What algos can do

An algo isn’t a single trade signal. It runs a whole portfolio: many markets at once, long and short, rebalanced as prices move.

A portfolio, not a single bet.

Every time it runs, an algo sets a target for each market it trades, anywhere from fully short to fully long. PnL then moves your account to match.

An algo's targets at one moment

BTC40% long

ETH20% long

SOL25% short

DOGE15% short

A minute, an hour or a day later the targets change, and your positions follow. You never place an order yourself.

What an algo can watch.

PricesOpen, high, low and close for every market it follows.

Volume and order flowHow much traded, and how much of it was buying.

Funding ratesWhat longs and shorts are paying each other.

Open interestHow much is riding on each market.

It can watch markets it doesn’t trade, too, for example reading BTC to decide how to trade ETH.

The kinds of strategy you’ll find.

Trend followingRide sustained moves, in one coin or across many.

RotationHold the strongest coins and short the weakest, swapping as they change places.

Pairs and hedgesLong one coin, short a related one, and trade the gap between them.

Market-neutralBalance longs and shorts so a market-wide move cancels out.

Mean reversionLean against moves that have gone too far, too fast.

Statistical modelsRegression, clustering, Kalman filters and more, as ready-made templates.

How it sizes your positions.

Your allocation is the budget for the whole portfolio. Each market gets its share of it according to the algo’s targets, and if the targets add up to more than the budget, they are all scaled down together. Leverage multiplies the lot.

Hold several algos and PnL adds their targets together first, so opposite positions cancel and you only trade, and pay for, the difference. See copying and countering.

How often it rebalances.

From every minute to once a day, set by the algo. Faster algos react sooner; slower ones trade less and pay less in fees. See how often an algo runs.