I’d like to try my hand at making a trading bot but I thought I’d ask some questions about trading to point me in the right direction. I don’t expect everyone to answer everything, but if you have an answer to one or a few and you’re willing to share, I would really appreciate it.
First, how much information do you need relative to how long you expect the trade to last? For example, if I were to write a scalping bot that placed trades usually lasting no more than 15 mins, would the previous 90 mins of 1-min candlesticks (and indicators) be sufficient? Would I need more previous data if trades lasted an hour or more?
Is it possible to be profitable by using only a few indicators/signals that are hard-coded? Based on what I’ve read - and please correct me if I’m wrong - looking at the win rate isn’t a good estimate of success because gains can outweigh losses (or the other way around), so I’m wondering if there exist strategies that might not win all the time but are still profitable.
How much of an impact does news and sentiment surrounding market news have on trading on shorter timeframes? I ask this because even though it’s possible for me to write a web scraper to feed market sentiment to the bot, it’d be a lot of work and if it’s possible to be profitable without knowing news/sentiment on shorter timeframes, I think I’d spend my time more wisely on making the bot better without going overkill on providing it every possible piece of information.
What are major things to pay attention to (aside from news and other things the bot can’t see) when placing a trade? Also, for those who are actively trading forex, what would you estimate the distribution of your trade lengths (time-wise) to look like?
I know this is a lot, but honestly, any answers with any amount of detail would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!