LX Trading is a developer on the Mercor platform, who has a background in strategy consulting with 15 years of experience in mergers, acquisitions and cost reduction programs. Over the course of his career, they supported many global corporations taking tough decisions using complex financial models.
Since 2017 they have been actively trading crypto with a self-developed and extensively backtested momentum strategy. In 2020, they programmed their strategy in python and launched several trading bots. Currently, they have 25 active bots with more than 1.000 followers.
Recently, we have announced an extension of our partnership with LX Trading. Mercor will be offering premium algorithms on its platform as of the full launch. Mercor sets the bar for developers of these premium algorithms high, as only the best quality algorithms can be qualified as premium. LX Trading proved to be more than fitting to be a premium developer on the Mercor platform and will therefore provide Mercor users with premium algorithms after the full launch! The premium algorithm-webpage of LX Trading is now live, and can be found at the following link:
Please note: the premium algorithms will only be live after the full platform launch.
Early Bird
LX Trading is one of the early birds in terms of joining the Mercor platform. Since the release of the Mercor Early Beta environment, LX Trading gave us valuable feedback and suggestions. Besides that, they are testing out our platform with their top-notch algorithms. Explore the AMA and you will understand the reason behind their successful algorithms!
One of LX Trading’s best-performing bots on the platform. This bot reached nearly 70% profit in just over a month!
The Mercor Developer AMA Series
Mercor values transparency and education highly. We like to keep our community up to date and as informed as possible. That’s why we launched a new Mercor series: the Mercor Developer AMA series. Given their extensive expertise and after achieving incredible results, we figured LX Trading would be a fitting candidate for our second Mercor developer AMA series.
In this article, we will set out last week’s AMA, held in the Mercor community chat. The article will give you an insight into a prime developer on the Mercor platform. The AMA was a great success and gave exclusive insights into the benefits of algo trading. Below is a detailed summary of what was covered in the AMA. Enjoy reading!
The AMA
Mercor CEO: ‘It is time for our third developer AMA! LX Trading has a background in strategy consulting with 15 years of experience in mergers, acquisitions and cost reduction programs. Over the course of their career, they have supported many global corporations taking tough decisions using complex financial models. Since 2017 they have been actively trading crypto with self-developed and extensively backtested momentum strategies. In 2020, they programmed their strategy in python and launched several trading bots. Currently, they have 25 active bots with more than 1.000 followers.
The best question will receive a 0.5 BNB investment reward!’
Mercor CEO: ‘Welcome LX!
Could you please give us a brief introduction about yourself (background, experience)?’
LX Trading: My name is Alex, hence the alias LX.
I’m a strategy consultant with 15 years of experience in mergers, acquisitions and cost reduction programs. Throughout my career, I have supported many global corporations taking tough decisions to buy, sell and optimize companies using complex financial models.
I started developing trading bots 4 years ago. Currently, my company RYFEN has 25 active bots with more than 1.000 users across different platforms.
Mercor CEO: ‘Amazing CV you got there. How and when did you get involved in algorithmic trading?’
LX Trading: ‘I learned programming at the Delft University of Technology. With real robots, not trading bots 😉. I learned about financial markets during my MBA at IESE Business School in Barcelona. I got introduced to crypto by a good friend who worked at the trading desk of Goldman Sachs in London.
Since 2017 I have been actively trading crypto with my self-developed and extensively backtested momentum strategy. In 2020, I have programmed this strategy in python and launched several trading bots.’
Mercor CEO: ‘You have been all over the world!’
LX Trading: ‘Only for holidays.. 😉 But I have worked in Amsterdam, London and Barcelona.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Great to see your knowledge comes from international experience and from established institutions like Goldman Sachs.’
LX Trading: ‘Yes, the professor at IESE was also from Goldman Sachs — pretty tough guys. But my main background is helping companies to buy and sell other firms.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Have you learned about specific subjects during your studies and lectures that you use now within algo trading?’
LX Trading: ‘The most important thing I learned [from the ex Goldman Sachs professor] is that the efficient market hypothesis is not true. It is hard to beat the market, but not impossible.’
Mercor CEO: ‘That’s promising to hear. Beating the market is the end goal of course!’
LX Trading: ‘It still took me a few years to develop a trading model that has an edge’
Mercor CEO: ‘Well you did a great job ;). So, what is the story and mission of LX Trading?’
LX Trading: ‘The crypto market is getting very sophisticated. Without realizing it, you are trading against a long list of professionals, hedge funds and whales. Without a bot to help you, it will be pretty to make money in the coming years.
I want to make it easy and fun for people to invest in crypto and make sure users stand a chance in this market. Pretty hard… to make money’
Mercor CEO: ‘That’s a noble goal… What you’re saying aligns directly with the Mercor vision: making trading easy and letting the bots do the work!’
LX Trading: ‘Furthermore, I think hodling is risky as we might be approaching a new bear market (starting somewhere in 2022). Hodling is great in a bull market, but not fun in a bear market’
Mercor CEO: ‘That’s why we have you guys!
What do your algorithms focus on? How do the algorithms of LX Trading differ from other algorithms?’
LX Trading: ‘The algorithms all work with a momentum strategy. The bots scan the market 24/7 and enter a (spot) position when the algorithm identifies the start of an uptrend. The bots assume that the trend will continue and stay in the position until they get confirmation that the trend is over, no matter how long that may be. Although this means the bots never buy the bottom and never sell the top, the strategy consistently outperforms the market over time.
In crypto, the market often trends for much longer than you expect. Most people sell too soon or buy too early. That’s where the bot outperforms others.
For example, a market can be overbought (on the RSI) for weeks and still continue to go up. The bot tries to capture all of that upside potential.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Very interesting, outperforming the market ourselves by just trading would be a hard job to do. How does the bot actually identify these trends?’
LX Trading: ‘Sorry, that is part of the secret sauce. Perhaps you can rephrase the question?’
