FrostyBot is a minimal endpoint that is designed to be used with webhooks in Tradingview alerts. It receives simple commands and translates them to specific exchange orders and sends them to the exchange. This allows you to write your strategies and do your backtesting on Tradingview, and then easily integrate your strategies with your exchange once you are happy with the backtest. This then allows you to use Tradingview as your trading engine, with Frostybot merely facilitating the integration to your exchange.
The way it works is simple:
- There are four main trading commands, namely long, short, close and cancel. Depending on the parameters you give these commands, you can open long or short positions, close positions, take profit (partial close) or cancel existing unfilled orders. The bot supports both limit and market orders and the commands are triggered either via a Tradingview alert webhook, or manually by you via the commandline.
- The size of the order is given using the size=xxx parameter, and can either be given in USD such as size=10000. or by a factor of your account balance, such as size=2x or size=200%
- If you specify the price using the price=xxx parameter, a limit order will be used. If you omit the price, a market order will be used at the current price.
- Going short if you are already long will place a short order for the size of your existing long position plus the amount of contracts you requested short, leaving you short the size requested. For example, if you are already long 10000 contracts and you enter a short order for 5000 contracts, the bot will actually place a sell order for 15000 contracts, leaving you 5000 contracts short after the order is filled (vice versa for short to long flips). This is done to simplify the bot logic to be written in Pinescript.
- If you are long 10000 contracts, and you enter a 15000 long order, the bot will place a buy order for only 5000 contracts, leaving you 15000 contracts long when the order is filled. If you are already long more contracts than requested, no additional order will be placed (vice versa for short orders). This allows you to control the maximum size you would like to be long or short, irrelevent of how many times Pinescript triggers the order.
- Anything that can trigger an alert in Tradingview can be used with this bot for trade execution, such as the crossing of a trendline, EMA crosses, etc. If you create your own Pinescript studies, use the alertcondition function to define alerts for buy, sell, stop loss and take profit orders as you need, and then create alerts on those alert conditions to trigger the bot. The possibilities are endless!
- CryptoMF from the Krown's Crypto Cave Discord group
- Barnz from the Krown's Crypto Cave Discord group
Dedicated to @christiaan's mom, not only is she hot, but she's a classy lady too.
Use this bot at your own risk. The authors accept no responsibility for losses incurred through using this software. This is a 0.x release which means it's beta software. So it may and probably will have some bugs. We strongly advise you to use a sub-account with a limited balance, or a testnet account to ensure that the bot is profitable before going live with any strategy. While we have gone to great lengths to test the software, if you do find any bugs, please report them to us and we will sort them out, but if you lose your account, that's on you.
Currently Bitmex, Deribit and FTX exchanges are supported for perpetual and futures markets. For a list of markets supported on your exchange, use the <exchange>:markets command. The bot has been extensively tested on these markets, but should work on others as well:
- Bitmex: BTC/USD and ETH/USD
- Deribit: BTC-PERPETUAL and ETH-PERPETUAL
- FTX: BTC-PERP and ETH-PERP
We will add more exchanges based on user demand. Keeping the code cross-compatible over all the exchanges is quite complex so we will only consider adding additional exchanges if a significant number of users request it. Bear in mind that this software is free, so we are under no obgligation to add features or provide support, but we will endevour to help out when and where we can. Support can also be found in #the-lab channel on Krown's Crypto Cave Discord community. There are a lot of very knowlegeable guys willing to help out if you need assistance.
This bot is specifically designed to execute orders based on webhook alerts received from Tradingview. If you have used Autoview in the past you will understand the concept of converting Tradingview strategies and scripts into executable orders on your exchange. However, unlike Autoview, Frostybot makes use of an external web server (VPS, AWS etc), so does not require your PC to be powered on or your browser to be open for it to work.
In order to use Frostybot, you will need the following:
- A Linux server which is publicly accessible over the Internet (either by public IP address, DDNS or DNAT). You must be able to access the web server publicly for Frostybot to work. We recommend using the free Ubuntu server available on Amazon Lightsail. They also offer a free public IP address. There is also a handy guide here which will show you how to set up your Lightsail VPS and Frostybot.
- Apache2/Nginx (whichever you prefer). It is your responsibility to secure your web server. We accept no responsibility if your server is hacked. We have provided the necessary .htaccess file, and it is up to you to ensure that Apache uses it (AllowOveride All setting). We also highly recommend that you secure it with HTTPS (using LetsEncrypt or something similar). It's free, so there's really no excuse for having an insecure web server.
- PHP 7.2 or higher. You will need the following PHP modules installed (php-curl, php-mbstring, php-json, php-sqlite3, php-cli), and you will need to ensure that PHP is configured on your web server.
