What I should know about trading bots?

I have been seeing the same questions asked many times on the boards, so I figured why not put them in one place. As we see more we can add to it, feel free to ask questions as well and we will see if we can get answers.

How do the bots work?
Each bot is set of indicators and parameters that when all align will make a buy or sell signal, telling the exchange of your choice to execute a trade. Most of the time a bot is tuned for a specific market and time period, this is the creator's best educated guess on how the market will work in the future.

It is not a magic crystal ball that will make perfect trades every time.

How long will it take to get rich using the bots?
If there was an easy way to get rich off bots and altcoins, don't you think there would be more stories out there about it? The better question is...

What should I expect as profit?
Depending on the time frame and what your bot is looking for you could make a lot, or loose some. This is after all a free market and not a bank. There are large unknowns when dealing with markets, any number of influences can trigger a rise or fall. Most bots will be a better strategy than a buy and hold method and as long as you believe your choice of altcoin will go up, then you will likely make a profit.

Sometimes a bot is used to help reduce lost, not just make profit.

If a bot is not preforming the way you think you can always change bots or pause the bot and make a manual trade and then turn the bot back on when it is in sync with your choice.

Why use a bot at all?
There are many reasons why you would use a bot. Maybe you are an inexperienced trader and are looking for a way to get into trading, maybe you want someone watching over your account while you are away or asleep, maybe you don't need the stress of staring at monitors all day and want a rational less emotional way of trading.

Why doesn't my bot buy/sell at the lowest/highest?
Most importantly the bots are not always checking to buy or sell, they have a period of time where they wait and it is likely that which ever peak or valley doesn't happen right when the bot checks. Plus even if it was the highest or lowest how would the bot know? All bots are looking for specific conditions to trade on and in most cases it will execute after it the high or low.

This is the holy grail of bot trading, not just for altcoins, but for all markets. There are large computers with well paid designers trying to create these kinds of bots. I doubt we will see them here.

Why does one bot buy/sell but another doesn't?
Different bots are designed and tuned to do different things. Of course they are going to react differently to the market.
Why doesn't the backtest match my actual trades exactly?
When the bot trades it will try to get the price asked, but the market will shift some during that time. This is known as slippage. Some clever ways have come up to help minimize it, but consider yourself lucky if you get the exact asking price your bot wanted to trade.

What language are the bots written in?
They are written in a strange and fanciful language of some elf... or coffeescript.

How can I learn about tuning a bot to my needs?
All bots are designed to be technical market traders, educate yourself on technical market indicators, use websites to create charts based off those indicators and see if conditions you set match the market. Then apply what you learn to a bot and share it with the community.

Which bot is the best?
That is like asking which car is best. You have to find the one that fits your needs and you trust. You gain trust by backtesting the bots over several periods and agree with the results.

What should my offset be?
The whole point of an offset is to spread out the timing of the bots, so we don't all flood the market with our trade at the same time and cause a major flux in the market or allow others to see what our bots are doing and capitalize on the transaction either before or after the trade.

Pick an offset that you like and keep that number to yourself.

Should I start with fiat or altcoin?
Flip a coin or...

After selecting your bot, run a backtest to see if it is currently in fiat or coin and match it. This way if the bot gets a second signal to buy or sell you won't be at a loss.

Creator would you add or change an idea that I want to your bot?
This is the choice of each creator. Sometimes it will be a good suggestion and the creator will implement the idea, other times they will disagree or not have the time to do it. We are an open community if it is a good idea someone will likely come along and help.

Why do people create bots in the first place?
Each creator will be different. You will have to ask them individually.

Personally I do it to save my sanity. I don't want to be staring at charts and trying to figure out the best time to buy and sell.

Why do I share the creations?

Trust me it would be easier to not share, but the creation wouldn't be as good. There are a lot of smart people on the board and they tend to have a willing to help each other. I genuinely believe there is money to be made from the bots and maybe I am too nice of a guy, but I don't need to be the only who makes it all.

At the end of the day if you use someone's bot or even part of a bot tell them thank you. It helps those who create continue to want to make improvements or create new bots.