One thing I do want to share is that my bots don’t use a hard stop loss as these get hunted by other bots and hit very often.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Haha, of course, let’s keep that sauce secret ;)’
Mercor CEO: ‘How long does it take to develop your strategies? And how do you choose which token you would like to focus on?’
LX Trading: ‘It took me about a year to develop the first version of the strategy, and then 3 more years of iteration to improve the performance.
The better the algorithm, the more difficult it gets to find ways to optimize. About 99% of all ideas fail in backtesting as they don’t perform as well as the current version. A strategy is never really finished — I’m always thinking about different variations that can further improve the returns.
To choose the token, I look at the size of the liquidity pools. This ensures the bot can move in and out of the market quickly
By the way, to really stress test a strategy, I use forward testing. This ensures the model is not overfitted to historic data.’
Mercor CEO: ‘That’s an impressive amount of time. Comforting to know that you put significant effort in creating these strategies to ensure traders of the greatest results.
Speaking about backtesting, to what extent do you think it’s absolutely necessary?’
LX Trading: ‘The strategy is built up from different rules (if -> then) to determine a buy or a sell. Every single rule of my model has to be backtested (and forward tested) extensively to ensure it will work in the long run. I never ever use a rule that is not tested
This is really important to me. Most influencers on Twitter, Youtube, Telegram post ideas without mentioning how successful that idea would have been if applied to all data in the past 10 years.
If you did that, you would likely see that the idea doesn’t work in the long run.’
Mercor CEO: ‘That’s good to know, very reassuring. Seems like you do thorough testing before you deploy any bots.’
LX Trading: ‘The reality of building a trading algorithm is that once you find a profitable strategy, it is more likely that you have made an error in your model, than that you have found gold 😉
But the basis of the algo’s I use on the Mercor platform have been running for years, so I can assure you that they work (in the long run).’
Mercor CEO: ‘Unfortunately, some things are too good to be true. Now that we know how good you are testing the bots and seeing your results on the platform, we can be pretty confident about that.’
LX Trading: ‘To determine the optimal settings of a trading algorithm, many quantitative traders use a process called “backtesting”. Backtesting refers to applying a trading system to historical data to verify how a system would have performed during the specified time period. By running these tests with different settings, the “optimum” settings can be discerned. Unfortunately, tweaking a system to achieve the greatest level of past profitability often leads to a system that will perform poorly in real trading. This over-optimization (“overfitting”) creates systems that look good on paper only.
All our algorithms follow the same generic momentum strategy, but the settings are different for every trading pair. To derive these settings without presenting unrealistic returns, we used a process called “walk forward testing”. In contrast to “backtesting”, this process tests the performance in a paper trading simulation with actual market data.’
Mercor CEO: ‘So from what I understand, the best way to test your bots is a combination of backtesting and walk forward testing?’
LX Trading: ‘Yes, first you use backtesting and then walk forward testing. Only the returns from the walk forward test are representative.
Bitcoin Max (an algorithm running on the Mercor platform) currently has a walk forward return of 54x a hodl strategy. If you started with 1 BTC on 1–1–2011, you would now have 54 BTC.
If you started with 1 USD, you would now have 8.4 mln USD.’
Mercor CEO: This is very valuable educational content for our community.
LX Trading: ‘I would love to show a picture of the returns, but that seems to be disabled in this chat.’
Mercor CEO: ‘I have changed that now, we would love to see the picture of the returns.’
LX Trading:
Mercor CEO: ‘That’s very impressive!’
LX Trading:
LX Trading: ‘These are forward testing returns. Bitcoin is the coin that is hardest to trade. It is the largest and most efficient crypto market. Therefore it is a great reference.’
Mercor CEO: ‘We are truly lucky that we have access to these bots. Especially given the fact that we can just invest in the bots and can relax after that. Kind of a passive income!’
LX Trading: ‘I’m currently optimizing my altcoin bots for the Mercor platform. These trade a portfolio of altcoins vs USDT or BTC.
The bot that trades alts vs USDT realized a 1250% return last year. Not test returns, but real returns. The bot that trades alts vs BTC realized a return of 300% in BTC. Which is 2000% in USDT
By trading a portfolio of alts, the compounding effect is much stronger as there are always interesting coins to trade.
While the BTC max bot can be out of the market for weeks (just like it is at the moment). Last trade was Nov 11 and since then the BTC price dropped 28%.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Wow. That’s unheard of. Those are dream numbers! We can’t wait until the full launch when those multi-pair algo’s can be deployed. One last question. If we are already talking about the platform, you always give us great feedback and suggestions. Could you share with us what you think of the Mercor platform, its functionalities, the team and its ambitions?’
LX Trading: ‘I joined the platform as I want to be involved in cutting-edge new developments in the industry, and I think this is one of them.
I really like the decentral setup. This could be the future of trading, in a similar way that DeFi could be the future of finance
Most important for me: it really works. Sounds obvious, but this is a great compliment to the team’
Mercor CEO: ‘Thank you for the kind words, we could not agree with you more. Great to hear, and a big compliment for our dev team. We feel very honored and grateful to have you on the platform!’
LX Trading: ‘I believe one of the next steps of Mercor is to make it possible to develop bots that trade in multiple tokens. That functionality will greatly enhance the profitability of my algo’s and reduce their risk. I really look forward to that launch.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Stay tuned, full launch coming very soon!’
Mercor CEO: ‘That brings an end to the first part of the AMA. Thank you so much for your time, wise words and info on your methods. I will now open up the chat and allow community members to ask questions! Remember, the best question will win 0.5 BNB investment credits.
To all Mercorians, the chat is now open to all of your questions!
Miles_Mercor, Mercor Marketing Director: ‘Thank you, LX! Happy to have you. Let’s go Mercor!’