- If you want to clone Frostybot from Github, you will need to have git installed.
Note: We have a handy install script to automatically install and configure Apache, PHP and Frostybot. Apache and PHP will only be installed if no web server is detected. It will also install git, nano and wget if they are not already installed.
- We have a quick and dirty walkthrough on how to setup Frostybot on Amazon Lightsail
- If you don't want to use Amazon Lightsail, check out our Installation and Configuration Guide.
Version 0.9 has been completely redeveloped from the ground up. The command syntax is different and there is no way to import your old configuration into the new version. We recommend that you install this new version from scratch and remove any prior versions of Frostybot that you have installed.
We will pay more attention to backwards compatibility once we are out of beta, but until then this is the wild west and changes will happen while we find the best way to get certain things done.
The current version of FrostyBot is 0.9. This version constitutes a massive overhaul of the entire codebase and is basically a redevelopment from scratch, with loads of new features and capabilities.
A big shoutout to everybody who has contributed and collaborated on this project. The changelog is available at FrostyBot Changelog.
Its recommended to use sub-accounts to limit risk. First follow the instructions in the Install Guide. Then configure your Tradingview alerts to call the webhook using the appropriate commands:
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Add your Exchange API account information to the bot configuration using the config command as follows:
./frostybot config stub=deribitdemo exchange=deribit apiKey="<your api key>" secret="<your api secret>" description="Deribit Test Account" testnet=trueThe stub parameter can be anything you like, as long as it's alphanumeric with no spaces. You will use the stub when sending commands to the bot, so make it something short and simple. I've just called it "deribitdemo", but if you wanted to use 2 accounts on deribit, you could call the one stub "deribitmain" and the other one "deribittest" for example, it's entirely up to you.
The exchange parameter can be ftx, bitmex or deribit, depending on which exchange you use. The apiKey and secret are self explanatory, simply add your own api key and secret there (Important: notice the uppercase K in apiKey, it's important to keep it like that). The description field can be anything you like, but if you use spaces remember to enclose it in "quotes". Lastly, the testnet parameter just lets the bot know which network to connect to. If you want to test it out for a bit, create an api key on the testnet and try it out. The testnet parameter only works for Deribit and Bitmex, because FTX does not have a testnet.
Lastly, if you are using the FTX exchange, and you are using a subaccount, please also add subaccount="<sub account name>". This is required by the FTX API, and it will not work until you add it to the config, but only if you're using subaccounts.
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You can list your current config by using the following command:
./frostybot configIf you would like to remove a config, use the command like this:
./frostybot config stub=deribitdemo delete=trueIf you just want to update an existing config, just rerun the config command with the same stub name and the other values will be updated.
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Using the deribitdemo config I made above, some example command syntax would be as follows:
deribitdemo:long size=5000 price=8000 symbol=BTC-PERPETUAL (This example provides the symbol on the commandline) deribitdemo:short size=5000 price=8000 symbol=BTCUSD (This example uses a symbol mapping in the config to convert BTCUSD to BTC-PERPETUAL) deribitdemo:short size=5000 price=8000 (This example uses the "default" symbol mapping in the config which is mapped to BTC-PERPETUAL)
Note: The order size is always in USD, and the symbol is required for most exchange-specific commands (unless a default symbol mapping has been provided in the config file, in which case that default symbol will be used if no symbol is provided in the command).
To get a list of supported symbols for an exchange, use the following command:
./frostybot deribitdemo:markets
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Once all your accounts are configured, ensure that the db/, and log/ directories are writable by the account that you use you run your web server (for example, www-data on Ubuntu). If for some reason you cannot make those directories writable, you can change the location of the directories in the cfg/cfg.config.php file. If you do change those settings, remember to relocate the directories to the new location. Check out the FrostyBot Install Guide for more information on how to do this correctly.
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Run some FrostyBot CLI commands to check if you have done the configuration correctly and to ensure that you are able to reach the exchange (Some CLI commands examples are listed further below).
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Check that your bot is accessible over the public internet by browsing to it's address. You should see a message similar to the following:
{ "results": { "code": 900, "message": "Request received from invalid address: 123.69.123.69", "type": "ERROR" }, "messages": [] }
Note: This error is expected, but its a good way to check if your bot is responding over http/https. You will receive this specific error because the bot has built-in security that will only accept http/https requests from Tradingview's servers. You can still communicate directly with Frostybot using CLI commands. If you need to communicate to the bot over http, you will need to add your IP address into the "whitelist" by using the following command:
./frostybot whitelist add="<ip address>" description="An optional description for your own info"
By default, only Tradingview's servers have access over http/https. Any other machines that you want to allow to access the bot will need to be added to the whitelist. If you want to remove an IP address from the whitelist, use this command:
./frostybot whitelist delete="<ip address>"
Note that you cannot delete the default Tradingview addresses in the whitelist, as they are protected against deletion.
