Futures grid bot FAQ

Common Terms in Futures Grid Strategies

Common Q&A for Futures Grid Strategies

Q: How are orders initialized after creating a futures grid strategy?

Order initialization depends on the strategy direction (Long, Short, Neutral):

• Long Mode: Uses investment amount to place buy orders at each grid to open long positions. Some orders may be filled immediately at market price. The strategy only holds long positions.
• Short Mode: Uses investment amount to place sell orders at each grid to open short positions. Some orders may be filled immediately at market price. The strategy only holds short positions.
• Neutral Mode:
  • Places buy orders below the market price.
  • Places sell orders above the market price.
  • No positions at startup; positions are opened only when the market price touches a grid. The strategy can hold either long or short positions.

Initialization Process:

1. Single Grid Buy/Sell Volume Calculation: The strategy first calculates the contract size for each grid based on your total investment (excluding reserved margin) and selected leverage.
2. Order Creation: Once the single grid buy/sell volume is determined, the strategy places buy or sell orders according to your chosen direction.

Special Option Explanation:

• "Open Position on Creation" (enabled by default): If disabled, long mode only places buy orders below market price, and short mode only places sell orders above market price, avoiding initial position opening.

Q: How does the futures grid long mode operate?

After the initialization described above, the strategy places buy orders at each grid level within the price range:

• Order Execution & Auto Replenishment: When a buy order is filled (market price touches the grid price), a sell order is automatically placed at the next higher grid.
• Cyclic Operation: The cycle of buy low → sell high continues automatically.

Example (BTCUSDT Perpetual Contract):

• Price Range: 100,000 ~ 110,000 USDT

• Grid Mode: Arithmetic

• Number of Grids: 10

• Leverage: 3x

• Current Market Price: 105,800 USDT

• Investment Currency: USDT

• Initial Orders: Buy orders at 100,000, 101,000, ..., 109,000

• Order Execution: Buy orders above the current price (e.g., 105,800) will be filled immediately.

• Sell Order Placement: When a buy order is filled, the strategy places a sell order at the next higher grid price (e.g., after a 105,000 buy order is filled, a sell order is placed at 106,000). This forms a buy-sell order pair. Once both orders are filled, grid arbitrage is realized.

• Continuous Automation: This process will automatically loop—buy low, sell high—until you manually stop the strategy, ensuring continuous execution without manual intervention.

Note: If you disable the "Open Position on Creation" setting, the strategy will only place buy orders below the current market price during initialization. In this example, only buy orders below 105,800 will be placed. When the market price rises (e.g., breaks 106,000), the system will dynamically activate higher buy orders. The main advantage of disabling this setting is to avoid concentrated position opening at the start. The strategy will respond dynamically to price fluctuations, reducing initial risk exposure while maintaining agility to market changes.

Q: How does the futures grid short mode operate?

After the initialization described above, the strategy places sell orders at each grid level within the price range:

• Order Execution & Auto Replenishment: When a sell order is filled (market price touches the grid price), a buy order is automatically placed at the next lower grid.
• Cyclic Operation: The cycle of sell high → buy low continues automatically.

Example (BTCUSDT Perpetual Contract):

• Price Range: 100,000 ~ 110,000 USDT

• Grid Mode: Arithmetic

• Number of Grids: 10

• Leverage: 3x

• Current Market Price: 105,800 USDT

• Investment Currency: USDT

• Initial Orders: Sell orders at 101,000, 102,000, ..., 110,000

• Order Execution: Sell orders below the current price (e.g., 105,800) will be filled immediately.

• Buy Order Placement: When a sell order is filled, the strategy places a buy order at the next lower grid price (e.g., after a 106,000 sell order is filled, a buy order is placed at 105,000). This forms a sell-buy order pair. Once both orders are filled, grid arbitrage is realized.

• Continuous Automation: This process will automatically loop—sell high, buy low—until you manually stop the strategy, ensuring continuous execution without manual intervention.

Note: If you disable the "Open Position on Creation" setting, the strategy will only place sell orders above the current market price during initialization. In this example, only sell orders above 105,800 will be placed. If the market price drops (e.g., falls below 105,000), the system will dynamically activate lower sell orders. The main advantage of disabling this setting is to avoid concentrated position opening at the start. The strategy will respond dynamically to price fluctuations, reducing initial risk exposure while maintaining agility to market changes.

Q: How does the futures grid neutral mode operate?