Kitos, Mercor Community Member: ‘LX, walk forward testing is known as paper trading because it is done on paper only… are you doing that by hand, on paper?’
LX Trading: [In reply to Kitos] ‘No, I run the model manually and then update the settings every quarter.’
Kitos, Mercor Community Member: [In reply to LX] ‘Cool 👍🏻 . Something to apply to my algos 😄.’
LX Trading: ‘The simulation of the Bitcoin Max bot followed the following steps:
‘The initial settings of the algorithm were derived from backtesting on the dataset that precedes the simulation (1–7–2010 to 1–1–2011)
The initial settings were then applied to actual market data to simulate the bot’s performance in the first quarter of 2011 (1–1–2011 to 1–4–2011)
In a first iteration, the settings of the algorithm were updated based on backtesting on the total available dataset in the simulation (1–7–2010 to 1–4–2011)
The updated settings were then applied to simulate the bot’s performance in the second quarter of 2011 (1–4–2011 to 1–7–2011)
This process of updating the settings each quarter was repeated until a first cycle of 4 years was reached. After that the settings were updated each quarter based on the optimal settings of the previous 4 years (instead of the full history) and then tested on the upcoming quarter. The combined returns of all simulations form the test results displayed.’
Kitos, Mercor Community Member: [In reply to LX] ‘Thanks for this valuable info 🙌🏻’
LX Trading: [In reply to Kitos] ‘No thanks. Let me know if you have any questions once you are testing’
M M, Mercor Community Member: ‘Thank you LX, that was an insightful AMA. I was wondering, what altcoins will include your multi-pair algorithms, and do you see a future in NFT’s and trading algorithms?’
LX Trading: [In reply to M M] ‘I typically use top 100 altcoins, except for the top 10 (which don’t provide a lot of upsides). NFTs are very interesting indeed, but the bot just looks at all coins and invests in the ones that move.’
M M, Mercor Community Member: ‘Alright, sounds clear, thanks! So if I invest with full launch, I can expect a return of >1200% within only a year? It sounds almost too good to be true lol.’
LX Trading: [In reply to M M] ‘That depends whether or not we get another bull run as we saw at the beginning of 2021. Almost all returns were made in just a couple of weeks, but you have to be in the market to catch the wave at the right moment. For example, the altcoin bots were first investing in DeFi tokens, then a few months later in L1 tokens, and now mainly in metaverse tokens.’
M M, Mercor Community Member: [In reply to LX] ‘Makes sense. Can’t wait to be honest!’
Black Sun, Mercor Community Member: ‘For example, If the price of a token at an exchange is $1 and the price in another exchange $1.5, it seems that I can take profit (Arbitrage btw those exchanges) easily by using Lx trading just with 1 account. Is this true?’
LX Trading: [In reply to Black Sun] ‘I think that might work for small-cap coins, but my bots mainly run on large and mid-cap coins which are much more stable across exchanges.’
Envonyy, Mercor Community Member: ‘Hi, would like to ask what you think will be the greatest challenge for LX Trading and how do you plan to overcome it?’
LX Trading: [In reply to Evonyy] ‘The main challenge is to ensure users actually make money. During the previous bull run, many users stepped in late and then kept adding money to the bots at the peak of the market. After the drop, they left with a loss, whereas the bot recovered within a few weeks. Better to invest a small amount and stay invested in the bot. That way you can really benefit.’
Envonyy, Mercor Community Member: [In reply to LX] ‘That sounds really promising.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Let’s allow the community one more question, after that, we are wrapping up!’
Black Sun, Mercor Community Member: ‘With Master-level Trading Platform, Sophisticated Data Analytics, Diversified Brokerage Service and Full-stack Quantitative Solutions, what advantages does LX Trading have which can overpass competitors?’
Black Sun, Mercor Community Member: ‘Why should I use LX Trading instead of trading directly on crypto exchanges? LX Trading is currently collaborating with many good projects such as Mercor Finance. What are the benefits of LX Trading with that partnership?’
LX Trading: [In reply to Black Sun] ‘If I were you I would invest a small amount in all of these to diversify. My bots have a proven track record, but I can’t guarantee any profits. On Mercor I plan to launch two portfolio bots that are not available on other platforms.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Alright that is it guys, amazing AMA and I would like to thank LX for his time and great answers! Also thanks to the community for their questions.
You can find all of the algorithms of LX Trading here:
The prize for the best question goes to M M, congrats! Please reach out via DM to receive your prize.
Wrap Up
The community got exclusive insights into the methods of our beloved bot creators and got to chat directly with the creators of these profit machines! One of Mercor’s main goals is to make algorithmic trading accessible for everybody by building a bridge between talented developers and expert algo traders and everyday investors. This AMA series is a prime example of doing just so!
The Mercor team enjoyed the AMA to the fullest and loved to see the engagement between investors and developers. On to the next one!
The full launch of the Mercor platform is in full effect! Last week, Mercor launched its official Telegram Bot. Subscribers can now keep track of their portfolio effortless and at all times, with the bot giving automated updates on the results of investments.
With this release, Mercor kicked off its full launch. Now, we would like to introduce the second product of the Mercor full platform launch: a unique staking rewards system in DeFi!
At Mercor, both traders and developers can create an (almost) passive way of earning income; developers by creating and deploying trading algorithms; traders by investing in them. Investing in a trading algorithm on the Mercor platform is easy and can be done in only a few steps. After investing in an algorithm, the algorithm trades your funds for you; you just have to withdraw whenever you feel like cashing out.
Now, Mercor Finance provides you with another way of earning passively! On the first day of 2022, Mercor Finance will release its new staking system. With this release, staking your $MRCR tokens will yield continuous rewards.
Undoubtedly, staking pools have made a significant uprise in the cryptocurrency space. Mercor is well aware and realized the value it brings for Mercorians (Mercor users), which is the fundamental value of our business. However, Mercor wouldn’t be Mercor if the team didn’t bust their a**es off to come up with a DeFi staking system that has never been seen before.
