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Testing Butterbot, an Automated Bitcoin Trading Bot (day 1)

1, Feb 2014

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Butterbot is one of the few available automated trading bots for Bitcoin (BTC) trading based on EMA (Exponential Moving Average) logic that professional currency traders use. It is in the form of a Google Chrome browser extension and the trading is done in the cloud, so you will need to have the Chrome browser installed in order to be able to use this automated trading bot.

The Butterbot is a commercial product that works in the cloud, so as soon as you purchase the product you will also need to pay a small monthly subscription fee. This however is a good option, because you don’t have to have a computer on all the time with the bot installed on it, it will work automatically as soon as you activate it and set the trading parameters and you only need a computer to be able to monitor what the actually bot is doing or to change the trading settings.

The best thing about the automated exchange trading of BTC/USD that Butterbot does is that it supports three of the major BTC exchanges – MtGox, BTC-e and Bitstamp and the bot can operate on all three exchanges with independent settings or only on one or two of them, it is up to you. Furthermore there is a7 day free trial that you can activate in order to test the automated trading bot, before you decide if you should pay for it and start using it on the long run. And while these 7 days to try it out are a great feature, this bot may not give very good idea if it will be profitable on the long run as it is designed to be used for longer periods of time and the results you get may not only vary based on your trading settings, but also on the current market situation and the trading on the exchanges.

For the moment the Butterbot supports only BTC trading, but the author of the trading bot is apparently also working on Litecoin (LTC) support in an upcoming update with the feature already available in beta. This is definitely a good thing, because it can increase your profitability chances by operating on more trading pairs than just the standard BTC/USD ones that are currently supported.

butterbot-btc-trading-bot

We’ve decided to give the Butterbot a try for the 7 day test period before deciding if we should start using it on the long run and we are going to share our results from the product during or trial period. We have started with a small sum of about 25 USD in the BTC-e exchange, it is good to start the test with a small amount on a single exchange to get a feel of the interface of the product and to minimize the potential loss if you mess up or you are not happy with the results you get from the bot at the end of the trial period.

What we’ve liked a lot about the Butterbot is the powerful and very easy to use backtesting engine that lets you try and experiment with different trading strategies until you find your optimal settings. And the testing is being done against actual trading data that has been collected from the Bitcoin exchanges, so it is not some inaccurate mathematical simulation, but testing against real trading data. We even received a recommended startup settings to try on the different exchanges by the authors of the bot, you can find these settings below…

The recommend starter settings for Mt. Gox:

– Short EMA: 10
– Long EMA: 21
– Buy 1: 0
– Buy 2: 0.25
– Sell 1: 0
– Sell 2: 0.25
– 2 hour time window

The recommend starter settings for Bitstamp and BTC-e:

– Short EMA: 20
– Long EMA: 42
– Buy 1: 0
– Buy 2: 0.15
– Sell 1: 0
– Sell 2: 0.1
– 30 minute time window.

We started with the recommended settings for BTC-e and already a day has passed with the bot active on the BTC-E exchange with a starting capital of 25 USD to operate with. So far the bot has executed just a single trade – it bought 0.03 BTC, so at the moment our balance is as follows: Balance = 0.030 BTC + 1.48 USD. We also noticed that the bot has not acted on some possible opportunities, so while the recommended settings may be well balanced for start they will need some tweaking for better profitability. For now however in just day it is hard to give any positive or negative feedback about the bot, so stay tuned for more of our testing results with the Butterbot automated Bitcoin trading bot in the next few days as we continue to test how will it perform.

– If you want to learn more about the Butterbot and to give it a free try run…

First Impressions from the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot

12, Mar 2014

haasonline-automated-trading-bot

As a part of our ongoing tests of different automated trading solutions of crypto currencies we have now started testing the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot. We have already tested multiple solutions available for automated trading on the most popular crypto currency exchanges such as BTC Robot, Butterbot and Cryptotrader. All of these have both their own advantages as well as disadvantages, so you should check out our impressions and tests that we have ran using them to trade on different crypto exchanges. Let us get back to the Haasonline’s solution as the next in line for testing. We’ve had our eye on this software for a while already, but what was stopping us from trying it was the fact that there is no trial version available and the price of the software is quite high. With that said this automated trading solution seems to be one of the most advanced one out there and at the same time still being relatively easy for people that are not experienced traders. What is even stranger is the fact that there is not a lot of information available for the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot and no detailed reviews to actually help you in deciding if you should get it or not and the software has been available for some time already. Even the information about getting started and using the software is a bit scarce, so if you are a total newbie you might still have some trouble until you get to know the functionality of the software.

haasonline-automated-trading-bot-welcome-page

We should start with what are the most important features that the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot provides you with. There are two versions of the software available, a Simple Trade Bot currently available for 0.45 BTC and an Advanced Trade Bot being sold for 0.90 BTC at the moment (these are apparently promo prices). So as we’ve already said the software does not come very cheap, but if it can help you actually make some money with automated crypto trades you might be able to quickly get back what you have paid for it. The major difference between the two versions of the trading software is that with the Simple one you get a maximum of 3 trade-bots active at the same time, and there is a limited number of securities and technical indicators available unlike wit the Advanced versions that has unlimited number of active bots and all of the trading options available. Now, what is recommended is to start with the Simple Trade Bot to try it and get to know the software and if you like it and want to get the full extras, then you can just upgrade it by paying only the difference in price to the Advanced version. This means that you can start with 0.45 BTC for the Simple bot and then only pay another 0.45 BTC to upgrade to the Advanced bot.