After the initialization described above, unlike long or short modes, the neutral mode aims to profit from two-way price fluctuations by placing orders both above and below the market price:

Order Layout:

• Below market price: Buy orders
• Above market price: Sell orders

Execution Logic:

• Buy order filled → Place a sell order at the next higher grid
• Sell order filled → Place a buy order at the next lower grid

Example (BTCUSDT Perpetual Contract):

• Price Range: 100,000 ~ 110,000 USDT
• Grid Mode: Arithmetic
• Number of Grids: 10
• Leverage: 3x
• Current Market Price: 105,800 USDT
• Investment Currency: USDT

At initialization, the strategy will place:

• Buy orders at 100,000, 101,000, 102,000, 103,000, 104,000, 105,000

• Sell orders at 107,000, 108,000, 109,000, 110,000

• Why is there no sell order at 106,000?

  • If a sell order is placed at 106,000, it would create a short arbitrage group between 106,000 and 105,000, while 105,000 to 106,000 already has a long arbitrage group. This would cause both long and short operations within the same grid, leading to strategy confusion. Therefore, to keep the neutral grid operation simple, the grid closest to the current market price will only have a sell order.

• Order Execution: As the price fluctuates, buy or sell orders are triggered.

• Reverse Order Placement: When a buy order is filled (e.g., at 105,000), a sell order is placed at the next higher grid price (106,000). Conversely, if a sell order is filled (e.g., at 107,000), a buy order is placed at the next lower grid price (106,000). Each buy-sell or sell-buy pair forms a complete trading cycle, aiming to capture profits from two-way market volatility.

• Continuous Automation: This cycle repeats throughout the strategy's operation, ensuring the grid strategy executes consistently without manual intervention.

Q: Why might a futures grid strategy stop unexpectedly?

1. Liquidation (most common): High leverage + adverse market movement causes margin to be depleted.
2. Trading Pair Delisting: Official announcement; users will receive a warning.
3. Copy Trading Source Stopped: The lead trader stops their strategy.
4. Position Limit Reached: The platform limits the position size or ratio per user for each trading pair. If your manual and strategy positions combined reach the limit, the strategy will stop automatically. Once your available position limit has sufficient capacity again, you can manually tap Resume bots. To free up capacity, you can reduce positions or open orders in other manual futures or bots, or wait until the platform's total position value for that futures increases before trying again. Note that the system will not resume automatically — you'll need to do this manually.
5. Contract Pair Info Change: Official announcement, e.g., maximum leverage for the contract pair is reduced.
6. Other Reasons: Submit the strategy ID to customer support for investigation.

Q: What do the P&L metrics in futures grid orders mean?

Q: How is grid profit calculated in futures grid?

Grid profit = The sum of all completed buy-sell grid profits; only fully completed "buy → sell" closed loop grids are counted.

• Single grid profit = (Sell average price - Buy average price) × Volume - Buy fee - Sell fee
• Example:
  • Price difference profit = (111,500 - 111,000) × 0.0001 = 0.05 USDT
  • Grid profit = 0.05 - 0.00222 - 0.00223 = 0.04555 USDT

Q: How is unpaired profit calculated in futures grid?

Unpaired profit = Total profit - Grid profit; refers to the portion of total profit not attributable to completed grids.

Unpaired profit mainly includes:

• Unrealized P&L of current positions
• Funding fees
• Liquidation fees incurred during forced liquidation
• Some trading fees:
  • Case 1: When closing a position, it does not form a grid arbitrage pair, so the closing fee is included in unpaired profit.
  • Case 2: During opening or volatile markets, orders may be filled as market orders (e.g., during price spikes), and fees are charged at the Taker fee rate (usually higher than the Maker fee rate). However, grid profit calculation uses the Maker fee rate, so the excess fee is included in unpaired profit (as a negative value).
• Price differences: The difference between actual fill price and theoretical grid price. For example:
  • If you set a BTCUSDT perpetual grid, long direction, price range 100,000 to 110,000, 10 grids, and the market price at initialization is 105,800.
  • At strategy creation, theoretical buy orders above 105,800 are placed at 106,000 to 109,000. However, these buy orders are filled at market price (~105,800) during initialization.
  • For the top grid (between 109,000 and 110,000), there is a sell order at 110,000. If filled, grid profit is the difference between 110,000 and 109,000, while the difference between 109,000 and the actual fill price 105,800 is included in unpaired profit.

Q: What is "Auto Reserved Margin" when creating a futures grid?