How to stake, and how to get the APY multiplier
Staking rewards can be compared to the interest you get at your bank. Banks give you interest for holding your money in the bank, but we all know: banks are a thing of the past. That’s why Mercor gives you $MRCR, for staking your tokens!
To stake your tokens, head over to (as of January 1st):
First, you will need to approve the staking contract by clicking on ‘+ Approve MRCR’. Next, select a tier to your liking (for an overview of all tiers and their benefits, visit: https://app.mercor.finance/investor/tiers), and click on ‘+ Stake’.
Heads up! The ‘Gold’ tier will give you an APY multiplier of 20% and the ‘Platinum’ tier of no less than 30%!
Select the amount and click on ‘+ Stake’.
Congrats, you are now staking $MRCR! This will not only give you access to the top-notch trading algorithms on the Mercor platform but will, as of January 1st, also give you rewards.
Further, on the right side of the staking page, you will see the following:
This will show you how much $MRCR you have staked (above is an example with 1000 $MRCR in this case), how much you have earned and gives you the option to harvest, compound or withdraw. Harvesting means collecting the rewards earned. Clicking this button will transfer the rewards to your wallet. Compounding will harvest your rewards and automatically stake those rewards again. If you would like to withdraw your $MRCR tokens to your wallet, click on withdraw.
The Science Behind Our Unique Staking System
Most staking programs in crypto, work with a staking pool that gets filled by the token supplier. Staking will provide you with rewards, coming from the staking pool. If the pool doesn’t get refilled by the supplier, at a certain point, it will diminish and the rewards will run out. In most cases, this causes an unsustainable and shortly lasted yield, while at the same time inflating token supply and driving sell pressure.
We have created a sustainable and continuous staking rewards pool. It works as follows: Mercor users can invest in algorithms, deployed on the Mercor platform. These algorithms are trading constantly and make profits. Of course, at a certain moment, investors want to cash out their profits, for which they will need to withdraw their funds. The 10% Mercor profit fee will be used to buy back $MRCR tokens from the market. This will create a significant and continuous buy pressure of the $MRCR token. Half of these tokens will be sent to the new staking contract and be divided as additional staking rewards, which leads to a higher APY for stakers. Furthermore, the burning fee of the staking contract will also be used to fuel the staking rewards. Mercor Finance will also inject a token supply into the staking reward pool in order to kick it off, from there on we will monitor the APY and supply additional tokens where necessary.
The Mercor staking platform works with a built-in buyback system and an organic refill system of the pool, which both will maximize the buying pressure of the $MRCR token, and increase the APY in a sustainable manner.
An explainer of the Mercor staking system will be released soon, along with the other products of the full launch, such as multi-token trading algorithms! Stay tuned, the full launch is upon us!
New Here?
Welcome! Mercor is an algorithmic copy trading platform. To be specific, it’s the first and only fully decentralized algorithmic copy trading platform. Ever.
Algorithms may sound complex; in reality, they’re here to make it all easier for us. they are nothing more than pre-programmed ‘bots’ that perform actions based on amounts of data that humans couldn’t comprehend. This programming is done by talented developers and hedge funds. Trading algorithms — the kind of algo’s on the Mercor platform — perform trades. In other words: they buy and sell on their own.
Why leave the trading up to bots, you are thinking? Let us explain. Algorithms are faster, more consistent and stable than humans could ever be. They buy and sell at unmatched speed, resulting in the most optimal prices. The most common saying in investing goes: ‘never invest with your emotions. Algo’s never include emotions in their trading- simply because they have none (yet)! Never bad moods, rough mornings or long nights. Pure consistency. More trading time equals a bigger chance of profits, right? Algorithms never sleep, travel, eat, raise kids, go to school, etcetera. All they do is make the most optimal trades. All day, everyday- and night. 24/7 trading made possible! Always wanted to trade crypto? Don’t know where to start? Let the bots do the work. They are designed to invest in the most favorable coins.
Let us not forget to mention that within the first month, many algorithms on the Mercor platform reached profits close to 80%! Besides, Mercor partnered with developers that created bots making over 1200% annual profit. No typing mistakes were made. Beat that!
Mercor Finance provides careless, effortless investing. Pick an algorithm and let it do your trading. All you have to do is kick back, and relax.
If you are not entirely familiar with Mercor Finance yet, we recommend you jump down a bit and start reading at the ‘What is Mercor’ header! See you soon!
New Features
The Mercor team is extremely thrilled to bring its users this release, as many new and valuable features will come to the platform.
As announced in the previous article, the full launch will bring you multi-token trading algorithms and a brand new staking system rewarding you with impressive APY’s. The multi-token algorithms will provide Mercor-users with trading algorithms that can trade numerous tokens at the same time, further improving the ROI of most algorithms. Our staking system will be the most unique staking system in DeFi, featuring an APY multiplier and state-of-the-art APY generating factors, which will disrupt the industry. More about this soon!
It doesn’t stop there. We will bring UI improvements, design enhancements, and other supporting tools that will make the user experience seamless and stylish. Stay tuned, as we will continue to shed more light on every detail that is coming with the full launch in these next series of Mercor articles!
Telegram Bot
At Mercor, we like to think and act outside of the box- providing the most optimal user experience. We do this not only in-platform but throughout the entire Mercor environment, which reaches beyond the platform.
We understand that Telegram plays a huge role in the cryptocurrency space, so it’s only fitting that it plays the same role in our ventures. Mercor has a strong and loyal community, which is ever-present on Telegram. Our Telegram community knows members that have been with Mercor since the very beginning; before there was even a Mercor platform. The community includes members from all over the world, showing their love and support for Mercor and its Mercorians (Mercor users), sharing their thoughts on the product and to the liking of the Mercor team, providing us with valuable feedback. The community is active 24/7 and has known a great increase in both members and engagement over recent weeks.
