Knowledge base

True exchange MARKET orders (no limit price, immediate taker fill) are uncommon in normal operation:

• Cycle re-entry fallback — After aggressive LIMIT retries fail, one supported venue uses LIMIT FOK; others may send raw MARKET.
• Shutdown — Recovery uses LIMIT sells, not market sweeps.

Do not confuse DB labels: init legs are often persisted as type MARKET even though the exchange order was a LIMIT FOK taker fill.

Fill-or-Kill (FOK) is a limit order that must fill in full immediately or the exchange cancels it — nothing rests on the book.

PayNexor uses FOK as the standard entry mechanism (instant fill intent, but technically a limit FOK priced within ±10% of the top of book):

• Contract startup — Entry legs vary by bot mode (see Startup sizing):
  • Long-only — one LONG INIT BUY.
  • Short-only — SHORT inventory BUY, then SHORT INIT SELL.
  • Bi-directional — SHORT inventory BUY, LONG INIT BUY, SHORT INIT SELL.
• Cycle re-entry fallback — If aggressive LIMIT re-entry does not fill after retries, one supported venue uses LIMIT FOK; others may send raw MARKET.
• Startup balance gate — Before any init leg fires, the bot checks free quote balance (the asset long trades with first — e.g. USDC on a USDC/BTC pair). Long-only and short-only need the full contract value free; bi-directional needs half. If free quote is too low, startup aborts with an error — no automatic wallet rebalance.
• Sim parity — The simulator applies the same FOK instant-fill rules so backtests match live behavior.

Limit GTC orders rest on the book until filled or canceled. This is how most ongoing bot activity works.

• Take-profit — Every TP is a LIMIT GTC order (long TP = SELL limit above avg; short TP = BUY limit below avg).
• Safety / defensive grid — Limit buys below the long anchor and limit sells above the short anchor.
• Cycle re-entry (first order of new cycle) — After a TP fill, the bot opens the next cycle with a base_order-sized entry. It tries an aggressive LIMIT first (up to 3 retries, walking price). Only if that fails does it fall back to FOK or, on some venues, raw MARKET.
• Shutdown (soft / hurried) — One consolidated LIMIT SELL at a computed recovery price — not a market dump. Immediate shutdown does not place exchange orders at all.

Take profit (TP) is the exit target for one leg of the contract. Each direction — long and short — maintains its own TP at all times.

• Long TP — Sells base when price rises enough above the long average entry. Long-only: sells all held base; profit in quote. Bi-directional: asymmetric sizing; profit tends to stay in base.
• Short TP — Buys back base when price falls enough below the short average entry. Short-only: asymmetric buyback; surplus base is profit. Bi-directional: full inventory buyback; profit tends to stay in quote.
• Relative to average — The TP price tracks your current weighted average entry, not only the original startup fill. As defensive orders fill, the average moves and the TP is recalculated.
• Anchor pulling — Optional cross-side routing when bot mode = both (manual % or Dynamic %).

A TP cycle is one complete round on a leg: open position → grid fills → TP limit fills → position closed → re-entry from a new anchor.

When a take-profit limit order fills:

1. The position for that side is closed and realized profit is recorded.
2. A base_order-sized re-entry order opens the next cycle (aggressive LIMIT, with FOK or MARKET fallback if needed).
3. The anchor price for that leg updates to the re-entry fill price.
4. A fresh defensive grid and a new TP limit are placed.

The anchor is fixed between TP events — it does not move while ordinary grid orders are filling mid-cycle.

When Anchor Pulling is enabled, a portion of realized profit from a donor TP is routed to the opposite leg's pending TP, pulling that exit closer to market.

• Manual % — You set the share of donor profit that crosses to the other leg.
• Dynamic % — Replaces the fixed percentage with a live calculation from current anchor prices on both legs.

Cross-side recycling helps keep both grids funded; it does not eliminate trend drawdown on the leg fighting the move.

The anchor price is the reference point from which all grid safety orders are calculated for a leg.

It is set at contract startup and again when the next cycle’s re-entry fills. Between those events, grid orders fill and move your average entry, but the anchor itself stays fixed.

Grid spacing controls the price distance between consecutive safety orders.

• Tighter spacing — More frequent fills on small moves; more orders deployed per price swing.
• Wider spacing — Fewer fills; each fill represents a larger move and can improve averaging during extended trends.
• Dynamic spacing — Optional: after a TP re-entry, overshoot beyond a normal exit can widen the next cycle's ladder steps once per cycle.

