FAQ

Paper and live

What is the difference between paper and live?

Paper (the Lab calls it Emulator) uses real market prices, but the orders are not sent to the exchange. The bot simulates the fills. You can start it before you make an account or add exchange keys.

Live sends real orders to your exchange account, with your money.

Paper is a good way to learn how the bot behaves. It is not a promise of live results. On paper, fills are simulated. Real orders fill less often, and real fees and funding apply. Treat paper results as the best case.

Paper also fills some take-profits at prices the market did not reach after your entry. So paper results can look better than live. The Lab marks paper numbers with a PAPER tag.

Do I need an account to start?

No. Paper bots need no tradectl account and no exchange keys. Live trading on the Free plan also works without a tradectl account. You need an account to pay for Starter or Pro, to see server bots under My bots in the Lab, and for Telegram alerts.

Does shot make money?

We do not promise any profit. The settings a new bot starts with were tested on past data, and past results do not repeat. The Lab shows two kinds of numbers for a preset, and they are never mixed: Backtest (results on past data) and Live accounts (results of real accounts). Start on paper, then go live with small orders.

Plans and costs

Which coins can I trade on the Free plan?

Paper: any coin, with no limits. Live: BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and BNB perpetual futures, both USDT-margined (for example BTCUSDT) and coin-margined (for example BTCUSD_PERP). Dated contracts, such as XRPUSD_260925, are not on Free. Each live order is cut to $20, or to the exchange minimum if that is larger. For example, the smallest coin-margined BTC order is one contract, $100.

What does it cost?

• The plan: Free $0, Starter $20 a month (1 live bot with no limits), Pro $54 a month (3 live bots, then $18 a month for each extra bot). You pay with Binance Pay for 1 or 3 months at a time.
• Exchange fees: the exchange charges its normal trading fees on every live trade, and charges or pays funding on open futures positions. The profit the bot shows does not include funding. Which orders pay which fee: shot settings.
• A server, if you use one: about $10 to $12 a month. A watchdog server: about $5 a month.

We take no share of your profit.

What happens when my plan ends?

Nothing is closed. Your bots keep running and keep their take-profit and stop-loss orders. They move to the Free limits: no new entries on coins outside BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL and BNB, and new orders are cut to $20. There is no grace period. When you pay again, the bots go back to full size without a restart.

The plan does not renew by itself. If you connected Telegram, we send a reminder there 7 days and 1 day before it ends. Set your own reminder too.

I have more live bots than my plan pays for. What happens?

The extra bots still run, with the Free limits. The paid places go to the live bots that started first. The Lab tells you which bot runs with Free limits and why.

Running the bot

What happens when my PC sleeps or restarts?

The bot stops trading. It does not close anything, because it was not stopped on purpose. Take-profit and stop-loss orders already on the exchange keep working. Some positions can be left without a stop until the bot is back. After the PC wakes up or restarts, start the bot again in the Lab: it starts blank and does not take back the positions it left. Details: If the computer or server goes down.

For real money, run the bot on a server.

Which server should I rent, and what does it cost?

A small Linux server near your exchange (for Binance: Tokyo): 1 vCPU, 2 GB of memory, Ubuntu 24.04. For example a Linode 2 GB, a Vultr Regular Performance 1 vCPU / 2 GB, or an AWS Lightsail $12 plan. That is about $10 to $12 a month. Run one shot bot per server. See Path B: on a server.

Does stopping the bot close my positions?

Yes. When you stop a bot (Stop in the Lab; for a bot on a server, one line in the server's console, see Stopping and starting a server bot), it cancels its orders and closes all its open positions at market price before it exits. This can take up to 3 minutes. Positions of other bots on the same account are not touched.

Only a clean stop does this. A crash, a power cut or a sleeping PC closes nothing.

Can I trade by hand on the same exchange account?

Not on the bot's coins. The exchange puts your trade and the bot's trade on the same coin into one position, and the bot cannot tell them apart. It can close or resize your trade. Use a sub-account with its own key for hand trading.

Safety

Are my exchange keys safe?

• Make a key with Futures on and withdrawals off. The bot never needs withdrawals. With withdrawals off, a stolen key cannot move money out of your account.
• Lock the key to one IP address: your home IP, or your server's IP.
• The Lab sends your keys to the bot over the bot's encrypted connection. The bot keeps them in its settings on the machine where it runs. Anyone who can read files on that machine can read them, so keep that machine to yourself.
• The Lab shows a checklist when you save the keys. It warns you if withdrawals are on or the key is not locked to an IP.

See Your Binance API key for the steps on Binance.

What is a virtual stop-loss?

A setting that keeps the stop-loss inside the bot instead of on the exchange. It is off by default. Read Virtual stop-loss or exchange stop before you turn it on.

What is the watchdog, and do I need it?

The watchdog is a small program on a second machine. It reads your exchange account every few seconds and finds positions without a take-profit or stop-loss. In Alert only mode it tells you on Telegram. In Auto-protect mode it also closes them. It is your safety net when the bot's machine dies. You do not need it for paper trading. For real money, we recommend it. See A watchdog on a second machine.

Systems and exchanges

Which systems does the Lab run on?

Windows (64-bit). The bot and the shot strategy come inside the Lab installer. The Lab for macOS and Linux is coming soon.

A server bot runs on Linux with systemd, for example Ubuntu 24.04.

Which exchanges are supported?

Today: Binance, USDⓈ-M and COIN-M perpetual futures. The Lab sets Binance keys only.