Once you've confirmed that Frostybot is responding over the internet, you can start creating Tradingview alerts:
- In Tradingview, create a new alert.
- The Webhook URL should point to your bot address.
- The message box of the Tradingview alert should have the bot command(s), here are some exmaples:
Tradingview Alert Messagebox Examples:
deribit:long symbol=BTC-PERPETUAL size=1000 ($1000 market buy on Deribit BTC-PERPETUAL)
ftx:short symbol=BTC-PERP size=2000 price=7600 ($2000 limit sell at $7600 on FTX BTC-PERP)
bitmex:long symbol=BTC/USD size=3x (3x long market buy on Bitmex BTC/USD)
ftx:close size=50% symbol=ETH-PERP (Market close 50% of oposition on FTX ETH-PERP)
deribit:close symbol=ETH-PERPETUAL (Close entire ETH-PERPETUAL position on Deribit)
ftx:short size=200% symbol=BTC-PERP (Market sell 200% of your account / 2x short)
NOTE: Anything in the message box of the Tradingview alert is interpreted as a command, so do not use the message box for a general description! Also note, you can provide multiple commands in the message box, as long as they are each on a new line. For example, you can close all your open stop loss orders before entering a new position.
Here is an example of a Tradingview alert showing multiple commands:
Once you have found a winning strategy (or made your own using Pinescript on Tradingview), you can set up multiple alerts for long, short, and close (takeprofit/stoploss) orders and let Tradingview and Frostybot fully automate your trading!
Sample study in Tradingview showing buy, sell and take profit alert points
List of tradingview alerts showing long, short and take profit orders
CLI Examples:
Other than Tradingview firing off webhooks, you can also communicate manually with Frostybot using the commandline interface (CLI). Here are some CLI examples that you can try out.
./frostybot deribit:long symbol=BTC-PERPETUAL size=1000 ($1000 market buy on Deribit BTC-PERPETUAL)
./frostybot ftx:short symbol=BTC-PERP size=2000 price=7600 ($2000 limit sell at $7600 on FTX BTC-PERP)
./frostybot bitmex:long symbol=BTC/USD size=3x (3x market buy on Bitmex BTC/USD)
./frostybot ftx:close size=50% symbol=ETH-PERP (Market close 50% of position on FTX ETH-PERP)
./frostybot deribit:close symbol=ETH-PERPETUAL (Close entire ETH-PERPETUAL position on Deribit)
./frostybot ftx:short size=200% symbol=BTC-PERP (Market sell 200% of your account / 2x short)
./frostybot ftx:markets (Show avaiable markets on FTX exchange)
./frostybot bitmex:market symbol=BTC/USD (Show market data for BTC/USD on Bitmex)
./frostybot ftx:trades (Recent trades, oldest listed first)
./frostybot deribit:balance (Current account balance on Deribit)
./frostybot bitmex:orders status=open (Open orders on Bitmex)
./frostybot ftx:cancel id=<orderid> (Cancel a specific order on FTX)
./frostybot deribit:cancel id=all (Cancel all open orders on Deribit)
./frostybot bitmex:cancelall (Cancel all open orders on Bitmex)
./frostybot ftx:cancel symbol=ADA-PERP (Cancel all ADA-PERP orders on FTX)
./frostybot bitmex:positions (Show current positions on Bitmex, if any)
./frostybot deribit:position symbol=BTC-PERPETUAL (Show current BTC-PERPETUAL position on Deribit)
./frostybot ftx:ohlcv symbol=BTC-PERP timeframe=1h (Show current hourly OHLCV data for FTX BTC-PERP)
./frostybot ftx:ohlcv symbol=BTC/USD timeframe=720 (Show current 12hr OHLCV data for Bitmex BTC/USD)
./frostybot config (Show your current configuration)
./frostybot log (Show log file for bot, last 20 lines by default)
./frostybot log lines=50 (Show the last 50 log file lines)
./frostybot log filter=error (Show all lines containing errors)
./frostybot log clear=true (Clear the log file)
./frostybot flushcache (Flush the cache file, for troubleshooting)
NOTE: The command syntax for Tradingview is exactly the same as for the CLI (except for the addition of ./frostybot in front of the command on the CLI). Any command that you can run on the CLI you can also run using webhooks. While this may not necessarily be useful for Tradingview, it can come in handy if you want to integrate something else with Frostybot. All Frostybot output is in JSON, which makes external integration, like scripting and charting quite simple.
If you find a bug in the software, kindly report it here so that we can properly track it.