So, I've had a bit over three months since I started with the Stoic trading bot from Cindicator (one month post here) and so I've had a bit of time to form some impressions about the bot. Just as a quick reminder, Cindicator is a blockchain based market prediction platform that integrates human analysts with an AI engine to provide market predictions in crypto and traditional markets. A while back, they started an in-house testing of these predictions, and found that they were pretty good and made money... even in the crypto winter! So, they decided to package these predictions for the a retail user in the form of an altcoin trading bot which trades on Binance.

After three months, I have to say that I'm pretty damn happy with the trading bot in general, however, I do hope they roll out some options and fine graining for the bot which better suit my personal preferences.

From the initial picture, you might wonder... 1000 USDT float... ending up at around 1500 USD over three months of bull run is not that impressive. However, if you look at the above picture, you will see why those numbers are the way that they are. I have WITHDRAWN 1650 USDT already, and there still is 1500 USDT still invested in the trading bot! So, I have recovered the float and then some!

Even better is the fact that I withdrew most of those funds NOT in USDT/BUSD by in BTC, ETH and BNB which have performed decently over the last three months! So, that 1650 USDT is only a lower bound of the USD equivalent at the time of withdrawal.

In practice, I've found that I can withdraw somewhere between 10-30 USD worth of crypto per day on most days. However, there have been a couple of moments where the bot has fallen (crypto market is red) to about 1200 USD where I feed it from the previously extracted funds to give it a healthier status. Cindicator states that the bot works optimally with amounts above 1000 USD... and any lower will mess around with the trading algorithms.

One of the major updates since I started was the introduction of the ability to hedge in USDT. Previously, it was possible to take part in an opt-in test for BTC or USDT hedging. I had chosen to hedge in BTC which would make it easier to extract value from the bot denominated in BTC. I had no interest in extracting value denominated in USDT.

Unfortunately for me, when the feature rolled out to the bot properly, the choice to hedge in BTC was removed and the bot could only hedge in USDT. No problem... it just meant that I could just withdraw the amounts that I wanted and immediately trade on the spot market to get what I wanted. (normally BTC, ETH or BNB... but recently, PHA and CHZ as well).

So, there lies the my wishlist for the bot... I want to have the bot maximise for BTC accumulation instead of USDT. USDT is fine, but I have crypto as a future hedge AGAINST USD.... not to maximise USD!

One little thing that I have noticed in the recent red markets is the bot getting some stranded assets. Most of the Binance spot markets have a 10 USDT minimum trade. That means that many of the lower altcoin bets that the bot had made got stranded below the 10 USDT trading threshold in the recent pullback. So, the bot can't trade them based on the intelligence that it gets from Cindicator.

Today, I finally decided to rectify this... kick the tyres so to speak. Binance has a handy "dust to BNB" feature on the spot wallets. So, I dusted everything under the 10 USDT threshold to BNB. It does mean that the bot is currently out of balance (too much BNB in relation to everything else), but it should rebalance itself over the next day or two. I figured it was better to free up the capital locked in the stranded assets (nearly 150 USD) so that the bot could effectively trade again. A misbalancing for a few days was an acceptable risk!

Handy Crypto Tools

Ledger Nano S/X: Keep your crypto safe and offline with the leading hardware wallet provider. Not your keys, not your crypto!
Binance: My first choice of centralised exchange, featuring a wide variety of crypto and savings products.
Kucoin: My second choice in exchanges, many tokens listed here that you can't get on Binance!
Coinbase: If you need a regulated and safe environment to trade, this is the first exchange for most newcomers!
Crypto.com: Mixed feelings, but they have the BEST looking VISA debit card in existence! Seriously, it is beautiful!
CoinList: Access to early investor and crowdsale of vetted and reserached projects.
Cointracking: Automated or manual tracking of crypto for accounting and taxation reports.