What you should also note about the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot software is that it is something you download and install on your own computer. The software runs as a server on your own computer that needs to be on and online all of the time in order to get effective trades and you are controlling it through a web browser. You need Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 8.1 (32-bits or 64-bits) operating system in order to run the trading software, Windows XP and RT are not supported. Now, if you don’t have or don’t want to run a computer 24/7 with the trading software installed on it, then you can get a Windows VPS server and install the trading software on it in order to get it running all the time and being accessible from different locations. Note that the trading software comes with a license for installation on a single computer and the license you purchase is valid for 2 years.

haasonline-automated-trading-bot-new-bot-options

Moving on to what crypto exchanges the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot supports. There is automated support for trading on Bitstamp, BTC-e, BTCChina, CampBX, CexIO and Cryptsy. The two most interesting thing is probably the presence of suport for Cryptsy as this adds a lot of flexibility thanks to the many alternative cryptos traded on that exchange, though CEX support and BTCChina might be interesting for some people. The comprehensive support for multiple exchanges and exchanges that not only trade BTC and LTC, but many other alternative cryptos in a single trading software is definitely a plus. There was also support for MtGox in the previous versions of the trading bot, but now that has been removed as Gox is no more.

When you are creating a bot in the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot you need to select the exchange it will operate on as well as what currency pair it will trade with and you can set a limit of the currency that it will be trading with if you don’t wan to use the full amount in the exchange. Then you have three set of tools that can be selected and the trading will be executed based on what Safeties, Indicators and Insurances you have chosen for the bot to use. The Safeties, as the name implies, are tools to protect your from losses in case something serious happens on the market, there are multiple tools that you can use for the bot you are configuring to ensure safe trading. Next are the Indicators – tools that use market analysis based on different algorithm to give signals when the bot should buy and sell. The third set of tools called Insurances are there to help you actually get profit when your bot is executing trades. An example of insurance is to take into account the exchange fees when trading, so that the profit you make should be higher than the trade fee for example, so that you will actually be making money and not trading just to cover the trade fee or even loose money from the trade because of the fee.

After you setup your bot you can do a backtest on the already available market data in order to see what kind of performance you can expect before actually activating it and allowing the bot to start trading live. Many of the tools you have available allow for further adjustment of their settings, so you can backtest and fine tune them for better results. The Haasonline Automated Trading Bot has another interesting feature called auto-tune, that basically allows you to automatically tune the trade Indicators of your bot in order to get even better results when the bot is trading. We are still checking out things and getting used to the features of the trading software, but you can expect more information and tips from us once we get better at the whole process of bot trading and optimization. The important thing is that we like what we are seeing so far and we can say for sure this is indeed the most advanced automated trading software for crypto currencies we’ve tested so far. If you are wondering what a good starting point for a trading bot is, then we can recommend to start with RSI and Stochastic Indicators with their default settings and the OvercomeFeeCosts Insurance and then see how the bot will work before starting to play further.

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And now for some quick results from our first simple trade bot configurations using the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot software and the above advice we have shared about the two Indicators with their default settings and the Insurance for the fees. Note that on CEX there is no trading fee, so there is no need to use the OvercomeFeeCosts Insurance there anyway, but on Cryptsy and BTC-e there is a fee for each trade. We have setup LTC/BTC trade bots for BTCe and Cryptsy as well as GHS/BTC trade bot for CexIO and within an hour we got a few trades executed realizing some profit. Note that we’ve allowed the bots to operate with only small amounts of currency while we are testing, so even if we got something wrong we would loose only small amount. The good thing is that the software allows you to set limits on the amount of cash or crypto coins each bot can operate with. That is why our profits from the trades of the bots may seem so low, by using larger amounts for trades you can realize more profit, but the risk of loosing more is there as well, so be careful with that when you start trading at first and haven’t setup enough protection features for your trading bots.

This pretty much summarizes our first thoughts and impressions of the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot software, but we’ll be keeping you up to date how things progress as we get to know the software better and have more experience configuring and optimizing the trade bots for different exchanges and crypto currency pairs. For the moment we like what we are seeing and we already got some positive results from the first trades executed with a very simple configuration for the trading bots we have setup for three different crypto exchanges. We are very positive about this automated trading software for the moment and hope we’ll soon have more information to share with you. Again if you are interested in checking it out, you better get the Simple Trading Bot first as you can always upgrade it to the advanced version later on by paying only the extra difference should you decide you need all of the features available.

