🤖 Kraken Trading Bot

An automated, signal-driven spot trading bot for Kraken — built for EUR pairs, designed to be lean, transparent, and safe to run with real money.

⚠️ This bot executes real trades. Always start with a small amount and monitor logs closely. Never risk more than you can afford to lose.

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✨ Features

• Multi-pair trading — BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP (EUR pairs, configurable)
• Dual signal engine — Mean-reversion (RSI) + trend breakout (Bollinger Bands)
• Smart entry filters — volume filter, regime filter, score threshold, per-pair cooldowns
• Fee-aware exits — take‑profit includes Kraken fee buffer (maker + taker)
• Risk controls — ATR trailing stop, cooldowns, drawdown circuit breaker
• Regime filter — switches to risk‑off sizing in bear markets (BTC benchmark)
• Bear Shield — parks everything in FIAT when BTC drops below 4h EMA50
• Position recovery — reconstructs holdings and PnL from Kraken trade history on restart
• Cooldown persistence — per‑pair cooldown state survives restarts (no immediate re‑buy)
• Telegram notifications — instant alerts on every trade and critical error (optional)
• Systemd service — auto‑restart on crash, watchdog heartbeat, rate‑limiting
• Log rotation — RotatingFileHandler keeps logs at ≤5 MB × 5 backups
• Short‑selling support — leveraged shorts (configurable) with Felix’s rules:
  • Open only in confirmed downtrend (bearish EMA crossover + negative score)
  • Close only on real net profit after fees or on an early bullish signal (BUY) to avoid adverse moves
• Hot‑reload configuration – config.toml is checked every 5 minutes and applied without restart

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Clone and install dependencies

git clone https://github.com/felix-helleckes/TradingBot.git
cd TradingBot
pip install -r requirements.txt

2. Set up API credentials

cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env and add your Kraken API key and secret

Create a Kraken API key with Trade permissions only. Never enable withdrawals.

3. (Optional) Enable Telegram notifications

• Fill TELEGRAM_TOKEN and TELEGRAM_CHAT_ID in .env
• The notifier is active by default; set ENABLE_TELEGRAM=false in config.toml to disable.

4. Configure the bot Edit config.toml to set your capital, pairs, and risk parameters. Example:

trade_amount_eur = 20.0       # EUR per trade
initial_balance = 100.0       # your starting balance
target_balance_eur = 150.0    # stop target (optional)

5. Run the bot

python main.py

Or as a systemd service (recommended for 24/7 operation):

sudo cp kraken-bot.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable --now kraken-bot
sudo journalctl -u kraken-bot -f   # follow live logs

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📁 Project Structure

File / Directory	Purpose
main.py	Entry point, logging setup, single‑instance lock, dotenv load
trading_bot.py	Core engine: strategy logic, order execution, risk management, state
analysis.py	Technical indicators and signal scoring (RSI, SMA, Bollinger Bands)
kraken_interface.py	Kraken API wrapper with rate‑limit backoff and order locking
utils.py	Config loading, validation, NAS path helpers
core/notifier.py	Telegram notifications (reads TELEGRAM_TOKEN/CHAT_ID from .env)
order_lock.py	File‑based exclusive lock to prevent duplicate orders
config.toml	Single source of truth for all runtime parameters
logs/	Rotating logs (bot_activity.log) and trade events JSONL
data/	Persistent state: history buffer, cooldowns, PnL, short positions
reports/	Trade journal CSV and optional HTML reports
scripts/	Ops, backtesting, data‑collection, and reporting tools
kraken-bot.service	systemd unit file (Restart=always, WatchdogSec=120)

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⚙️ How It Works

Each loop (~30 seconds) the bot:

1. Fetches live ticker prices for all configured pairs.
2. Seeds/updates price history from local 5‑minute OHLC files (NAS) – no API warm‑up wait.
3. Generates a signal score using RSI (mean‑reversion) and Bollinger Bands (trend/breakout).
4. Applies entry filters:
   • Volume ≥ 30 % of 20‑candle average
   • Regime filter (BTC‑based RISK_ON/RISK_OFF — derzeit deaktiviert)
   • Score threshold (min_buy_score)
   • Per‑pair and global cooldowns
   • EMA trend confirmation (1h EMA20/50 crossover) für Longs / Shorts
5. Executes the best‑scoring action:
   • Long: opens a BUY if all guards pass and signal is BUY.
   • Short: opens a leveraged short only if:
     • Shorting enabled in config
     • Confirmed bearish 1h EMA trend (not _is_ema_trend_bullish)
     • Score ≤ -min_buy_score
     • (Bei aktiviertem Regime-Filter zusätzlich: Risk‑off)\n - Exit logic:
     • Longs are closed only when _can_sell_profit_target is true (real net profit after fees) or by a hard stop/ATR/time stop (these bypass the profit gate).
     • Shorts are closed when:
       • _can_close_short_profit_target is true (real net profit after fees) OR
       • An opposing bullish signal (BUY) appears – early close to avoid adverse move (added 2026‑06‑03).
     • All stop‑loss mechanisms (hard stop, ATR trailing, time stop) always execute regardless of profit target.

All order placement goes through kraken_interface.py, which acquires an exclusive lock first to avoid duplicate submissions.

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🛡️ Risk Management

Control	Default	Description
Take‑profit (long)	3.0 % + fees	Minimum gain before selling
Take‑profit (short)	1.5 %	Minimum gain before buying back
ATR trailing stop	2.0 × ATR	Dynamic stop that ratchets up with price
Trade cooldown	60 min/pair	Prevents overtrading the same instrument
Global cooldown	60 min	Minimum gap between any two trades
Max open positions	1	Limits concurrent exposure
Drawdown circuit breaker	10 % portfolio	Pauses buys after large portfolio drop
Short‑selling leverage	2.0× (config)	Leverage for leveraged shorts
Max short notional	25 EUR (config)	Cap per‑short to limit tail risk

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🔧 Monitoring & Ops

The bot runs as a systemd service — no external watchdog needed:

sudo systemctl status kraken-bot       # check status
sudo journalctl -u kraken-bot -f       # follow live logs
sudo systemctl restart kraken-bot      # restart after config change

Systemd provides:

• Restart=always – auto‑restart on crash
• WatchdogSec=120 – kills and restarts if the bot hangs > 120 s
• Rate‑limiting (max 5 restarts / 5 min) to avoid tight‑loop failures

Logs are rotated automatically by Python’s RotatingFileHandler (5 MiB per file, 5 backups).

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📅 Recent Changes

See CHANGELOG.md for the full history.

2026‑06‑07 — Bugfixes: Short-Blocker (Regime-Filter) & Doppelfilter (MTF vs EMA) behoben. Config vereinfacht. Watchdog + Daily-Report per Cron.

2026‑06‑03 — Early Short‑Close auf BUY‑Signal. Systemd‑Service stabilisiert.

2026‑06‑02 — Short‑Logik (Downtrend‑Only + Net‑Profit‑Only), Airbag deaktiviert.

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⚖️ Disclaimer

This software is for educational purposes. Trading cryptocurrency involves significant risk. Past backtest performance does not guarantee future results. The authors are not responsible for any financial losses.

💡 Tip: Start with a small amount (e.g., 20–50 EUR) and observe the bot’s behavior for at least one full cycle before increasing exposure.

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Active development — contributions and feedback welcome.