What is an option?
This particular derivative is a contract that gives its holder the right to purchase an asset at a certain moment in the future for a fixed price. One of the biggest attractions of these contracts is the simplicity with which users can interact with them. In essence, retail traders only need to pick the direction in which the price will head in the nearest future.
Some options have extremely short expiration dates. It is possible to have an option that expires in five seconds. However, these instruments are closer to gambling. The crypto industry has a wide range of options that can be traded. Most people choose contracts with longer expiration dates.
What is an automated options trading bot?
A specialized program that trades on your behalf in the market for derivatives and targets options is called an options bot. Since many centralized exchanges offer margin accounts and allow their clients to interact with derivatives, you can benefit from automating this type of trading. Any exchange that has a functional API can seamlessly integrate with an automation vendor like WunderTrading.
You will also need to use TradingView. This analytical platform is excellent for running sophisticated strategies that can generate signals and provide instructions for custom bots that will be working in the market for derivatives.
Since assets here are extremely volatile and outcomes are hard to predict, you won’t be able to deploy DCA or GRID bots. To be exact, you can deploy them, but their performance will be lackluster and may lead to financial ruin due to leveraged market positions that are vulnerable to volatility.
Why should you use automation?
Just two decades ago, automation was available only to huge financial institutions. The sharks of Wall Street used specialized computers capable of outpacing retail traders. For a long time, only holders of large capital could afford to use automated trading systems. In fact, until the expansion of the Forex industry, many individual traders were not even aware of automation.
With the development of cloud computing, more and more companies started developing automation products that could be offered to retail traders. The industry exploded when the crypto market started gaining traction. Today, many experienced investors cannot imagine their portfolios without any automation.
There are many reasons why so many people prefer using bots:
- Machines do not need sleep or rest. Human traders cannot compete against robots in financial markets operating around the clock. When you sleep, the world keeps on spinning. You will miss out on plenty of opportunities. Bots do not require rest, they don’t make pauses and can react to a signal from an indicator instantly.
- Bots never hesitate. Nervousness and doubt are two enemies that haunt all retail traders. Even when all indicators show a strong positive, when you see the formation of a new trend, and other conditions align perfectly, you may hesitate and miss a perfect chance to enter a market position. Robots do not have this weakness and make decisions with the cold-heartedness of a soulless computer.
- Automation became affordable. As mentioned previously, bankers and trust fund managers used to pay millions for advanced automated trading systems. Now, an average retail trader can afford software that those bankers could not imagine. WunderTrading offers a free plan to all registered users. You can use it to run up to five free options bots.
All these advantages make it possible for people to optimize their investment endeavors and work in extremely stressful environments like the options market. You need to make decisions quickly and even the tiniest price action movement can wreck your market position. However, it can be also very rewarding if you have a good strategy worth automating.
The best options for bot strategy
To design a perfect strategy, you will need to use TradingView and choose a good system designed by a power user. The forum has many discussions on various topics. In many threads, users are reviewing strategies and post their results. Browse the forums and search for systems that were vetted by the community and show promise.
The next step is creating a custom bot on your automation platform. You will need to play around with the creation process and test some strategies against the market history to find the best options bot settings that will work for your risk tolerance level, portfolio size, and investment style.
The whole process can be summarized thusly:
- Go to WunderTrading and connect your exchange to the automation platform.
- Use the API key to give the WunderTrading platform access to your trading account.
- Go to “My Bots” and create a new bot following the instructions.
- Use your strategy deployed on the TradingView platform. Use the tutorial on the WunderTrading website.
- Launch your automated trading system and start monitoring its performance.
When it comes to running a crypto options bot, you need to start small and carefully increase the portion of the portfolio that can be managed by the automated system. It is always a good idea to keep the balance on your margin account in a certain state to avoid overspending.
Risks associated with options trading
Newcomers should avoid margin trading since they may not understand that using borrowed money to trade can be dangerous. It seems that gains are quite impressive and that you can easily cover any potential losses with several good trades. However, most people ultimately lose money or overspend on trying to avoid a margin call.
It is important to remember that options have inherent risks:
- An options contract is extremely vulnerable to sudden price changes. Since you open a contract (a long or a short market position), you are locked until the expiration date is resolved. It means that you will be forced to execute the order whether you guessed the direction of the price right or wrong.