This setting decides what share of each realized profit stays inside the strategy’s working capital (versus skimmed into withdrawable balances). It applies as a multiplier on the slice that gets recycled.

Why changing reinvest changes balance between directions

Because recycling cross-funds the legs, turning reinvest up pours more recycled value into building both stacks faster after activity — but always through that quote↔base plumbing, not by piling extra quote only onto the side that just banked a TP.

Turning reinvest down drains fuel from that shared recycle path: less compounds inside the bot, more exits to balances you control outside the grid math.

What you’ll notice in practice

• 100% — Full recycle of the reinvest-eligible slice into working capital (subject to skim rules elsewhere).
• Between 0 and 100% — A split: part recycled per the formulas above, part skimmed.
• 0% — No recycling into deployable grid capital from realized gains (aside from other contract rules).

Contract-specific caps (e.g. max contract value) can force effective reinvest to 0% once equity hits a ceiling — see your contract panel.

Every contract runs in one of three bot modes. The mode controls which legs are active, how startup spends quote, and how take-profit profits are accounted.

Mode comparison

Shared sizing rule: initPerSide

The first cycle entry on each active leg is capped at:

• Long-only / short-only — side budget cap = full contract value.
• Bi-directional — each leg’s cap = half the contract value.

base_order must be configured and > 0; there is no silent fallback.

Defensive grid direction

• Long — limit buys below the anchor (averaging down on dips).
• Short — limit sells above the anchor (averaging up on rallies).
• Both — both ladders run in parallel from separate anchors.

Take-profit profit currency (by mode)

• Long-only — TP sells all held base at the target; profit lands in quote.
• Short-only — TP buys back with an asymmetric size; surplus base is the profit leg.
• Bi-directional — each leg uses cross-funded accounting: long-side profit tends to stay in base, short-side in quote, with optional Anchor Pulling between legs.

Features that require both legs

These settings only apply when bot mode = both:

• Anchor Pulling (manual % or Dynamic %)
• Cross-side re-invest plumbing (quote ↔ base between legs)

See the dedicated guides: Bot modes (overview), Grid long, Grid short, and Bi-directional DCA.

A single-direction long grid: the bot buys base on dips, averages down with safety orders, and exits on take-profit targets above your running average.

Startup (long-only)

You need the full contract value in free quote (e.g. USDC on USDC/BTC). One LIMIT FOK buy spends initPerSide (= min of base_order and contract value). The rest of the contract value stays reserved for defensive limit buys below the anchor.

How it works

• Entry — Initial LIMIT FOK buy establishes the long position (DB may label it MARKET).
• Grid — Defensive limit buys sit below the anchor at your configured spacing.
• Take profit — A limit sell targets your TP % above the average. Long-only sells all held base at the TP; profit is realized in quote.
• Cycle reset — After TP fills, a re-entry opens the next cycle and the anchor updates to that fill price; a fresh grid is placed.

Key parameters

Grid spacing sets the distance between safety orders. Vol. increase scales each subsequent order. Re-invest controls how much realized profit recycles into working capital.

Anchor Pulling applies only in bi-directional mode.

A single-direction short grid: the bot sells base on rallies, averages up with defensive limit sells, and exits with a take-profit buy limit below your running short average.

How it works

• Inventory BUY — Initial LIMIT FOK buy acquires base using up to the full contract value in quote (DB may label it MARKET).
• Short entry SELL — A second LIMIT FOK sell opens the cycle at initPerSide notional (= the smaller of base_order and contract value).
• Grid — Defensive limit sells sit above the short anchor at your configured spacing (adding to the short as price rises).
• Take profit — A limit buy targets your TP % below the current weighted short average. In short-only mode, surplus base from the buyback is the profit leg (kept in base for reinvest).
• Cycle reset — After TP fills, re-entry opens the next cycle and the anchor updates to that fill price; a fresh grid is placed.

Startup quote requirement

You need at least the full contract value in free quote before cold start (e.g. USDC on USDC/BTC). The inventory buy deploys that quote; the init sell returns a small slice. If free quote is too low, startup aborts — there is no automatic wallet rebalance.

Key parameters

Grid spacing sets the distance between defensive sells. Vol. increase scales each subsequent order. Re-invest controls how much realized profit recycles into working capital on this leg only (no opposite leg in short-only mode).

Anchor Pulling and cross-side TP funding apply only when both long and short legs are active (bi-directional mode).

A direction-agnostic grid strategy built to harvest volatility from price oscillations — strongest in range-bound markets, with trend exposure when price moves one way for extended periods.

