Bitcoin Forum

I've read in multiple places and seen videos where people say don't keep your monery on an exchange, keep it offline in something like a Ledger instead. What if you want to use a bot to buy & sell? Does your crypto have to be on the exchange if using one?

Of course you would really be needing to have those funds on an exchange wallet.You cant just directly make off some trades externally without any platforms that had been used or
where those been integrated for you to do automated trades.

Its part of the risk but if you don't like to prolong those coins on a platform then you can always opt to make active deposits and withdrawals.

Depends on your preference or risk factor but somehow it would really be costly when it comes to fees.

But take my advice, bots are risky. They follow a command and won't stop (even if hell is falling on earth) until you click the button. This means that when you're trying to automate trades, it can end in sad conditions where there's a dip and it's still buy, and vice-versa. Just my opinion that you're sure of using bots. And yes, you definitely need it to be on the platform else, what will it trade ;)

Most of the bots are using centralized exchanges API (the bot is using your account on the exchanges) and before you can buy and sell, you really gonna fund your exchange account.
Speaking of Ledger, it is a hardware wallet where you can store your Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies offline and before you are able to send the fund of your hardware wallet, you gonna need the physical hardware wallet.

Yes, the bot is basically just replacing you in the aspect of trading, so you'd still need both an account and funds in that account to actually trade coins in the market. Well, if you were trading in the first place, there's nothing wrong with keeping your coins in the exchange, especially if you were day trading since that's pretty much a requirement for you to be able to trade. It is only recommended to not keep your coins in exchanges if you're using it as a wallet, meaning if you're just using it as storage. In that case, it'd be better to just like you said, store it in a hardware wallet.

If you are mentioned about centralized exchanges, you have to store your crypto in your account to buy or sell, manually or with support from bots.
- You have to because bitcoin or crypto transactions take time to be confirmed, fast or slow it depends.
- Exchanges require a minimum of confirmations to credit your deposit to your account balance. When you have it in your balance, you can trade.

If you are mentioned about Peer-to-peer trades, you can create your own scripts, bots to finish your trades.
- However, the problems with P2P marketplaces or true DEX are the liquidity is too low and in some platforms, details of your trade partners or yours are not attached to your account. This causes an issue that you have to wait for your trade partner to get those details, by chats or messenger. You on your side have to give such details to your partners (you can use bot of course).
- Combination of such means with P2P or DEX, it is difficult to use script or bot to open and complete your trade.

If you are trading then you need the money at the exchange to trade, Centralized exchanges will need you to deposit the asset on their wallets in order to trade. Now the point is that as long as you dont hold the private keys to a wallet those coins are not yours. Truly speaking you are trusting the exchange with your money when using it and so after doing the exchange you should withdraw the assets to prevent theft in case of the exchange getting hacked or exit scammed.

Again you cannot trade from your own wallets directly on a CEX, maybe DEX are capable of allowing that but we are yet to see DEXs that run bitcoin If I am not wrong, most of them allow Ether<>ERC20token.

Of course while exchanging on a CEX your money needs to be on exchange and yes you are at risk of theft by the exchange at that time. ::)