We like to take a moment to emphasize our appreciation for our great community. Without you, we wouldn’t have made it to the full launch!
That brings us to the first product of the Mercor full platform launch: The Official Telegram Bot of Mercor Finance!
To provide Mercorians with a comprehensive experience of the product, our beloved developers have manufactured a Telegram bot. Of course, as a serious investor, you want to be able to keep track of your funds and investments at any time. We made it possible.
With this bot, users can keep track of their portfolio, funds, and current investments at all times. All this without having to open your browser, but above all, without any effort. Subscribing to this bot will provide you with daily updates.
Sounds good? We thought so too. How to use it? See below:
Manual telegram bot:
To start the Mercor Telegram bot, search @MercorBot in Telegram bot and press ‘Start’, at the bottom of the chat.
You should see this image after typing /start
The bot will now ask you to provide your wallet address. The wallet address is needed in order to provide you with the information related to the wallet connected with Mercor.
Please proceed to type your wallet address that is connected to the Mercor platform.
After typing your wallet address, you should see this image
You can have only one address paired per Telegram account. If the address is incorrect, the bot will prompt you to try again. If you want to change your current address, simply type /start. again. The new address will overwrite the previous one.
Once your address is correctly saved, type:
/algos
To see an overview of the algorithms you have invested in.
The algorithm overview should look something like this, depending on the algo’s you’re invested in. Behind the name of the algo’s, there is the amount invested in USD, which is in this example blurred out. The subscribe button can be found at the bottom.
Once you’re in the /algo menu you can click on an algorithm to get detailed information about this algorithm.
An overview of a specific algorithm could look something like this
At the bottom, there is a button saying: ‘Subscribe for daily update’. This option will send you a message with the total value of your portfolio and the profit of the last 24 hours.
Subscribing for a daily update should look like this
If you wish to unsubscribe go back to the algorithm overview and click on the button that says: ‘Unsubscribe for daily update’.
The algorithm overview should look something like this, depending on the algo’s you’re invested in. Behind the name of the algo’s, there is the amount invested in USD, which is in this example blurred out. The unsubscribe button can be found at the bottom.
Once you’re in a specific algorithm, the following buttons can be found at the bottom:
‘<<Back to overview’ will redirect you to the overview where you can see all algorithms that you have invested in.
‘Exit’ will exit the conversation with the bot.
At any time during a conversation with the bot, you can type:
/cancel
to exit this conversation.
Exiting the conversation should look like this
If you switch from a Telegram account and pair your wallet address with this account, your old Telegram account will be unsubscribed. This means only one Telegram account with one address can be active at the same time.
Easy as that!
With just these couple of simple steps, you can keep track of your investments at all times- just like the pro’s.
What is Mercor
New here? Welcome to Mercor Finance.
Mercor disrupts the financial industry by democratizing the world of algorithmic trading. Algorithmic trading is investing through algorithms. Trading algorithms/bots are pre-programmed trading strategies that perform buy- and sell orders automatically. In other words, these algorithms do the trading for you. And chances are likely, they do it better! Why? Because trading algorithms are able to trade 24/7. Imagine all the profits you miss out on during your sleep, at work, on vacation and so on. With an active trading bot, the trading keeps ongoing, improving the chances of great returns.
We all know not to trade with emotions. Good thing algorithms don’t have any. They don’t have bad days and are ever consistent.
Oftentimes, getting green results is all about timing and speed. Algorithms can perform trades with timing and speed humans could never match.
Check out this video made by Mercor, showcasing a great example of perfect timing by one of the algorithms running on the Mercor platform:
These are just some of the many other benefits of algorithmic trading.
Mercor makes algorithmic trading accessible for anyone. On the Mercor platform, there is a developer environment, where talented developers and hedge funds are able to create and deploy trading strategies. So, if you’re a developer, you are able to do so too. You will set your own profit fee and can start earning!
On the other side, there is the investor environment. This is where investors/traders can pick an algorithm to their liking and invest in it by a few simple clicks. Once invested, the bot will trade your funds automatically and investors can join all the benefits of algorithmic trading. This way, Mercor provides a passive way of earning for its users.
For detailed information, please have a look at the official documentation of Mercor Finance:
The moment we have all been waiting for is finally here! Mercor Finance is getting ready for its full launch! We know that Mercorians worldwide are eagerly waiting to use the world’s best algorithmic trading platform to its fullest. Hence, we have been working overtime to ensure that the platform is absolutely flawless. In the spirit of transparency, we want to keep our users in the loop about the latest progress.
The democratization of algorithmic trading is no easy feat. Making sure our platform is accessible, user-friendly, high-performing, and intuitive is amongst our top priorities. Our ambitions came at a cost as we have had to tackle some intricate technical challenges. Luckily, Mercor is blessed with a uniquely talented team of developers that turn dreams into reality.
As most of you know, our Beta launched on September 27th testing the fluidity and functionalities of our platform and its smart contracts. As we hoped and expected, the platform was immensely successful and showed itself capable of delivering.
The algorithms deployed on the platform made unmatched profits, which made hundreds of ‘Mercorians’ (Mercor-users) extremely satisfied.
Even during bearish market conditions, the algorithms showed impressive results. Lots of trading bots continued to make profit while the market went down, and plenty of them stayed stable during rapidly crashing markets. No stress at Mercor Finance.
While we loved the appraisal and positive comments about our Beta launch, we were more focused on addressing the minor technical bugs that users encountered and the constructive feedback about our user interface. We are happy to announce that the Mercorians’ wishes have been fulfilled and these issues have since been smoothed out. This finally brings us to the full launch!
Are you ready for the launch?
Mercor already delivered a unique beta product and is now preparing to release the fine-tuned, full version of the Mercor platform.