When a take-profit is reached on one side, realized gains can recycle through the re-invest setting into the opposite leg’s deployable budget (quote funds long buys; base funds short sells). That cross-side flow helps keep both grids funded — it does not eliminate trend drawdown on the leg fighting the move.

Key Characteristics

• Dual Take-Profit Targets — Both long and short positions maintain independent exit points at all times.
• Reinvesting — Realized profits can cross-fund the opposite leg’s working capital per your re-invest % (see Re-invest guide).
• Volatility Harvesting — Captures value when price oscillates; extended one-way trends add exposure on the side fighting the move.
• Set and Forget — Once configured, the bot manages positions continuously without intervention.

What You Need to Start

You only need the quote currency in your exchange wallet. For most pairs, this is USDC or USDT—the stablecoin side of the trading pair.

How Initial Positions Are Established

Bi-directional mode splits contract value 50/50 between legs for budgeting. You need at least half that value in free quote (e.g. USDC on USDC/BTC) before startup — the asset the long leg buys with first.

Startup fires three LIMIT FOK entry legs in order (instant taker fills within a ±10% book band — not resting limits, and not raw MARKET orders):

1. Short inventory BUY — Spends up to half the contract value in quote to buy base for the short leg (inventory for defensive sells and the open cycle). This does not open the short cycle by itself.
2. Long INIT BUY — Spends initPerSide in quote (= the smaller of your base_order setting and half the contract value).
3. Short INIT SELL — Sells initPerSide notional of base from that inventory to open the short cycle.

Net quote deployed at startup is roughly half the contract value (the big inventory buy minus the small init sell proceeds, plus the small long buy). The other half of contract value stays reserved for defensive grid orders on both legs.

After entries fill, the bot places limit GTC defensive grids and take-profit orders. If the wallet already holds enough base, startup may reuse inventory (warm path) instead of firing all three legs.

This strategy is designed for extended timeframes. Short-term deployments may not capture sufficient market cycles to demonstrate its full potential.

Configuration & Backtesting

If you are currently on the parameter settings page, keep in mind that our backtests collect a massive amount of data. This data is presented in chunks—optimized, grouped, and detailed.

Generally speaking: the higher your earnings, the greater your risk (if we take the optimization levels out of the equation).

Budget Considerations

• Larger allocations allow more grid levels and better averaging during extended moves.
• Backtest with realistic amounts to understand how the strategy scales with your intended capital.
• Optimal parameters vary by trading pair—there is no universal configuration.

Grid Mechanics

Grid Spacing determines the price distance between each safety order. Tighter spacing means more frequent fills during small moves; wider spacing requires larger price swings but offers better averaging during extended trends.

Safety Orders (also called defensive orders or deep grids) are limit orders placed below your long entry and above your short entry. When price moves against you, these orders fill to improve your average entry price.

Take-Profit Tracking: The TP target is calculated relative to your current average entry price—not the original entry. As safety orders fill, your average shifts, and the TP adjusts accordingly.

Cycle Behavior

When a take-profit limit order fills:

• The position for that side is closed
• Realized profit is recorded
• A base_order-sized re-entry opens the next cycle (aggressive limit, then FOK or market fallback if needed)
• The anchor price for that leg updates to the re-entry fill price
• A fresh defensive grid and a new TP limit are placed

The anchor is fixed between TP events — it does not move while ordinary grid orders are filling mid-cycle.

Handling Strong Trends

During prolonged one-directional moves, the losing side accumulates safety orders while waiting for a retracement.

Dynamic Grid Management

Optional dynamic grid spacing adjusts ladder spacing once per cycle—at each re-entry after take profit. After the anchor updates, overshoot beyond a normal TP exit can widen the next cycle’s grid steps.

Anchor Pulling — Dynamic %

When Anchor Pulling is enabled, donor-TP profits route a percentage to the other leg's pending TP, pulling that exit closer. The optional Dynamic % toggle replaces the manual percentage with a live calculation from current anchors.

Before any init leg fires, the bot checks free quote — the asset the long leg would buy with first (e.g. USDC on USDC/BTC). If balance is too low, startup aborts with an error; automatic wallet rebalance is off by default.

Short inventory BUY tags is_inventory=1 — it acquires base for the short leg but does not open the short cycle until the init SELL fills.

Warm start: if the wallet already holds enough base, startup may reuse inventory and skip some FOK legs.

base_order must be > 0; there is no silent fallback to contract-value guesses.

On the live and sim trading charts, markers show B or S from the exchange order side (BUY → B, SELL → S) — not from position_side.

