Gekko - a javascript trading bot and backtesting platform

[kuzetsa]

Should we actually install this for the bot?
Do we need it?
https://github.com/rvagg/node-levelup

No.

You do not need that.

That is not a dependency for gekko.


Of the things which ARE dependencies for gekko, you shouldn't even be manually installing any of these:

Code:

  "dependencies": {
    "cryptsy-api": "0.1.x",
    "mtgox-apiv2": "1.1.x",
    "lodash": "2.x",
    "moment": "2.4.x",
    "btc-e": "0.0.x",
    "cexio": "0.0.x",
    "bitstamp": "0.1.x",
    "async": "0.2.x",
    "nedb": "0.9.4",
    "line-reader": "0.2.x",
    "semver": "2.2.1",
    "kraken-api" :"0.1.x"
  }

^ if you're using gekko, all you have to do is unzip the package and type this command:

Code:

npm install

It installs all the dependencies for you.

The reason for using the "npm" command is because the node.js programming language comes with its own package manger.

The "node package manager" is what npm stands for, hence the command you would use is called: "npm install"

The dependencies are handled automatically because they're configured in the package.json file for use with the install command (you shouldn't need to automatically install any of those in order to use gekko. Just use "npm install" and you're ready to go)

[BTC Turkiye]

Cool. Thank you.

[kuzetsa]

There's a new version...

• https://github.com/kuzetsa/gekko/releases/tag/config_fix

currently same as:

• https://github.com/kuzetsa/gekko/releases/latest

Code:

window: 2345, // SHOULD NOT be larger than your historySize!!!

^ that new line / comment is a hint which should hopefully help to prevent confusion and misconfiguration

Not much has changed, other than making sure that the settings it ships with are sane and actually work right.


The exact changes for anyone who wants to see what they're getting:

https://github.com/kuzetsa/gekko/compare/kuzetsa:427e0373d96a864d3afb7e4c0d8c616c36f0552a...config.fix

[BTC Turkiye]

I`m kinda confused on this now. I downloaded and currently using the one shared on
https://github.com/askmike/gekko

Should I not use this? and switch to your version?
Why? What are the differences?

[kuzetsa]

I`m kinda confused on this now. I downloaded and currently using the one shared on
https://github.com/askmike/gekko

Should I not use this? and switch to your version?
Why? What are the differences?

Mainly it's that askmike's version hasn't been updated (bugfixes, features, or otherwise) in over 8 months. Askmike left and hasn't returned, and hasn't been accepting pull requests or otherwise given anyone commit access to the repo. When I forked gekko a few months ago, I was doing it because I wanted to fix bugs and add features --  One of the main bugs I fixed was related to how the history is stored and used when a history size of greater than 24 hours is used. (askmike's version from 8 months ago had a major bug and can't correctly load history databases if a window of larger than 24 hours is needed)

WARNING: I've only been supporting cex.io automatic reinvestment to buy more GHS. The way I redesigned is for a reinvestment-type "buy and hold" strategy. I've been doing this in my spare time, but the latest version is finally stable and works as intended so I can probably move on to adding other strategies than the current "buy and hold" reinvestment code.

Last difference is that all the changes in my version are AGPL instead of MIT license. Moving forward I'd prefer to keep my fork as AGPL licensed. I really believe in the idea of making sure people have the source code to their trading engine ESPECIALLY in cases where it's hosted as a managed service. (not everyone has the experience or technical knowledge to run and maintain their own server, but that's no excuse to deny them access to audit the changes made to the source code. This is an important feature of the AGPL license which I strongly believe in)

[BTC Turkiye]

I really appreciate that you put efford on this and still keep it AGPL

I`m not a technical guy when it comes down to Linux, servers or coding so I have some n00b questions.

Does your version
1- support only cex.io? Can I not use it for bitstamp?
2- have other trading methods like Dema, macd etc? I just didnt understand what is exactly buy and hold
3- Do I need a server to run your script? Right now I use a regular ubuntu and just installed the askmike version on it. It runs ok for now.

[kuzetsa]

I really appreciate that you put efford on this and still keep it AGPL

I`m not a technical guy when it comes down to Linux, servers or coding so I have some n00b questions.

Does your version
1- support only cex.io? Can I not use it for bitstamp?
2- have other trading methods like Dema, macd etc? I just didnt understand what is exactly buy and hold
3- Do I need a server to run your script? Right now I use a regular ubuntu and just installed the askmike version on it. It runs ok for now.