We will be delivering the launch in increments over the coming 30 days. This is to ensure that our launch will be as seamless as possible. The release will bring killer features to the platform. Those who kept an eye on our roadmap had a sneak peek of some great add-ons that are coming to the Mercor platform. Starting with the release of a Telegram bot, followed by staking rewards, and launching multi-token algorithms, these are arguably three of the most significant services.
Approaching the full launch, we will shed light on those features by publishing (bi)weekly articles. In those articles, we will explain in detail what those features exactly encompass and how they will add to the Mercor platform, and eventually to your portfolio.
Full Launch is here!
The vast majority of projects in crypto are here today and gone tomorrow. Mercor, on the other hand, is a sustainable project that’s here to stay. Mercor adds value for both the long term and the short term.
At Mercor, we strive to emphasize our value for transparency and active communication. That’s why we are available to chat 24/7 via platforms such as Telegram, Twitter, email, you name it.
We promised to bring you the full platform launch in Q4, 2021. We worked tirelessly to fulfill our promise and encountered unexpected hurdles along the way. Now, we show you our commitment to transparency and can proudly announce that the start of the full launch will take place on December 21st, kicking off with the Telegram Bot and completing with Multi Token Algorithms, on January 10th, 2022.
The functionalities will release on the following dates:
Mercor Telegram Bot — December 21st, 2021
Mercor Staking Rewards — January 1st, 2022
Full Launch — Mercor Multi Token Algorithms — January 10th, 2022
In between these dates, we will have many other functionalities released. This gradual approach has multiple benefits especially in terms of marketing, as we are launching immense campaigns as of January to celebrate the completion of our full launch on the 10th of January.
We would like to thank our community, our users, and everyone who has been supporting Mercor Finance. We cannot wait to show you all the new functionalities. Enjoy the holiday season and don’t forget: your biggest present comes right after the holidays!
Mercor — Trading made easy
For those who are unfamiliar with Mercor Finance — Mercor Finance makes automated trading easy by offering the first decentralized bot trading marketplace.
Talented developers, hedge funds, hobbyist-programmers, traders and anyone else is able to create and deploy trading algorithms on the Mercor platform. These algorithms may sound complex, but in reality, they are your friends. Why? Because they trade your funds without you having to do anything (besides staking your funds in the algo’s of course). Because they trade when you can’t, when you don’t feel like it, or when you don’t know what to do. Bots don’t experience emotions, bad days, or other outdated humanlike features; and, bots are always loaded with the most accurate data and stay consistent at all times. Those are just a few of the many benefits algorithmic trading bots have to offer.
Did we tell you that the profits run up to 60%, sometimes nearly 80% in only one month?
Did we tell you that most of the algo’s stay stable during bear trends? Did we tell you that multi-pair algorithms — which are coming with the full launch — are doing even crazier numbers in general? Now we did.
Mercor makes trading crypto easy and effortless. Visit the platform, pick an algorithm to your liking, kick back, and relax. Don’t miss out!
MoonQuant Capital is a probabilistic multi-crypto asset fund manager that specializes in algorithmic, systematic trading strategies. The company was founded by seasoned entrepreneurs, educators, and experienced traders. They employ talented software developers, statisticians, and data scientists who create and manage proprietary algorithmic trading strategies. MoonQuant Capital has been active in the crypto industry for a long time, as well as on several other algorithmic copy-trading marketplaces.
We are very proud to tell you MoonQuant Capital has joined the Mercor platform since the release of the Mercor Early Beta environment. Besides the deployment of their state-of-the-art algorithms on the platform, they are helping Mercor immensely by giving invaluable feedback and suggestions from their extensive experience within the industry.
One of MoonQuant’s strongest bots on the platform, which peaked at almost 60% profit in less than a month!
Mercor values transparency and education highly. We like to keep our community up to date and as informed as possible. That’s why we launched a new Mercor series: the Mercor Developer AMA series. Given their extensive expertise and after achieving incredible results, we figured MoonQuant Capital would be a fitting candidate for our second Mercor developer AMA series.
In this article, we will set out last week’s AMA, held in the Mercor community chat. The article will give you an insight into a prime developer on the Mercor platform. The AMA was a great success and gave exclusive insights into the benefits of algo trading. Below is a detailed summary of what was covered in the AMA. Enjoy reading!
The AMA
Mercor CEO: ‘It is time for our second developer AMA. MoonQuant Capital is a crypto asset fund manager specializing in algorithmic and probabilistic trading strategies. Founded by seasoned entrepreneurs, educators and experienced traders. They employ talented software developers, statisticians, and data scientists who create and manage proprietary algorithmic trading strategies.
The format will be as follows, we will mute the chat for the first part of the AMA where we will ask several questions to MoonQuant. After which we will open up the chat and you will be able to ask questions directly.
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Cool’
Mercor CEO: ‘So lets start!’
Mercor CEO: ‘Please give us a brief introduction about yourself (background, experience).’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘I’ll go first. My Name is Rodrigo Benadon. I discovered bitcoin in 2012. And I was immediately seduced by it. At that time, I was an entrepreneur….
I was also trading commodities futures (oil, soybeans, sugar, dow, gold). Since then, I have only traded crypto. I saw that bitcoin was a technological innovation that I could buy and trade. And the charts comported like any other asset.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘I’m Alfredo Roisenzvit, I am an economist. I teach grad school economics, Big Data, and since a few years ago, Crypto. And of course, work at Moonquant developing the algo’s.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Impressive resumes!’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘The forces of nature…’
Mercor CEO: ‘Interesting you got into crypto assets because many individuals believe crypto-assets behave much differently than other assets, what is your take on that?’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘As a technical analyst, you look at the chart. More volatility, but if there is a price and a market it can be traded. It is like a movie playing at 2x speed 😊’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘I can attest to that, Sometimes Rodrigo would call a Tech Bottom or a target, and I will say: that’s impossible in the next x days. And he´ll say: the graph is there, and most of the time it’s a good call!!!’