When creating a futures grid strategy, your total investment is divided into two parts:

1. Actual Margin: The portion used for placing grid orders, included in single grid buy/sell volume calculation.
2. Reserved Margin: Funds set aside as a buffer, not included in single grid buy/sell volume calculation, only used as margin.

Purpose of reserved margin:

• Reduces liquidation risk
• Covers funding fees

How to set reserved margin:

• Enable auto allocation: System reserves a proportion automatically
• Manual adjustment: You can manually set the reserved amount

Note:

1. Setting reserved margin will affect the strategy's liquidation price. It is generally recommended to keep sufficient margin to reduce liquidation risk.
2. After the strategy starts, you can still increase or decrease margin via the margin adjustment function, giving you full control over risk exposure and margin level.

Q: Can I add margin to orders while the futures grid is running? How does it work, and are there any risks?

Yes, you can add investment to a running futures grid strategy at any time. The added currency must match the investment currency selected when creating the strategy.

How it works: When you add investment, the system processes as follows:

1. Risk Buffer Reservation: The system automatically reserves a portion of the added funds as extra risk buffer. This enhances the position's ability to withstand market volatility and helps reduce the risk of forced liquidation. After reserving, the remaining funds are added to available trading funds.
2. Dynamic Order Size Adjustment: The strategy recalculates the single grid buy/sell volume based on the updated total investment and real-time market data.
3. Order Group Update Policy: The timing of fund adjustment takes effect differently for different grid order statuses:
   1. Unfilled Orders: For pending orders (e.g., buy orders waiting in a long grid), the order amount is immediately updated to the new, larger size.
   2. Ongoing Grid Cycles: For grid cycles already in progress (e.g., buy order filled, waiting for sell order), the sell order amount does not change immediately. The new order size will apply in the next new grid cycle after the current cycle completes ("buy low, sell high" process finishes).

Important Risk Warning: While adding investment can increase potential returns, you must be aware of the following risks:

1. Position and Risk Increase Together: Adding investment directly increases your contract position and margin usage. With leverage, both potential profit and loss are proportionally amplified. If the market moves against you, you may face larger losses.
2. Fund Withdrawal Restriction: Normally, you cannot partially withdraw the initial investment during the strategy's operation. To withdraw funds, you can only use the margin withdrawal or profit withdrawal functions.

Q: Can I modify parameters while the futures grid is running? How does it work, and are there any risks?

Yes. During strategy operation, you can modify core parameters such as price range and grid number. Note that modifying core parameters triggers a re-initialization process, which may involve risks.

How it works: When you modify core parameters and confirm, the system will automatically execute the following steps without requiring you to manually stop the strategy:

1. Order Reset & Re-initialization: The strategy cancels all existing unfilled grid orders. Then, based on the new parameters and your current assets allocated to the strategy (including margin and contract positions), the system immediately calculates and generates a new set of grid buy and sell orders.
2. Asset Reallocation: The new grid is built entirely based on your current assets. In some cases, to match the new grid price structure, the system may need to buy or sell a small amount at market price to adjust the margin and contract position ratio. This may result in market order P&L, which will be included in unpaired profit.
3. Essentially a "Seamless Restart": This operation is similar to manually stopping the current strategy and immediately creating a new one with new parameters, but is done automatically and continuously by the system. For example, if you initially invested 1,000 USDT and the strategy asset is 800 USDT when modifying parameters, you are essentially opening a new order with 800 USDT. If the trading pair price returns to the original level, closing the order will not return 1,000 USDT; your return may be less than 1,000 USDT.
4. Grid Group & Profit Reinvestment: All existing grid cycles will end. Any realized but unwithdrawn grid profit will be automatically added to your available assets and used to build the new grid, i.e., reinvested.

Important Risks & Notes: Modifying running strategy parameters is an advanced operation. Please be aware of the following risks:

1. May Trigger Market Orders and Losses: During re-initialization, market buy/sell operations may occur to adjust the asset mix for the new grid. If the market moves unfavorably, this may cause immediate losses.
2. Parameter Modification May Stop the Strategy: If the market is volatile and the strategy assets are low when modifying parameters, the new single grid buy/sell volume may be zero, causing the strategy to stop automatically.
3. Liquidation Price May Change Significantly: New parameters will change your position structure and risk exposure, directly affecting your liquidation price. After modifying parameters, check and confirm the new liquidation price and assess your risk. You may need to manually add margin to maintain safety.
4. Reserved Margin Will Not Be Used: The reserved margin set at creation will remain unchanged during re-initialization and will not be used for new orders.

