Setting Up Your First Bot

Setting Up Your First Bot

This guide walks you through creating your first grid bot from start to finish. By the end, you will have a working bot running in paper mode, ready for testing before you commit real capital.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:

• A Gridera account with a connected Pacifica DEX wallet.
• Sufficient balance in your Pacifica account (if planning to go live later).
• A basic understanding of what grid trading does. If not, read What is Gridera? first.

Step 1: Choose Your Trading Pair

Select the asset you want to trade. For your first bot, pick an asset you are familiar with and that has good liquidity on Pacifica DEX. Popular choices include SOL-PERP and ETH-PERP.

Liquidity matters because it affects order fill quality. Higher liquidity means your orders fill at the expected price with minimal slippage.

Step 2: Determine Your Grid Range

The grid range defines the price boundaries where your bot operates. You need two values:

Grid low: The lowest price where the bot places buy orders. Set this below the current price at a level you consider strong support.

Grid high: The highest price where take-profit orders execute. Set this above the current price at a level you consider resistance.

For your first bot, a moderate range of 15-25% total width is recommended. For example, if SOL is at $150:

• Grid low: $130 (about 13% below)
• Grid high: $170 (about 13% above)

This gives enough room for normal price fluctuations without being so wide that your capital is spread too thin.

Step 3: Set Grid Levels

The number of grid levels determines how many price points the bot uses within your range. More levels mean tighter spacing and more frequent trades but smaller profit per trade.

For beginners, 15-25 levels is a good starting point. This provides a balance between trade frequency and per-trade profit.

When you enter “20 grids,” the system creates 20 equal segments with 21 price levels (including both boundaries). With grid low $130 and grid high $170, the spacing is $2 per level. Each completed trade captures roughly $2 profit per unit minus fees.

Step 4: Set Your Total Budget

Enter the Total Budget — the total amount of capital you want to deploy. The system automatically divides this across your grid levels.

For your first bot, start conservatively:

• $100-200 for a small test account.
• $500-1,000 for moderate accounts.
• $2,000+ for serious trading.

The order size per grid level is calculated automatically: Total Budget ÷ Grid Levels = Order per Grid. For example, $200 budget with 10 levels = $20 per grid level.

Your required balance is approximately Total Budget × 1.2. The 1.2 multiplier provides a safety margin.

Step 4b: Use Strategy Presets (Optional)

Instead of configuring manually, you can use Strategy Presets. Open the Strategy Presets panel — the system analyzes live market data (trend, volatility, support/resistance) and recommends the best strategy for current conditions.

Each preset shows a match percentage based on market analysis. Presets with 80%+ match are highlighted as recommended. Click “Apply” to auto-fill your grid settings.

Step 4c: Run a Backtest (Recommended)

Before starting with real money, run a Backtest. Open the Backtest panel, enter your grid settings, select a time period (1 week, 1 month, etc.), and click “Run Backtest.”

The system simulates your strategy against real historical price data and shows: Net PnL, ROI, Win Rate, Total Trades, Fees, and Max Drawdown. This helps you validate your strategy before risking capital.

Step 5: Set Leverage

For your first bot, use 1x or 2x leverage. Higher leverage amplifies both profits and risks, and until you are comfortable with how grid bots behave, conservative leverage protects you from unexpected losses.

At 1x leverage, there is effectively no liquidation risk. At 2x, the liquidation price is roughly 45% below your average entry, which provides ample safety margin for most grid configurations.

Step 6: Configure Safety Settings

Grid break mode: Set to shutdown. This means the bot will automatically stop and close positions if the price exits your grid range. This is your primary safety mechanism.

Grid break buffer: Set to 0.2% (default). This small buffer prevents false triggers from brief price wicks.

Grid break confirmation: Set to 30-60 seconds. The price must stay outside the range for this duration before shutdown triggers. This prevents shutdown on momentary spikes.

Stop loss: Set Stop Loss to 10-15% for your first bot. This is a last-resort protection if the price drops sharply through your range.

Bias Mode (optional): You can adjust the bot’s order sizing strategy in real-time. The default is “Neutral” (equal orders). Advanced users can switch to “Long Biased” (heavier buys low), “Aggressive” (+50% orders), or “Conservative” (-30% orders). Leave this on Neutral for your first bot.

Step 7: Enable Paper Mode

For your first bot, always start in paper mode. Set dry_run: true in your configuration. This runs the bot with real market prices but without placing actual orders on the exchange.

Paper mode lets you observe the bot’s behavior, verify your grid spacing generates trades, and check that safety settings work as expected, all without risking capital.

Step 7b: Connect Telegram (Optional)

Go to Connect Telegram in the sidebar. Follow the 3-step setup to receive bot notifications on your Telegram — start/stop alerts, risk warnings, TP/SL triggers, and grid break notifications.

Step 8: Launch the Bot

With your configuration complete, start the bot from the dashboard. You should see:

• The bot status change to “running.”
• Grid levels appearing in the bot view.
• Buy orders being placed (simulated) below the current price.
• Log entries showing the cycle running every 15 seconds.

Step 9: Monitor and Learn

Let the paper mode bot run for at least 3-5 days. During this time, observe:

• How often trades complete (buy followed by TP sell).
• How the bot handles price drops (fills more buy levels).
• How the bot handles price rises (TP orders fill, levels free up).
• Whether the bot self-heals any issues through reconciliation.

Check the dashboard daily to review PnL, trade count, and bot health indicators.

Step 10: Go Live

When you are satisfied with paper mode performance, transition to live trading:

1. Stop the paper mode bot.
2. Change dry_run: false in your configuration.
3. Verify your account balance covers the required capital.
4. Start the bot.

Keep the same configuration you tested. Changing parameters during the transition defeats the purpose of paper testing.

Summary

• Start with a moderate grid range (15-25% width), 15-25 levels, conservative order size, and 1x-2x leverage.
• Always begin in paper mode to validate your configuration before risking real capital.
• Monitor paper mode for 3-5 days, then transition to live with the exact same settings.

Next Step

Learn more about paper mode testing in Paper Mode Testing.