Mercor CEO: ‘Alright, interesting, and yes crypto definitely is way more volatile, sometimes the movie can last only a few minutes ;). For the next question let’s dive a bit deeper into algorithmic trading, how and when did you get involved in algorithmic trading?’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘The trick is to make the trade, hahaha’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘In 2014, I was doing arbitrage between mtgox and Bitstamp and other exchanges. It was theoretical because you could not withdraw from mtgox. But you could still find plenty of opportunities in Bitfinex and Bitstamp, for example.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Right…’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘I realized that only a machine could take advantage of those price differences.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘About the same time I was working with Big Data Algorithms on Risk management models for banks, and I was related to algo trading models from the risk measurement standpoint.
I also started experimenting with some algo traders for fun on a small account. But nothing too serious.
Then, when I went into crypto shortly after, it was the only possible way. I mean, I still do some manual trades for fun.’
Mercor CEO: ‘And when did you guys decide to focus completely on algorithmic trading and what is the story and mission of MoonQuant Capital?’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘MoonQuant Capital is a crypto-asset fund manager specializing in algorithmic and probabilistic trading strategies. Our goal is to create wildly successful signals across a wide spectrum of crypto assets — both for signal marketplaces (centralized and decentralized) and for the Moonquant Fund.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘On the story, we were interacting and commenting about bots, and we started doing it more often. Before that, Rod had put together a big group of crypto founders, that had basically everyone in the business in Argentina, that had a very early coming crypto community. So that’s how we started communicating our signals to (Rod has been truly instrumental in getting in touch with everyone, in fact).
At one point we decided to make this more professional and long-standing. And started putting together a team.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘In fact, Leo, our lead programmer is actually a postdoc Ph.D. Nuclear Physicist that was previously working on a particle accelerator. Now he’s working on a crypto accelerator!’
Mercor CEO: ‘Great story, and amazing to see such a committed group of early innovators come together. So how many people are currently involved with MoonQuant?’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘That varies, 4 full time, and then we have what we call consultants, that work closely with us on different elements as needed.’
Mercor CEO: ‘If we look at crypto and/or bitcoin and compare it to a typical product life cycle, where do you feel we are currently at?’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘We strongly believe in the transformative nature of this invention (Bitcoin).’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘I don’t see bitcoin as a product… I think of it as an innovation and that we are very early in the S curve of adoption. This is only the beginning. To the Moon!… Quant.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Like Saylor likes to say, it will go up forever…perhaps because fiat will depreciate forever…’
Mercor CEO: ‘Haha, good point 😉. Alright, that’s what we like to hear!’
Mercor CEO: ‘So let’s dive a bit deeper into your algorithms, what do your algorithms focus on? How do the algorithms of MoonQuant Capital differ from other algorithms?’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘We try to capture a market sentiment in the different timeframes the bots operate. And also to understand the trading conditions. There are 2 signal or 3 signal bots, depending on these conditions. For example, at Mercor there are 2 signals since they trade direct pairs. Futures are 3 signals for instance.’
Mercor CEO: ‘For now 2 signals 😉.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘3 signals are long/short/close. 2 signals is only 2 of those, depending on the configuration and parameters of the bot.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘We use a variety of strategies to create a bot. We believe in cold-calculated, data-driven strategies. Our “secret sauce” combines a variety of indicators (EMAs, FIbs, BBANDS, and many others) and on-chain metrics.’
Mercor CEO: ‘So far the secret sauce has been quite profitable!’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Usually, there is one engine (algo or combinations of algos) for each signal (one for long, for example) and a different for short, since they tend to have different dynamics.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘MoonQuant bots also have Multiple timeframe analyses for one signal… They analyze prices across timeframes.’
Mercor CEO: ‘How long does it take to develop such a strategy?’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Forever.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘It’s a never-ending task…’
Mercor CEO: ‘And how often do you change them?’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Constantly.’
Mercor CEO: ‘That’s what I figured as I know you guys are continuously improving them.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Strategies work great until they don’t.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘In crypto, there are epochs, the secret to algo trading is actually identifying those epochs as soon as they change. This is more technical, but for example, Elon tweets marked 2 epochs, there is no modeling to that, you can only model each epoch. Finding those breaks is very difficult.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘News-driven events are unpredictable and create distortions that the algos have trouble managing.’
Mercor CEO: ‘I see, obviously, it is a very demanding and difficult task. So of course your algorithms have not been live for that long yet on the Mercor platform, therefore could you share some performance history of your algorithms, as well as what we can expect long-term.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘There is a point that’s more tech, but maybe interesting to the readers here, let me expand on that.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Alright, sure thing! I know many people are interested in the details!’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘We have logic for signals, as explained, but also each signal has maybe 20 parameters that affect how it fires. So if the performance stalls, we can bring it back playing with the parameters, if the epoch allows.’
At the same time, we constantly work on improving the signals as well, that is more coding and logic. So it’s always one or the other we are working on.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Cheeky’
Mercor CEO: ‘It’s interesting how these algorithms still need continuous work, adjustments, etc.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘There is one very important point to make about backtesting. We can do that with the questions, but backtests are somehow overrated, I can expand on that.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Please do.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Concretely about performance, we have a couple of the longer timeframe bots, which have a 700% yearly turnover, but these long-term signals do get floating drawdowns.’
‘We have a couple of the longer timeframe bots, which have a 700% yearly turnover.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Our bots failed to recognize the big retracement from 60k to 35k… (at least they did not close the position at the bottom). We are now working on improving drawdowns…’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: [In reply to Alfredo Roisenzvit] ‘Measured in USD’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘It’s difficult to type long and fast, but I’ll try to be concrete.
Backtests are a statistical tool, used to measure the past, basically to analyze how predictive models will work, on PARAMETRIC functions. Simplified, if the future will resemble the past, and I can identify a parametric function that describes the past, and the variables are normal or parameterized enough, this will help me understand the future.