– For more information about the Haasonline Automated Trading Bot for crypto currencies…

Testing and Reviewing the BTC Robot Automated Bitcoin Trading Robot

13, Feb 2014

btc-robot-intro

With the constant release of newer and faster Bitcoin ASIC miners and the increase of mining difficulty it is getting harder and harder for the average person interested in crypto currencies to mine BTC. So the alternative of making profit from Bitcoin trading instead of mining them is becoming more and more attractive to normal people and to people that are not the typical traders with experience from Forex or Stock trading. So these people, and not only they, are looking for different tools to help them in trading Bitcoins on the currently available crypto exchanges. We’ve already tested and reviewed some of the available tools, such as Cryptotrader and Butter Bot, sharing our experience and thoughts about them. We just started testing another similar product called BTC Robot that has been available for a while already, so you can expect us to start sharing our usage experience from this automated Bitcoin trading solution in the next days here on the blog.

Meanwhile we are going to talk a bit more about the product and what are our first thoughts about it after starting to use it, something that may help you understand what to expect as the website of the BTC Robot software somewhat lacks a lot of details. What we saw as information available about the software is what would be useful to people that are new into Bitcoin and all that crypto currency stuff, but want to see what the hype is all about and of course want to make some money out of the whole thing. There is not much information about where, how and what this automated Bitcoin trading bot will do and how it will trade and this is what people that are into BTC and cryptos would want to know about the BTC Robot software, before going for it. So while this trading bot may appeal to the average person it won’t seem very attractive for the people that are into crypto currency already, though this does not mean that it will not be useful for these people as well. What we’ll try to give you here is the information that you cannot find on the introductory page and you can learn only after you start using the trading software and later on, in the next few days, we’ll share our results with what trades the robot does…

btc-robot-silver-plan

In order to be able to use the BTC Robot automated Bitcoin trading robot you will need to purchase it. Unfortunately there is no trial version available that you could try, before you buy, however there is an alternative option present – 60 days money back guarantee. This means that you can try the software for 60 days and if you are not happy with the results you can get your money back, suggesting that the makers of the software are very certain that you will be satisfied by the results and keep using the software. There are three different plans that will give you access to the automated trading system. The Silver Plan that will give you a downloadable version of the software that you need to install and run on your computer available for $149 USD with a one-time license fee and no extra subscriptions or fees. We’ve got for this version of the product, but bear in mind that you would need to have it installed on a computer running 24/7 with a stable Internet connection in order to get the best possible results when the software runs from your computer. The second option is called the Gold Plan and is available for $248 USD that includes the access to the trading software installed on a VPS (in the cloud) for a one year. This means that you get access through your browser and the trading will be on all the time without having to run it on your computer and have the system on all the time, the disadvantage here is that you will have to renew the VPS service after 1 year. The third option called Platinum Plan will cost you $498 USD and will give you access to the trading software installed on a VPS (in the cloud) server three years. The Platinum plan also includes a LTC Robot, a Litecoin trading robot as a bonus, though you can also get a separate license for it as well. We may also test the Litecoin trading robot in the future if we are satisfied with the results we get from the Bitcoin trading system.

btc-robot-bitcoin-trading-robot

Back to the BTC Robot automated Bitcoin trading robot and what you actually get with it. As soon as you install and run it, or when you access it on a VPS server, you will get a simple and easy to use interface with the trading settings and profit and Bitcoin pricing information available. The software is designed to use the BTC-E exchange and trades only the BTC/USD exchange pair there, so you will need to have an account in that crypto currency exchange already in order to use the trading bot. In order for the robot to be able to trade you will need to generate an API key for it at the BTC-E exchange, you can find that option in the settings panel of the exchange. The only other thing you need to select is the trading aggressiveness of the software based on the risk/reward expectations you have, you can select between Conservative, Medium and Aggressive mode or use your own custom settings.

Other than that you have a graph for your balance and profit and about how the BTC exchange rate is going not only on BTC-E, but also on MtGox and Bitstamp, though the bot only trades on BTC-E. According to the developers of the software you can can make anywhere from 5% to 100% profit per month depending on the market situation and your trading settings. The more volatile the market the higher profit you can make, but if the market is flat then there could be some periods of slow action and that is completely normal to expect. Once the bot starts making trades you will see the Buy and Sell actions listed on the right under the Last Operations section, though we still haven’t seen any trades on our end, but we’ve just started using the robot.

We have started our testing of the BTC Robot automated Bitcoin trading robot with a small amount of BTC in our BTC-E account in order to get a feel of the product and in case of not seeing good results not to loose money. The trading mode we have selected is Aggressive as we are willing to risk a bit more with the chance of higher profitability, so stay tuned for more information in the next few days as the trading software starts doing some trades.

– For more about the BTC Robot automated Bitcoin trading robot and to try it out…


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