Example: in bi-directional startup, the short inventory leg is a BUY tagged to the short position — it displays as B, even though it feeds the short leg. The short init SELL displays as S.

Three stages. SOFT and HURRIED both cancel this contract’s open orders on the exchange, then place one consolidated sell of your combined spot bag at different prices. IMMEDIATE does not manage the exchange — it stops the bot in our system and wipes contract data.

1 Soft shutdown

In plain terms: you’re saying I don’t want any more profit from this run — you want to unwind toward a neutral outcome in USDT terms relative to your cost: exit the accumulated base near weighted average cost basis, not at a profit target.

Profits: only the current open cycle’s pending profit-on-TP is effectively given up by not selling higher. Profits from earlier completed take-profit cycles in this session stay with you — they are not clawed back by soft shutdown.

Trade-off: you wait for a limit sell at basis to fill. If price drifts away, you remain exposed until that order fills or you escalate.

2 Hurried shutdown

In plain terms: I sacrifice any and all earnings from this session so I can get my starting capital back in quote faster.

Difference from soft: soft aims for a cost-basis–style unwind; hurried throws away session PnL on purpose to hit a fill that restores your deposited quote envelope.

3 Immediate shutdown

In plain terms: Stop the bot and clear this contract from our app — you want out of automation and off our books. This is not “market-close everything on the exchange for you.”

When to use it: you’ll manage positions yourself on the exchange, or you already flattened elsewhere and only need the bot/session disconnected immediately.

Important: if you hit Immediate without soft/hurried first, your existing grid and TPs may still be working on the exchange — only our bot stops coordinating them.

The two small orange percentages next to each row's average position price tell you how far the volume increase multiplier has dragged the running weighted average past where it would otherwise sit.

The first value — per step

The brighter percentage on the left compares this row's avg to the previous row's avg. It shows the marginal pull from this single new fill alone.

It generally grows in magnitude row over row, because each later order is larger than the last, so each new fill drags the average a bit harder than the previous one.

The second value — cumulative

The dimmed percentage on the right compares this row's actual avg to the avg you would have at this row if every order from #1 through here had been the same size (a flat-sizing baseline).

It is the total work the multiplier has done so far. Read row 12 cumulative to know "across all 12 fills, the multiplier moved my avg X% further from entry vs. doing the same DCA with flat sizing".

Sign convention

• Long orders fill at descending prices, so the multiplier drags the avg down → the value reads negative.
• Short orders fill at ascending prices, so the multiplier drags the avg up → the value reads positive.
• In bi-directional (hedged) mode the long and short shifts are mirrored — same magnitude, opposite sign — so the value is shown once with a ± prefix.

Why this matters

A bigger shift means the average moved further from your entry price. Because the take-profit is calculated relative to the average, this generally means:

• Pro: the price needs to bounce back less to lock in profit.
• Con: each new step costs more capital — your remaining ammo runs out faster if the trend keeps going.

Quick read cheat-sheet

Wait — why is per-step huge but cumulative tiny on order #2?

This is the most common confusion. Imagine a long with 1% grid spacing and a 10% volume increase:

The bot shows ±0.52% on the bright line and a dimmer ±0.02% on the cumulative line — they answer two different questions.

The bright value: "how far did my avg move this step?"

Per-step compares row 2's avg (99.476) to row 1's avg (100.00) — a 0.52% drop. Almost all of that drop is the price itself moving 1% lower, not the multiplier.

The dimmed value: "what did the multiplier alone earn me?"

Cumulative compares the multiplied avg to flat sizing at the same prices. This is the value to watch if the question is "is my multiplier worth using?"

PayNexor tracks two distinct fee layers: what the exchange charges on each fill, and what PayNexor may charge depending on your membership plan.

Exchange trading fees

Every filled order on your connected exchange incurs that exchange’s maker/taker commission. PayNexor records these in fee logs per order and attributes them to the correct leg (long vs short).

• Maker vs taker — Defensive grid orders and take-profit limits are limit GTC orders. When they rest on the book before filling, they usually pay maker rates; startup and re-entry FOK legs pay taker rates.
• Fee asset — Commissions may be charged in base, quote, or a third asset (e.g. BNB). The dashboard converts to quote where needed for portfolio totals.
• Cycle detail — TP cycle breakdown pages show entry fees vs exit fees separately so net profit is fee-aware.