You can do that with the shares of Coca-Cola. However, as explained, with crypto it doesn’t work like that. So backtesting 1 year back will have 3 epochs and 3 dumps. There is no way to use that in a model. So all the indicators people see in a backtest are most of the time pretty much useless, other than to show what has already happened.
I have bots that backtest like a charm, and then perform poorly, and the other way around, so you have to be very careful. We try to backtest only within epochs, this is very difficult, and only sometimes really works, until the next epoch.
I can further expand on this during the questions part, if necessary.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Order execution is not a factor in backtesting. It does not take into account liquidity, speed, server error, volume…’
Mercor CEO: ‘Amazing information, very useful for all members and for our team. And we fully agree with your take on backtesting. Let’s move on to the next question for now, but I am sure some community members will have more questions about this in the next part of the AMA.
We are of course very happy to have you on the Mercor platform and your support, suggestions, and feedback have been extremely useful to us. I would like to ask you what you think of the Mercor platform, its functionalities, the team, and its ambitions?’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘We like the decentralized aspect very much. It’s also rather easy to use and navigate. And very easy to connect the bots. Also, your approach to developers is really very welcome as well as you are very active on improvements.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘The fact that we are even halving this space… 😊’
Mercor CEO: ‘Alright that brings an end to the first part of the AMA, I will now open up the chat and allow community members to ask questions! The best question will win 1 BNB.
Community Questions
Onbex, Mercor Community Member: ‘Hello! I have 2 questions
My first question: It is relatively easy to create an algo that follows the trend, it is more difficult to exit it at the right moment (so that the profit does not turn out to be a loss and the loss does not turn out to be a missed profit). How does your algo protect our capital against the loss of invested capital and already earned profit?
And second:
The trend is a good friend of most algos, but as we know, it does not last forever, and there comes a time of… consolidation, which usually generates significant losses.
How does your algo behave during this hard-to-play time? They stop playing, try to fight the market, or is there another option?’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: [In reply to Onbex] ‘Let me start with the second question. Every algo out there tries to buy low and sell high. So it’s a question of how the algos work in the longer term, it’s difficult to see in the short term where everything goes up. To track the long-term performance. No algo will be created to protect your capital, these are speculative tools, so users should use caution and always DYOR.’
John, Mercor Community Member: ‘My question, do you offer other forms of algorithmic trading other than spot trading, and if yes, do you plan on introducing them to the Mercor platform in the future?’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘This is gonna take a while… 😊’
John, Mercor Community Member: ‘What are you guys’ efforts to improve on your algos to benefit investors more than they are doing now? Also, are there plans in place to introduce more pairs on the Mercor platform?’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: [In reply to John] ‘As said, we constantly work on improving our algos. Regarding tokens, we understand this is something that Mercor is working on.’
John, Mercor Community Member: ‘Alright. Satisfactory response. 😊’
Zanzib4r, Mercor Community Member: ‘In a downtrend market where both pairs go down, are algos still able to trade with profit? Everybody is looking for a safe haven during these periods.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: [In reply to zanzib4r] ‘Depends on the pair, and what you want to protect yourself with. If you always want to be in BTC then USD is irrelevant, if USD is your benchmark, you should be in pairs that have USD as base.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: ‘Nothing in crypto is guaranteed, banks are good at that. Crypto is a risky investment. We seek good performance, and history shows it´s ok. But, there is no guarantee. Audits are not necessary because every move is on the blockchain, accessible to anyone with an internet connection.’
J G, Mercor Community Member: ‘Which parameters are you using to identify the secret in crypto as you call it, the epochs? Can you backtest from a specified epoch which will give you maybe a better understanding of how the bot will perform?’
J G, Mercor Community Member: ‘Another question which might be nice, is in what way your own crypto experience is influencing the bots parameters, are some parameters left out due to distrust? Do you ever feel like the bot is making the wrong move and subsequently stop it from making a bad move? Or does the hard statistical data always trump your idea’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: [In reply to J G] ‘We have a large number of parameters that we configure for each signal, they could be basic ones like MA´s BB’s, etc, and then some other in-house ones, using math and derivative formulas, that work with other indicators in the charts. Regarding epochs, it’s just how the price behaves, something we identify by the charts, and then by testing the different formulas to try to identify the breaks.
Many times we feel tempted to intervene, but in the long term, the bot will make fewer mistakes than we will. it’s better to work on improving the bots than running behind individual trades.’
Raprbz, Mercor Community Member: ‘Hi Alfredo, I’m very impressed by your story.
I’m curious about your vision regarding algorithmic trading. Will it ever become popular for the greater public? If yes, in which time frame? If not, why? Lastly, I’m curious to know what your thoughts are on what should be done in order to make algorithmic trading widely available to the general public.
Thanks!’
Mercor CEO: ‘We will cap new questions from hereon and leave @ARoisenzvit and @Benadon the time to answer a few more questions and end the AMA right after.’
G, Mercor Community Member: ‘What ratio of on-chain data vs machine learning/programming do you rely on?’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: [In reply to G] ‘No fixed ratio. It all depends on timing, on-chain is more for sentiment. So fewer indicators but more profound, and the market is more for movement, more indicators, more precise, there is no fixed formula, it changes all the time.’
Alfredo | MoonQuant Capital: [In reply to Raprbz] ‘Platforms like Mercor will do that, it will have better interfaces for the public, but definitely, this is one way to bring it closer.’
Rodrigo | MoonQuant Capital: [In reply to Raprbz] ‘In terms of volume today most trades are machine-driven. If the bot is making a mistake, our efforts are to improve the bots and the next trades.’
Mercor CEO: ‘Alright that is it guys, amazing AMA and I would like to thank @ARoisenzvit and @Benadon for your time and great answers!