I'm gonna reply to this in reverse order:

#3 When I mentioned server administration, I meant for the purposes of reliable, uninterrupted operation. Technically you could run it on your laptop or home PC or whatever since it's based on node.js and doesn't actually need to be a server environment. The main issue is that the bot REQUIRES uninterrupted historical price data, and if there are any gaps because you turn it off it has to start over and gather another N minutes or hours of non-corrupt gapless history before it can start trading or giving advice again (50 hours for askmike's version, or 39.083 hours for mine --- both versions are configurable, but that's the default for the latest version)

#2 I left all of the original methods from askmike's version, but I added a "zero lag" method which is functionally equivalent to work done by Patrick Malloy from at or around the year 1994 (I changed to a default 1 minute intervals while developing this) Most of the trading methods on gekko are based around math which can be used at 1 minute intervals just as easily as 1 day intervals.

#1 -- I haven't tested any exchanges other than cexio. You can probably use Askmike's version. I think it still works, but there's just a bug or two which isn't in that version.. Another thing to consider is that askmike's version uses a default setting of 60 minute (1 hour) candles, and 50 hours worth of history before it starts trading (the latest version of my fork uses less history, but it's been tested and is based around 1 minute candles and can react faster)


Warning: I decided to intentionally break the code related to SELLING assets. No matter what trading method you use, my version waits for a good price and then buys new GHS (or other assets / currency pairs)

... I made this decision because GHS will continue to mine new coins if you hold. This difference from askmike's version can be made configurable, but for now it's hardcoded. Basically, my version won't work as you expect if you need a bot which both can buy AND sell... At least not until the "sell" logic is fixed (by making the behavior configurable, probably. A lot of the bugs in askmike's version were because each time a change was made, it only ended up tested with 1 or 2 trading methods or exchanges, and caused something to break for other usage cases than the one being tested.)

[BTC Turkiye]

Thank you very much for your informative answers.

Yeah I think I`ll have to wait to try your version because if this reason. I`ll be waiting for new updates and upgrades.

Basically, my version won't work as you expect if you need a bot which both can buy AND sell... At least not until the "sell" logic is fixed

[kuzetsa]

Thank you very much for your informative answers.

Yeah I think I`ll have to wait to try your version because if this reason. I`ll be waiting for new updates and upgrades.

Basically, my version won't work as you expect if you need a bot which both can buy AND sell... At least not until the "sell" logic is fixed

No worries.

Mine isn't the only fork which is still being updated. Mostly I've seen a lot of other people who have focused on adding new features and exchanges, so hopefully because it's open source, people will continue to share their changes in good faith, and hopefully you'll find a version that does what you want.

[...] there are other forks than mine:

https://github.com/askmike/gekko/network

^ you can drag with a mouse and scroll along the timeline to see what all updates and such are taking place on the various branches and forks and such. (one of the nice features of github -- a good way to see who all has been updating, what exists, whenever new forks happen, etc.)

Note that most of the active forks are from after askmike left around 8 months ago.

[BTC Turkiye]

Is there a minimum account balance or trade amount for this bot?
I have put .5 BTC to test it out in Bitstamp and it always uses the whole amount for buying/selling. It doesnt use only part of it for every opportunity. Is this normal?

[Jybrael]

Does this bot also work for exchange like Coin-swap.net? Its a really nice tool to have and I am thinking of going into trading soon.

[BTC Turkiye]

also when we wanna update this script from github what is the command to do that in console?

[kuzetsa]

Is there a minimum account balance or trade amount for this bot?
I have put .5 BTC to test it out in Bitstamp and it always uses the whole amount for buying/selling. It doesnt use only part of it for every opportunity. Is this normal?

Yes, that's normal. That's the way askmike designed it.

Does this bot also work for exchange like Coin-swap.net? Its a really nice tool to have and I am thinking of going into trading soon.

Someone made a node.js wrapper for the REST APIs for coinswap, but I don't have an account with that exchange so I wouldn't be able to add it to gekko. If anyone wants to look into it, try and add (or find) a NPM module and see if they can get it working in gekko:

https://github.com/defcronyke/NodeJS-Coin-Swap-v2

[BTC Turkiye]

Is there a minimum account balance or trade amount for this bot?
I have put .5 BTC to test it out in Bitstamp and it always uses the whole amount for buying/selling. It doesnt use only part of it for every opportunity. Is this normal?