Q: When I copy a futures grid strategy via copy trading (profit sharing), which parameters are copied?

Note: When you copy a strategy via copy trading (profit sharing), most basic settings such as grid range, grid number, and direction will be copied from the lead trader's strategy. Advanced settings like start/stop conditions and take profit/stop loss will also be copied. Some core settings may be hidden as they are special configurations chosen by the lead trader. You can select your investment amount and independently decide how much to reserve as margin to help prevent liquidation, as well as modify leverage.

Note that actions performed by the lead strategy during operation, such as editing parameters or adding margin, will not be copied to your running strategy. Also, if the lead strategy stops, the copied strategy will also stop automatically, and all assets will be sold at market price.

Note that copy trading involves profit sharing, so the "withdraw profit" function is not available for copy trading strategies.

Q: How are take profit and stop loss triggered in futures grid?

Currently supported take profit and stop loss methods:

1. Price: When the "latest price" reaches the set value, the system will cancel all orders and close positions at the best possible price as quickly as possible.
2. Return Rate: When the "total return rate" reaches the set value, the system will cancel all orders and close positions at the best possible price as quickly as possible.

Note: The above values are only trigger conditions. After triggering, due to market volatility and changes, the actual closing price and the take profit/stop loss price may not match exactly; or the total return rate after closing may not match the take profit/stop loss return rate.

Q: How do I stop a futures grid strategy?

You have several ways to stop a futures grid strategy, including manual and automatic methods:

1. Manually Stop the Strategy:
   1. To manually stop your strategy, simply open the strategy details window and click the "Stop" button.
   2. If you are not a lead trader, you will see two options:
      a. Stop the strategy and close all positions at market price: your position(s) will be closed. You can view the records in your closed bots history.
      b. Stop the strategy but do not close positions: your position(s) will be retained. You can check your holdings under related positions in the relevant bot, and manually close the position(s) if needed. A stopped bot can't be restarted or have additional positions added. You can close your position(s) and create a new bot to continue trading based on your needs.
   3. Note: Lead traders can only stop the strategy and close all positions at market price.
2. Set Take Profit/Stop Loss Conditions:
   1. You can set your take profit (TP) and stop loss (SL) when creating the strategy.
   2. These settings can also be edited at any time during strategy operation, allowing you to adjust as needed.
   3. Once your take profit/stop loss is triggered, your positions will be sold at market price.
3. Set Stop Conditions:
   1. For more customization, you can configure stop conditions based on: price or RSI triggers; TradingView signals.
   2. Once the stop condition is triggered, the strategy will act according to your settings, and if you have configured to stop the strategy and close all positions at market price, your positions will be sold at market price.

Q: Is it possible to have negative arbitrage profit when using futures grid trading?

Yes, it is possible.

Core Mechanism & Normal Safeguard:

When creating orders or modifying parameters, the system will calculate in real time based on your current fee tier (VIP level) and network parameters (price range, grid number). Only when the system confirms that, under current market conditions, the price difference profit from a complete "buy low, sell high" grid cycle exceeds the total two-way fee (maker fee rate), will the parameters be allowed. This mechanism is designed to provide a safety margin for positive returns.

Potential Risk Scenario:

Despite the above safeguard, risk still exists in dynamic situations: VIP Level Change: If your fee tier (VIP level) is downgraded (e.g., from VIP 3 to VIP 1), your actual trading fee rate increases. This may cause the price difference profit per grid to no longer cover the higher fee cost, turning the arbitrage into a net loss.

Risk Control Tips & Suggestions:

The platform will continuously monitor such risks. If the system detects that an order may fall into a "negative arbitrage" state due to fee changes, a clear warning will be displayed on the order management page. If you see such a warning, it means the order is continuously consuming your principal to pay fees. We strongly recommend you monitor and evaluate promptly, and consider manually closing the order to avoid unnecessary losses from prolonged operation.

Q: Will a pre-market contract switching to an official contract stop the strategy?

No, it will not stop the strategy.

Q: Why do I sometimes see yellow orders in the futures grid order list?

The yellow order marker is an important risk and status indicator. It means that the grid order at that level cannot be placed normally for specific reasons and is in a "blocked" or "pending" state. Our goal is to ensure you can fully utilize your margin and not miss any arbitrage opportunities. Please pay attention to the following two scenarios and take appropriate action as prompted. This will help you better manage investment risk and protect your interests.

