, the bot is a costume.
It clicked while you slept, which was the point
Grid bots place orders above and below a price and were sold hard to retail crypto traders as income. They work, when they work, in a market that wobbles and returns. In a market that trends one way, the bot keeps buying the fall or selling the rise, and every fill pays a fee. Copy trading adds someone else's clicks. You pay the fees, and you follow them off a cliff they may have already left, because their screenshot is delayed and their size is not yours.
The sellers of these tools advertise the hours you do not have to watch. Those hours are when you do not switch it off. A rule you would have refused awake is still your rule. The exchange is paid either way. Some of the people being copied are paid to be copied, which means your follow is the product.
If you cannot state the rule in one sentence, including when it should stop, you do not have a bot. You have a subscription.
Read it yourself
These links are the record. They are not a recommendation, and they are not instructions. A news story or a court paper can still be wrong about a detail. The check does not change because a famous name is in the story.
Apply the check
Open a question. The line is about this topic. It is not a verdict that anything is safe.
The exchange, on every fill. The person you copy, if they are paid to be copied.
The bot, faithfully. That includes when the rule is wrong.
The trend, and the fees. Copying adds their clicks to yours.
Check yourself
Does copying a profitable screenshot copy the profit?
No. You arrive later, pay fees, and may not get their exit.
After this you can explain the bot's rule, the fee, and the delay, or do not turn it on.