One automated trade, end to end
The strategy receives market data, checks its entry conditions and produces an instruction. The API carries that instruction to the exchange, where it becomes an order. After execution, the algorithm watches the position for its exit rule: a target, stop, signal change or another condition.
Speed is useful. Software does not sleep, forget an order or abandon a plan because of emotion. Yet automation scales the quality of its rules. A poor model or unsuitable parameters become consistently poor execution.
Leverage changes the size of the mistake
A futures position can control more value than the margin posted against it. This makes the result more sensitive to price movement. A modest adverse move can produce a large loss compared with the capital assigned to the trade.
Potential return is the least useful number on its own. Before launch, find the actual position size, leverage, distance to the stop and the amount a losing sequence could remove from the account.
Isolated margin and cross margin
Isolated margin assigns a defined amount to one position. Cross margin can use available account balance to support several positions. That may absorb a temporary move, while also expanding the pool of capital exposed to a bad one.
Look at the margin setting on the exchange before the bot starts. Do not assume a default, particularly when the account also holds funds that were never meant for the strategy.
Reading a historical return figure
An annual percentage on a strategy card describes a past period under specific settings. It does not reveal the full path: maximum drawdown, losing streaks, leverage changes or behaviour in a different market regime.
The Pifagor Trade figures reproduced on this site came from the service interface. They are useful prompts for questions, not promises. A minimum deposit is also a technical threshold, not a recommendation for how much anyone should invest.
Define these limits before Start
A strategy needs a money limit, not only a return target. Decide what loss ends the test and avoid reflexively topping up after drawdown. A dedicated subaccount makes that boundary much easier to see.
- Maximum capital allocated to the strategy.
- Permitted loss per position and for the entire test.
- Margin mode and maximum leverage.
- Manual stop and position-closing procedure.
- A schedule for checking real exchange orders.