- Options are often traded using leverage. Borrowing money to open market positions can be quite dangerous and expose your portfolio to excess risks which could have been avoided otherwise.
- Options trading feels like gambling. In many ways, it is very similar to many casino games. These are not binary options that were popularized by Forex brokers, but there are still many similarities. It means that some people who are prone to gambling addictions may not realize the dangers of trading options.
The profit potential is through the roof when you run an options trading bot. The only thing you need to do for the bot to successfully finalize a series of orders. The problem is that the market is unpredictable and the bot can also make a series of bad trades hurting your bottom line.
When you work with the market for derivatives, many traditional risk management techniques may not be applicable. You need to be very careful when engaging in options trading and while attempting to automate a strategy that works in the derivatives market.
Beating the system with a good automation provider
Now, you know the answer to the question “What is a crypto options trading bot?” Let’s talk about various techniques for managing risks. Note that you will be able to reduce risks by using products from the WunderTrading platform.
Here are some ways to reduce risks associated with running options bots in crypto markets:
- Use safe automated systems to offset losses that you may suffer in the market for derivatives. Examples of bots that can have low risk are DCA, GRID, and arbitrage. Run multiple such bots to make up for potential losses.
- Dedicate only a portion of your margin account balance to this system. Even the best options trading bot will make mistakes causing massive damage to your portfolio. To avoid losing everything in your margin account do not give the bot too much freedom.
- The best options bot strategy is the one backed by a good technical analysis strategy that can reliably generate correct signals. While it may seem that indicators only need to predict the general direction of the price, it is still a tall task that many advanced analytical strategies fail to complete.
Which indicators should you use?
You need two types of indicators: trend indicators like moving averages or MACD and indicators that help users identify reversals and price retracements.
- MACD. Moving Average Convergence-Divergence is a trend indicator that also predicts potential reversals. The indicator has two lines — MACD and signal. When the former crosses the latter in the upward direction, it may indicate that a bullish trend is forming. The opposite means that a bearish trend may form in the nearest future. The issue with this indicator is that it generates many false positives.
- RSI. The relative Strength Index tells you when the asset is oversold or overbought. The indicator is represented by a line fluctuating between 0 and 100. The line rarely reaches extremums and usually reaches 20 or 80 before bouncing back. When the indicator moves closer to the upper limit, it means that the market is overbought and will soon correct itself. When the indicator falls to values closer to zero, the asset is oversold and the market may head in the positive direction.
Both indicators are used frequently by experienced traders working on short time frames. Scalpers usually employ a combination of RSI and three moving averages. These indicators are extremely easy to use. They don’t produce complicated signals and confusing readings that may throw you off.
When it comes to options trading, decisiveness is a very important quality. If you lack the confidence to place orders when an opportunity presents itself, using a bot is a good idea since machines do not hesitate.
Where to trade crypto options?
You can find derivatives on many centralized exchanges. Below are some examples of CEX platforms that allow their users to trade futures and options:
- Binance. This centralized exchange is the biggest in the industry with a 17% market share that makes other companies look tiny in comparison. Binance has a huge margin trading section and allows retail traders to use futures, perpetual futures, and options derived from mainstream coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- KuCoin. This platform is focused on the SEA region but also caters to a large international audience. The margin trading section here is quite impressive. The list of derivatives is not as impressive as on Binance, but you will have access to perpetual and linear futures.
- OKX. This platform is a great choice for people interested in options trading. You may also use leverage with an x100 ratio which is both impressive and scary. The platform offers a wide range of financial instruments to its users engaging in margin trading.
- ByBit. This exchange is also a good destination for people interested in trading derivatives based on various cryptocurrencies. Use x100 leverage and enjoy low 0.03% fees while trading contracts for BTC, ETH, and SOL.
Some other platforms that have margin trading sections are Deribit, Bit.com, and Delta Exchange. However, we recommend all users stick with larger exchanges if they want to focus on trading derivatives.
The main takeaway
Newcomers are often lured in by centralized exchanges advertising options as ways to get rich fast. People without any prior experience with financial markets should avoid working with assets that require them to utilize leverage. If you are interested in using automation for options, carefully examine your technical analysis strategy and make sure that it can generate correct signals reliably.