Yes, that's normal. That's the way askmike designed it.

Does this bot also work for exchange like Coin-swap.net? Its a really nice tool to have and I am thinking of going into trading soon.

Someone made a node.js wrapper for the REST APIs for coinswap, but I don't have an account with that exchange so I wouldn't be able to add it to gekko. If anyone wants to look into it, try and add (or find) a NPM module and see if they can get it working in gekko:

https://github.com/defcronyke/NodeJS-Coin-Swap-v2

Well so far It`s not really doing a good job. It has been working for about 2-3 days and .5 BTC has become .4 BTC now

[kuzetsa]

also when we wanna update this script from github what is the command to do that in console?

Here's an example of the remote tracked repositories (on github) I've been using for development of my own fork...

Code:

kuzetsa@yurizoku ~/gitstuffs/gekko $ git remote -v
dowjames        https://github.com/dowjames/gekko.git (fetch)
dowjames        https://github.com/dowjames/gekko.git (push)
gekko   https://github.com/askmike/gekko.git (fetch)
gekko   https://github.com/askmike/gekko.git (push)
origin  git@github.com:kuzetsa/gekko.git (fetch)
origin  git@github.com:kuzetsa/gekko.git (push)
kuzetsa@yurizoku ~/gitstuffs/gekko $ git pull origin HEAD:master
Already up-to-date.

^ That "pull" command in the example would fetch the latest version from my own fork.

WARNING:

If you do something like that you're pulling the version from the repository and overwriting whatever you have locally. This will overwrite your config.js and probably shouldn't be used on a live gekko installation (running OR stopped, either one is bad and it doesn't matter which) unless you know how to use git well enough to disable synchronization of certain files...

Your best bet is probably just to download a ZIP from here:

https://github.com/kuzetsa/gekko/releases

Or alternatively, one of askmike's:

https://github.com/askmike/gekko/releases

... oh, that's weird. There aren't any releases / tags in there for some reason.


...Actually it looks like he's back, and maybe even accepting pull requests?

https://github.com/askmike/gekko/commits/master

^ maybe he's working on it again.

...I don't know?

[kuzetsa]

Is there a minimum account balance or trade amount for this bot?
I have put .5 BTC to test it out in Bitstamp and it always uses the whole amount for buying/selling. It doesnt use only part of it for every opportunity. Is this normal?

Yes, that's normal. That's the way askmike designed it.

(...snip...)

Well so far It`s not really doing a good job. It has been working for about 2-3 days and .5 BTC has become .4 BTC now

Yeah I know... None of the methods in askmike's version check to make sure trades happen at a better price than the average price over the past <N> periods --- That's why I wrote a trading method which actually tracks to make sure the trades happen at a good price:

The "stats window" functionality of the zero method is explicitly to make sure the price isn't worse than the average trading price over the past <N> periods (candles)

[BTC Turkiye]

But yours dont really trade. It only buys.

Do you think we can integrate your method to askmikes ?
Would that be easy?

[kuzetsa]

But yours dont really trade. It only buys.

Do you think we can integrate your method to askmikes ?
Would that be easy?

Yes, that's fine. The technical skill required to add it wouldn't be hard.

However...

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/index.html

The GNU Affero General Public License is based on the GNU GPL, but has an additional term to allow users who interact with the licensed software over a network to receive the source for that program. We recommend that people consider using the GNU AGPL for any software which will commonly be run over a network. The latest version is version 3.

Copy of the AGPLv3 license as included in my fork

TL;DR / Translation: Please don't steal it; I want my work, and any modifications or derivative version to remain open source...

Specifically, I mention the AGPL license because I expect application service providers who use a modified version of my work comply with the license, and the source code should remain available for any modified versions if it was changed in any way for use as a "hosted application" (cloud service or any other term with a similar meaning)


Though as far as my own version is concerned, the modifications for "only reinvest or otherwise buy" could be made configurable. The hardcoded change was a bad idea.

My bad. Sorry about that.

[BTC Turkiye]

No problem. That's fine.
I respect that.

[BTC Turkiye]

Can someone give me some info about these DEMA settings and how should I set them to make money?
Also my bot keeps saying "Wanted to buy but the amount is too small" the amount of what? What should I do?