PayNexor platform fees (by plan)

Do not confuse exchange commissions with PayNexor billing:

• Starter, Professional, Professional Annual — Billed as a monthly or annual subscription. The live bot does not deduct a percentage of your trading profits on each TP fill. You pay the exchange’s trading fees only.
• Dynamic — No monthly subscription. You deposit USDC to your PayNexor wallet for backtest tokens and for a profit share charged when a take-profit cycle confirms real profit. If wallet balance is too low, the share may queue as a pending fee until USDC is available.
• Free / trial — Backtest-only tier; no live contract fees from PayNexor beyond whatever exchange fees a future live run would incur.

Current profit-share rate and backtest token price are shown on the plans page and in your account when you choose Dynamic. Referral commissions apply to Dynamic profit-share collections and to subscription payments from users you referred.

Reading fees on the dashboard

• Session fee totals — Summarized by asset and leg on the live/sim dashboard (exchange commissions).
• Net portfolio — Wallet value reflects holdings; fee rows explain commission that left the book over the session.
• Pending fees (Dynamic) — Profit-share charges that could not debit USDC immediately are tracked until the wallet is topped up.

Live bots connect to your exchange through API keys stored encrypted on PayNexor. Funds remain in your exchange wallet — PayNexor does not custody balances.

What permissions you need

• Enable trading (spot) — Required so the bot can place and cancel orders.
• No withdrawals — Do not grant withdrawal permission. Trade-only keys limit blast radius if a key is ever compromised.
• IP whitelist — Restrict keys to PayNexor’s bridge server IP shown on the API settings page (?m=103 when logged in).

How keys are stored

• Keys are encrypted at rest with your account-specific material.
• Secrets are never shown again after save — only masked key prefixes for confirmation.
• Clearing keys stops active contracts on that exchange until you reconnect.

Validation

After save, PayNexor can run a lightweight API check (permissions + connectivity). If validation fails, verify:

• Key and secret were copied without extra spaces.
• Spot trading is enabled on the key.
• Your IP whitelist includes the bridge IP from the settings page.
• The key is not expired or revoked on the exchange.

Bridge connection

Order traffic routes through PayNexor’s bridge infrastructure for reliability and rate-limit management. Your whitelist must allow the published bridge IP — not your home or office IP.

Configure keys at API Configuration after login.

The strategy marketplace lets you publish backtested configurations as public proof pages, browse others’ setups, and share referral-attributed links.

Run → save → publish

1. Run backtest — Creates sim data only; nothing is public yet.
2. Save strategy — Stores parameters in your catalog (private until published).
3. Publish — Sets public flags; the strategy gets a shareable BT## id and appears in the marketplace.

Key routes

• ?m=511&btid=BT## — Public strategy preview: stats, fill chart, wallet snapshot, leg TP breakdown.
• ?m=511&ref=CODE&btid=BT## — Same page with referral attribution on signup.
• ?m=311 — Logged-in marketplace browse (all public listings).
• ?m=312 — Owner detail: share link, publish toggles, edit notes.
• ?m=711&scenario_id= — Owner stepping replay through the same engine as live.

Live performance block

Public share pages can show an anonymized live contract whose parameters match the published strategy (pair, grid, fees, reinvest, etc.).

• Backtest date range is not part of live matching — only trading parameters.
• Live stats appear only after a matching contract has at least 20 TP fills or has been active for 14 days.
• If no qualifying live match exists, the page shows an honest empty state.

Wallet math on share pages

Net portfolio change = quote + base marked to market at backtest end — same as the dashboard “Total Portfolio Value” method.

Long TP totals (base) and short TP totals (quote) are displayed separately and are not additive; do not sum them to infer net wallet performance.

Referral strategy links

Append ?ref=YOURCODE to marketplace URLs to attribute signups. See Trade & Refer for commission rules on subscriptions and Dynamic trade fees.

Backtests and stepping replays use the same bot logic as live trading against historical candles — not a simplified alternate model.

Sim tables mirror live trade tables so fills, fees, TP cycles, and wallet balances behave consistently between sim and production.

On public proof pages, net portfolio change means quote plus base holdings marked to market at the end of the window — the same method as the dashboard "Total Portfolio Value."

Long TP totals (base) and short TP totals (quote) are shown separately and are not additive; do not sum them to infer net wallet performance.

Each backtest consumes a backtest token from your plan allowance (or USDC wallet on Dynamic). Let a run finish — interrupting can forfeit the token.

Starter and Professional include a monthly token allowance that resets each billing period. Dynamic charges per token from your USDC wallet. Optimization sweeps that test many parameter combinations consume more tokens than a single run.