Scenario 1: Insufficient Available Margin

Reason: When the strategy's position is in a floating loss or market volatility increases, the margin required to maintain existing positions and orders may increase, resulting in "insufficient available margin." The system cannot provide the required margin for new grid orders.

When it happens: Usually occurs when the order has a certain degree of loss.

Suggested action: This is the most common situation. We recommend you immediately add margin to the strategy to restore available margin. Once replenished, yellow orders will automatically return to normal pending status.

Scenario 2: Maximum Supported Leverage for the Contract Lowered

Reason: The platform may adjust the maximum supported leverage for certain contract pairs (e.g., from 50x at creation to 20x) for risk control. If your strategy's preset leverage exceeds the new limit, related orders cannot be placed due to non-compliance with the new risk rules.

When it happens: Depends on platform-wide risk control adjustments.

Suggested action: Please pay attention to official platform announcements. If yellow orders are caused by this reason, it is usually recommended to close the current order and recreate the strategy with parameters that comply with the new leverage limit to ensure normal operation.

Q: Why did my futures grid profit withdrawal fail?

A profit withdrawal failure may be caused by any of the following reasons:

• Part of the initial investment is subject to fund restrictions and temporarily can‘t be redeemed
• The strategy is still running and the conditions for profit withdrawal have not yet been met
• The account is subject to risk control restrictions
• Profit withdrawal isn't supported for futures grid strategies created using a loss protection voucher
• Profit withdrawal isn't supported for copy trading strategies

If the page doesn't clearly indicate the reason for the failure, we recommend following the on-screen prompts to troubleshoot.

Q: How do I pause a Futures grid bot?

When you pause a bot, the system will cancel all open pending orders (including manually added position orders and safety orders), but will retain your current position and bot parameters. TP/SL will continue to function normally, though the estimated liquidation price may change due to market movements.

On the app:

1. Select Trade > Bots & Copy > My bots
2. Find the relevant bots > Select More > Pause > Confirm

On the web:

1. Select Trade > Bots & Copy
2. Select Futures grid on the left
3. Under Ongoing, select Futures grid
4. Select More (three dots) to the right of the relevant bot > Pause > Confirm

Q: How do I resume a Futures grid bot?

When you resume a bot, the system will fill any missed safety orders at market price during the stop period and re-place the remaining safety orders according to the original bot parameters. The budget for the current cycle remains unchanged, and you also have the option to add margin. After resuming, the bot will resume placing orders and trading, and the estimated liquidation price may adjust based on market conditions and margin changes.

On the app:

1. Select Trade > Bots & Copy > My bots
2. Find the relevant bots > Select More > Resume > Confirm

On the web:

1. Select Trade > **Bots & Copy
2. Select Futures grid on the left
3. Under Ongoing, select Futures grid
4. Select More (three dots) to the right of the relevant bot > Resume > Confirm

Q: What are Training settings?

The trailing feature automatically adjusts the grid's price range when the market price breaks through the current boundary, shifting the grid up or down with price movements. This improves capital utilization and reduces the chance of bot stopping due to price going out of range.

Q: What is Trailing Up/Trailing Down?

Trailing up:
When you enable Trailing up, the system automatically shifts the entire grid range upward when the market price breaks above the upper boundary.

• Long grid: cancels the lowest-tier orders and places new orders above the new range, shifting the grid range upward.
• Short grid: places new orders above the new range, pushing the upper boundary of the grid range higher.

This feature works best in upward-trending markets. It allows the grid to continuously follow price movements and reduces strategy idle time.

Trailing down:
When you enable Trailing down, the system automatically shifts the entire grid range downward when the market price drops below the lower boundary.

• Short grid: cancels the highest-tier orders and places new orders below the new range, shifting the grid range downward.
• Long grid: places new orders below the new range, pushing the lower boundary of the grid range lower.

This feature works best in downward-trending markets. It allows the grid to continuously follow price movements and reduces strategy idle time.

Q: How do I enable the Trailing grid?

**On the app (version 6.181.0 and above): **

1. Go to Trade > Bots & Copy > Futures grid > Manual
2. Under Advanced settings, select Trailing up or Trailing down and set the maximum number of shifts

**On the web: **

1. Go to Trade > Bots & Copy
2. Select Futures grid on the left
3. Under Advanced settings, select Trailing up or Trailing down and set the maximum number of shifts