Crypto Brokers (Using CCXT)¶

This is the guide for connecting to any cryoptocurrency broker through Lumibot. For this, we use the CCXT library, which is a popular library for cryptocurrency trading. If you are interested (but not required!), you can find the documentation for CCXT here: https://ccxt.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

CCXT is a versatile library for cryptocurrency trading, which enables Lumibot to interact with a wide range of cryptocurrency brokers including Coinbase Pro, Binance, Kraken, Kucoin, and many more. We are constantly adding support for more brokers, so if you don’t see your broker listed here, please let us know and we’ll add it!

Before running any strategy, you first need to create an account on your desired broker and then obtain API credentials from the broker’s website. Remember, each broker’s website may be different, but you can generally find the API settings under account settings or something similar. Please see the documentation for your broker for more information on getting API credentials.

For trading with cryptocurrencies, always remember to set your market to 24/7 in the initialize function:

self.set_market("24/7")

Configuration Settings¶

Here are the configuration settings for a few common brokers:

Kraken:

KRAKEN_CONFIG = {
    "exchange_id": "kraken",
    "apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "secret": "YOUR_SECRET_KEY",
    "margin": True,
    "sandbox": False,
}

Kucoin:

KUCOIN_CONFIG = {
    "exchange_id": "kucoin",
    "password": "YOUR_PASSPHRASE", # Note: this is NOT your account password!
    "apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "secret": "YOUR_SECRET",
    "margin": False, # Set this to True if you want to use your margin account
    "sandbox": False,
}

Coinbase Pro:

COINBASEPRO_CONFIG = {
    "exchange_id": "coinbasepro",
    "apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
    "secret": "YOUR_SECRET",
    "password": "YOUR_PASSPHRASE", # Note: This is NOT your account password!
    "sandbox": False,
}

Replace “YOUR_API_KEY”, “YOUR_SECRET_KEY” and “YOUR_PASSPHRASE” with your actual API credentials.

Running Your Strategy¶

To run your strategy, you’ll first need to instantiate your chosen broker with the correct configuration:

broker = Ccxt(KRAKEN_CONFIG)  # replace KRAKEN_CONFIG with your broker's config

Then create an instance of your strategy and add it to a trader:

strategy = MyStrategy(broker=broker)
trader = Trader()
trader.add_strategy(strategy)
strategy_executors = trader.run_all()

This will start running your strategy.

Full Example Strategy¶

Here’s a complete example of a strategy that demonstrates the use of important functions you might need when trading with these brokers:

import datetime

import pandas_ta  # If this gives an error, run `pip install pandas_ta` in your terminal
from lumibot.brokers import Ccxt
from lumibot.entities import Asset
from lumibot.strategies.strategy import Strategy
from lumibot.traders import Trader


class ImportantFunctions(Strategy):
    def initialize(self):
        # Set the time between trading iterations
        self.sleeptime = "30S"

        # Set the market to 24/7 since those are the hours for the crypto market
        self.set_market("24/7")

    def on_trading_iteration(self):
        ###########################
        # Placing an Order
        ###########################

        # Define the base and quote assets for our transactions
        base = Asset(symbol="BTC", asset_type="crypto")
        quote = self.quote_asset

        # Market Order for 0.1 BTC
        mkt_order = self.create_order(base, 0.1, "buy", quote=quote)
        self.submit_order(mkt_order)

        # Limit Order for 0.1 BTC at a limit price of $10,000
        lmt_order = self.create_order(base, 0.1, "buy", quote=quote, limit_price=10000)
        self.submit_order(lmt_order)

        ###########################
        # Getting Historical Data
        ###########################

        # Get the historical prices for our base/quote pair for the last 100 minutes
        bars = self.get_historical_prices(base, 100, "minute", quote=quote)
        if bars is not None:
            df = bars.df
            max_price = df["close"].max()
            self.log_message(f"Max price for {base} was {max_price}")

            ############################
            # TECHNICAL ANALYSIS
            ############################

            # Use pandas_ta to calculate the 20 period RSI
            rsi = df.ta.rsi(length=20)
            current_rsi = rsi.iloc[-1]
            self.log_message(f"RSI for {base} was {current_rsi}")

            # Use pandas_ta to calculate the MACD
            macd = df.ta.macd()
            current_macd = macd.iloc[-1]
            self.log_message(f"MACD for {base} was {current_macd}")

            # Use pandas_ta to calculate the 55 EMA
            ema = df.ta.ema(length=55)
            current_ema = ema.iloc[-1]
            self.log_message(f"EMA for {base} was {current_ema}")

        ###########################
        # Positions and Orders
        ###########################

        # Get all the positions that we own, including cash
        positions = self.get_positions()
        for position in positions:
            self.log_message(f"Position: {position}")

            # Get the asset of the position
            asset = position.asset

            # Get the quantity of the position
            quantity = position.quantity

            # Get the symbol from the asset
            symbol = asset.symbol

            self.log_message(f"we own {quantity} shares of {symbol}")

        # Get one specific position
        asset_to_get = Asset(symbol="BTC", asset_type="crypto")
        position = self.get_position(asset_to_get)

        # Get all of the outstanding orders
        orders = self.get_orders()
        for order in orders:
            self.log_message(f"Order: {order}")
            # Do whatever you need to do with the order

        # Get one specific order
        order = self.get_order(mkt_order.identifier)

        ###########################
        # Other Useful Functions
        ###########################

        # Get the current (last) price for the base/quote pair
        last_price = self.get_last_price(base, quote=quote)
        self.log_message(
            f"Last price for {base}/{quote} was {last_price}", color="green"
        )

        dt = self.get_datetime()
        self.log_message(f"The current datetime is {dt}")
        self.log_message(f"The current time is {dt.time()}")

        # If you want to check if it's after a certain time, you can do this (eg. trading only after 9:30am)
        if dt.time() > datetime.time(hour=9, minute=30):
            self.log_message("It's after 9:30am")

        # Get the value of the entire portfolio, including positions and cash
        portfolio_value = self.portfolio_value
        # Get the amount of cash in the account (the amount in the quote_asset)
        cash = self.cash

        self.log_message(f"The current value of your account is {portfolio_value}")
        self.log_message(f"The current amount of cash in your account is {cash}") # Note: Cash is based on the quote asset


if __name__ == "__main__":
    trader = Trader()

    KRAKEN_CONFIG = {
        "exchange_id": "kraken",
        "apiKey": "YOUR_API_KEY",
        "secret": "YOUR_SECRET_KEY",
        "margin": True,
        "sandbox": False,
    }

    broker = Ccxt(KRAKEN_CONFIG)

    strategy = ImportantFunctions(
        broker=broker,
    )

    trader.add_strategy(strategy)
    strategy_executors = trader.run_all()

In this example, we’ve demonstrated the following:

How to place a market order and a limit order
How to get historical data
How to use technical analysis indicators
How to get positions and orders
How to get the current price
How to get the current datetime
How to get the value of the portfolio and the amount of cash in the account

Note

You can find the full source code for this example in the example_strategies folder of the lumibot GitHub repository.