Hi all,
after seeing this thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5025195.0 regarding ReggieBot, I decided to give this bot a go. I started with the annual plan, which is the same as the aforementioned thread (you can see available package profiles and relevant prices in the official site:
https://reggiebot.trade/home.html)
After a while, I was contacted by the developer of the bot and he offered me free White Label subscription, if I agreed in writing an honest review for this high-level White Label Solution package.
Having great results from the simple annual bot in a few days (it had nice profits - like a money-making machine), I couldn't resist such an offer! It was not only the bigger gains for a smaller risk that the White Label promised, it was also that I wouldn't have to pay the high monthly fee, plus I'd have a chance to see the inner workings of that high-level package.
According to the website, the White Label is suited for institutional & HNWI use with 6 BTC required minimum.
(I use it more like a friend fund, because I didn't have many BTC by myself).
Now regarding the review, I have separated it into the following sections:
Communication / supportSetup of the botMonitoring of the botDeposits / WithdrawalsRiskiness of the bot Performance of the botFinal ThoughtsCommunication / supportI never experienced a problem or big delay getting a response from the developer. In fact, his promptness and quick support amazed me! Most of my email questions have been answered within minutes, it might be the best support I've seen since ages.
There is also a discord channel (
https://discord.gg/PTpnbKu , link taken from the website) with continuous support and many channels (from feature-requests to service-discussion).
The bot of course requires to have the account's bitmex API keys to be able to trade (important: these keys do not have the withdrawal option enabled), and the sending of the keys happens through a secure tutanota interface that the bot initiates. This is a very clever idea regarding encryption/security. I don't know if this process has changed, since it has already been a month.
The only thing I can say regarding communication is that it is great and hope it will stay this way in the future!
Setup of the botThe setup of the White-Label bot is much more time consuming than that of the simple Reggie trading bot. That is expected, since this bot requires 6 different BitMex accounts.
The process is the same with the simple Reggie trading bot, but multiplied 6 times (apart the sending of the API keys, which someone could send in one email). So, for someone to start using this bot, he would have to create 6 Bitmex accounts, use 6 different emails, add funds to each account proportionally and be able to monitor them. There is a pdf file (also available in the simple ReggieBot) which describes the steps for preparing the account to be used by the bot (e.g. setting the leverage to cross, creating the API keys etc).
TIP: Managing 6 mail accounts is difficult, so any secure email service with extra secondary emails will do the work much easier and convenient.
As mentioned before, the White Label solution uses 6 Bitmex accounts. As a general rule, three of them open long positions and the other three open short positions (the bot works as a market maker, which help gather gains by providing liquidity). These 6 accounts use specific risk settings. Users can choose their own, I chose to use the default profile settings with medium risk. The communication regarding risk settings is also done via email.
To sum up, the setup of this bot is complex by its nature. The communication and the prompt support of the developer made it much easier. Remember that the setup is a process which cannot be fully automated.
Monitoring of the botMonitoring 6 accounts is difficult, let alone the fact that someone has to login to all of them at once, in order to gather live performance statistics. Trying to do so seemed like a real PITA.
So, here is where the Bitmex API comes to use. I developed a monitoring bot in python by using the API functions. This is something that seemed the only solution for this problem. I might open-source it in the future, haven't really decided yet.
So, in order to be able to see performance statistics live, someone has to find or create a similar solution, unless he is willing to have multiple browsers/tabs open all the time (it is logical that the bot does not provide a solution to this).
Deposits / Withdrawals
Deposits and withdrawals need to be distributed equally to all 6 accounts. This is good rule to follow as a best practice, even though someone could deposit (/withdraw) more to (/from) a specific account, if he wants to (e.g. in case a specific account earns more profits due to current market situation).
In case a withdrawal is bigger than 1/3 of the capital, then an e-mail to ReggieBot is needed first, so that the bot will adjust the risk program down to accommodate a balance drop.
Riskiness of the bot
This is a very important aspect of the bot.
Theoritically, the simple ReggieBot trading solutions has a 100% risk, meaning that the user could lose all of his funds. This is a worst-case scenario, since (from my experience with the simple ReggieBot) it was never close to liquidating (it uses average down to lower the entry price), but theoritically it could still happen (e.g. if BTC fell more than 40% instantly and without retrace).
The White Label solution minimizes this risk to the half. This is due to the fact that the accounts trade in the opposite direction with each other (3 long / 3 short), so a total 100% loss of funds cannot happen. In rare circumstances this 3/3 rule broke, but we were insured that the situation was under control and risk was not increased.
Performance of the bot
In total, for the month period that is shown in the chart below, Reggiebot gave a total gain of 10.85%. For sure, this is not a bad performance, especially if we consider that it was measured in the month of the (maybe) lowest BTC volatility in history. What is more important, is the fact that it never experienced a fall more than 2% (from +1% to -1%), even at the BTCUSD drop of 300$.
Reggiebot performance changed a lot during the measured period and did not give a consistent percentage of gain per day. We can see two distinctive patterns. When BTCUSD dropped a lot and then went up again, Reggiebot gave a gain of 10% in just 5 days. When BTCUSD had low volatility, it gave very low gain. This means that more time is needed in order to have a better judgment of the performance.
In more details:
Period 8/10 - 11/10: BTCUSD was quite stable, Reggiebot gave a small but significant accumulative gain of 1%.
Period 11/10 - 15/10: At the 300$ fall of BTCUSD, the performance dropped from +1% to -1%, but afterwards it started gaining again and went back to +2%.
Period 15/10 - 17/10: BTCUSD increased by 350$ (from 6300 to 6650, with an instant peak to 6800). This is where Reggiebot shined, because of the rebound to the previous price. Accumulative gain went from 2% to 8% in one day and then gradually to 10%.
Period 17/10 - 30/10: Reggiebot struggled with the extremely low volatility, gaining just 0.3% in almost 2 weeks.
Period 30/10 - 7/11: Volatility still low but a bit increased, weekly gain was around 0.5%.
Final Thoughts - Conclusion
Overall there is surely satisfaction with the performance of the bot. I believe that the gains would be much higher if BTC was more volatile this month.
The support is almost instant and I get the feeling that someone is there almost 24/7.
One thing that is worth mentioning (which is both an advantage and a disadvantage), is that the trading orders strategy changes from time to time (happened twice within this month), in order to be more profitable with the current changes of the BTC market. This month had extremely low volatility and I believe this is the reason that the bot logic changed in order to apply a bigger net full of orders.
The advantage from such changes in the bot logic comes from the fact that the whole BTC market is being closely monitored and the bot is tailored to the current market situation, so that it shows steady performance gains. It is good to know that the developer is paying so much attention to changes in the market conditions and leaves no chance for gains out of scope.
The disadvantage comes from the fact that such manual changes to the bot imply that the bot's AI is currently not so fully developed in order to understand the market changes automatically.
This change in the bot order logic also affects the performance statistics, since it is more difficult to have an overall performance indication from the start.
The total riskiness of the White Label solution of 50%, instead of the 100% of the simple ReggieBot solution, is also an important factor to consider. Nevertheless, I have never seen any position getting close to liquidation.
Lastly, I want to thank the developer for the offer, I did my best in providing an honest review.
TIP: apply 2fa everywhere - from bitmex accounts to email accounts - better safe than sorry
Warning: Never trade with more than you can afford to lose. This review is not intended to be an advisement solution. Use it on your own risk.
