TraderPlan Review: A Discord Trading Bot

in #cryptocurrency7 years ago (edited)

In the world of cryptocurrency, trading bots are a dime a dozen. There are multiple websites that allow you to buy or rent space in their signature bot. They are relatively easy to set up to make trades autonomously. It’s believed that anywhere from 70-80% of the trading done on exchanges are done so by bots. 

Suffice it to say, when a new one comes onto the scene, I usually just go, “oh look, another bot platform...” For the most part, they all do what they were created to do, autonomous trading. What separates the haves from the have nots in trading is the person behind the bot. If it is not programmed properly, it can easily result in heavy losses. 

So up until recently, only those with intermediate to advanced coding knowledge were able to successfully run trading bots in cryptocurrency. We’ve now seen Coinbase-style bots come out where it is as simple as: deposit, set a couple parameters, and click Start. Sure the gains are smaller, but the conservative settings of the program safeguard the users from slipping too far into the red.  

This style of autonomous trading is restrictive and cumbersome. Even more so, the advanced bot traders prey on the “stupidity” of simpler programs, sometimes racking up huge gains. 

When I stumbled acrossed TraderPlan, I actually stopped and remarked on it’s simple but ingenious addition to the trading bot niche. The program itself won’t blow you away with it’s design and aesthetic. Sometimes the best opportunities look like a turd. 

Based within Discord, the bot is controlled by straightforward commands that allow you to plan your trading strategy with ease. 

But why Discord? Well, what is smarter than one person? Two people. And what’s smarter than two people? 100 people. Especially if a lot of those 100 people are coders and programmers. You get my drift.  

TraderPlan can be invited into your Discord server and integrated into your community. This feels like the next step in the evolution of blockfolio management. 

This type of platform can open autonomous trading up to a whole new batch of traders. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts who lack significant coding knowledge can now diversify further with TraderPlan.  

More importantly, this can open the doors to significant amounts of new capital entering cryptocurrency for the first time. For every “whale” that exists in cryptocurrency, there are 50 who exist in other industries.  

These are businessmen and women, venture capitalists, individuals whose job is making money and managing risk. There is no doubt that the perceived risk of cryptocurrency is extremely high compared to traditional investment markets.  

However, trading bots do exist outside of cryptocurrency.  

For example: In fiat currency trading there is “Triangular Arbitrage,” where investors find discrepancies in value across multiple currencies and execute exchanges that result in profits. i.e. - $100 USD, exchanged to Pesos, exchanged to Yen, exchanged to back $103 USD.  

Before the advent of computers, this was a viable trading strategy. Now currency arbitrage trading is done exclusively by advanced algorithms. They identified minute discrepancies, executing exchanges in milliseconds, resulting in fractions of profit that add up over time.  

In business, no one wants to lose money, and everyone wants to look smart. And there is nothing smarter than someone who can have an autonomous trading program making money for them while they work on something else. 

One of the greatest barriers to entry into the cryptocurrency marketplace for these money-makers is risk management. If they don’t feel like that can successfully navigate the risk of digital currency, they will refrain from investing. 

TraderPlan is the first trading bot that I’ve found that provides an answer to that, without sacrificing the advanced flexibility an autonomous program needs to make profitable trades. They found this answer not through another program, but through people. 

More specifically, through people helping people. If you’re new to cryptocurrency, you would be extremely hesitant to relinquish control of your money to a program. However, if you find yourself in a community surrounded by people who not only know what they are doing, but have made money doing it, your confidence would grow significantly. 

The answer to the great conundrum of digital currency risk was very quite simple: community. It’s so much easier to avoid the pitfalls that inevitably occur if you surround yourself with those who have come before you and can guide you along the way. 

Additionally, if you’re already a successful trader, it’s important to know that the industry is always in flux. What works today, might not work next week, or next month. Adaptability is the thumb on the hand of autonomous trading, it is an evolutionary necessity for successful investing. 

If you’re looking to join a community of traders, look for ones that communicate often and share their ideas with the collective. If you’re even more ambitious, begin to grow one yourself. It takes time, but the time is well spent if you can build a group of people who are working towards a shared goal. 

Now, down to the nuts and bolts of TraderPlan. 

As I mentioned before, it is a Discord-based autonomous trading platform. They offer free and paid subscriptions, depending on your level of trading volume and how many active strategies you would like to have running. This allows an array of investors to get involved. The company breaks the subscriptions down into classic category names: Free, Shark, Whale, Dragon. 

Currently, TraderPlan is compatible with a number of large exchanges, including: Binance, Bittrex, HitBTC, Bitfinex, Kraken, and BTCMarkets. This is done by utilizing the API key for each exchange and linking them to TraderPlan, directly in your Discord server. They are planning to expand to even more exchanges.  

At the moment, there are two trading strategies that are active, Straddle and Pivot, with more to come. Each present there own advantages depending on the investor’s goals.  

For the new investors, the primary purpose of the Straddle strategy is risk management but still profit off of short-term price fluctuations. Pivot, on the other hand, analyzes past data to find support and resistance levels and makes trades to maximizes profits and minimize losses.  

“Plan the Trade, Trade the Plan.” That’s the platform’s slogan. 

Simple, elegant; exactly what you’d expect from a company named TraderPlan. A company that couldn’t be bothered with coming up with a fancy name because they were too busy creating something that just works. Something that has the possibility of changing the way we do autonomous trading. 

You can find the Frequently Asked Questions here and explore the website. The real fun begins when you launch Discord and either find a server with TraderPlan on it, or create a server of your own and invite TraderPlan into it. 

My preferred server choice: East Coast Crypto. A community that has been around for some time and is filled with some extremely smart people. 

The Discord server that TraderPlan calls home is called ‘Crypto Unicorn’, run by a gentleman by the name of Casey Watkins. I’m convinced that he doesn’t sleep because he is an ever-present force on the channels, answering questions and solving problems.

I’m just getting my feet wet into what TraderPlan has to offer. With such a new service, one that already offers so much, I see this becoming a go to option for those who are serious about diversifying into autonomous trading.  

I will do a follow up review of my experience with this platform in a few weeks. I look forward to seeing the results. 

TraderPlan Website: https://www.traderplan.io/
East Coast Crypto Discord: https://discord.gg/FfGv2PN
Crypto Unicorn Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/QDfd9B