TradeSmith

Advanced TradeSmith Settings

Advanced configuration options for TradeSmith — timeframes, signal thresholds, indicator weighting, analysis intervals, logging, and candle lookback settings.

Once you have the basics of TradeSmith working — indicators enabled, pair filters configured, and your first trades operating correctly — you can fine-tune the engine's behavior using its advanced settings. These controls affect how indicators are calculated, how frequently the market is scanned, and how much flexibility you allow in condition matching.

Changes to TradeSmith settings take effect on the next analysis cycle. You do not need to restart the engine — updates are picked up automatically within one scan interval.

Indicator Timeframes

Every indicator in TradeSmith can be evaluated on a different candle timeframe. The timeframe determines the granularity of the price data used to calculate the indicator value. The same RSI formula applied to 15-minute candles and 1-hour candles will produce different readings — and different trade entry frequencies.

Available Timeframes

Timeframe	Candle Duration	Signal Behavior	Best Used For
15m	15 minutes	Very responsive, high noise	Short-term momentum scalping
1h	1 hour	Balanced — responsive but filtered	Standard entry condition evaluation (recommended)
4h	4 hours	Slower to react, more reliable	Trend confirmation, avoiding false signals
1d	1 day	Very slow, high-conviction signals only	Long-term trend filter (EMA200, major RSI levels)

Timeframe Recommendations

›RSI: 1h is the standard recommendation. Provides enough signal clarity without reacting to every 15-minute micro-move.
›MACD: 1h or 4h. MACD is prone to many false crossovers on shorter timeframes — 4h MACD crossovers are more meaningful.
›Bollinger Bands: 1h. Matches well with typical DCA trade durations.
›EMA trend filter: 4h or 1d for the EMA200. You want this to reflect the genuine long-term trend, not short-term noise.
›Volume: Always uses 24h volume regardless of candle timeframe setting. Not affected by the timeframe configuration.

Using different timeframes for different indicators is a valid and common approach. For example: RSI on 1h for entry sensitivity, MACD on 4h for trend confirmation, and EMA200 on 1d for the major trend filter. This gives a multi-timeframe view without requiring separate analysis.

Signal Strength Thresholds

Most indicators have configurable numeric thresholds that determine what constitutes a "passing" or "failing" condition. Adjusting these thresholds changes how selective TradeSmith is — tighter thresholds mean fewer trades but higher-quality entries; looser thresholds mean more frequent trades but potentially lower-quality ones.

RSI Entry Threshold

›Default: 65 — allows entries when RSI is in the lower 65% of its range. Reasonable for most conditions.
›Conservative: 55 — only allows entries when momentum is clearly neutral or declining. Fewer entries, but each one starts from a more favorable position.
›Permissive: 70 — allows entries right up to the overbought boundary. More trades but some will open near local highs.

MACD Sensitivity

›The MACD condition can be set to block on any bearish crossover or only onstrong bearish crossovers (where the histogram is significantly negative). Requiring only strong crossover blocks gives more entries while still filtering the most dangerous downtrend initiations.

EMA Deviation Tolerance

›The EMA condition checks whether price is too far above the EMA. The default tolerance is 5% — block entry if price is more than 5% above EMA200.
›Tighter tolerance (3%) means even mild extension above the EMA blocks entry.
›Looser tolerance (10%) allows entry even in moderately extended conditions.

Indicator Weight / Required Count

By default, TradeSmith uses AND logic for entry conditions: every enabled condition must pass for an entry to be allowed. This is the most conservative approach and is recommended while you are getting started.

For more advanced configurations, TradeSmith supports a Required Count mode. Instead of requiring all conditions to pass, you specify a minimum number of conditions that must pass. For example, with 4 indicators enabled and Required Count set to 3, any combination of 3 passing conditions triggers an entry.

When to Use Required Count Mode

›When you have multiple indicators that sometimes give conflicting signals and AND logic results in too few trade opportunities.
›When you have evaluated your indicators and determined that 3-out-of-4 is a reliable enough signal for your risk tolerance.
›When one of your indicators is known to give occasional false readings and you do not want a single false negative to block an otherwise good entry.

Required Count mode increases trade frequency but reduces selectivity. Start with AND logic (all conditions required) and only switch to majority mode after you have observed how each individual indicator performs over time. Switching too early can lead to opening trades under genuinely poor conditions.

Analysis Interval

The analysis interval controls how often TradeSmith scans all active pairs for entry opportunities. The default is every 60 seconds. On each cycle, TradeSmith evaluates every pair on your whitelist (or all eligible pairs if no whitelist is set) against every enabled condition.

Interval	Behavior	API Rate Limit Impact
15 seconds	Very responsive — catches fast-moving entries	High — can hit exchange rate limits on many pairs
30 seconds	Responsive, moderate API usage	Moderate — watch rate limits with 20+ pairs
60 seconds (default)	Standard — good balance	Low — suitable for most setups
120 seconds	Slower — may miss brief entry windows	Very low — good for large pair counts
300 seconds	Minimal scanning — for low-activity markets	Minimal — suitable for low-frequency strategies

Most exchanges enforce API rate limits — a maximum number of requests per second or per minute. If TradeSmith scans 50 pairs every 15 seconds, it may generate enough requests to approach or exceed your exchange's limits, resulting in throttled or rejected requests. The default 60-second interval is designed to stay well within rate limits for most exchanges with up to 30–40 active pairs.

Verbose Logging

TradeSmith includes a verbose logging mode that writes detailed diagnostic output for every analysis cycle. When enabled, you can see exactly what happened during each pair scan: which conditions were evaluated, what value each indicator returned, and whether the entry was allowed or blocked — and precisely why.

How to Enable Verbose Logging

›Navigate to Settings → TradeSmith → Logging
›Toggle verbose_logging to enabled
›View logs in the TradingForge console window or the built-in log viewer

What the Logs Show

›Pair scanned and timestamp of the analysis cycle
›Current indicator values (RSI=52.3, MACD=bullish, etc.)
›Pass/fail status for each enabled condition
›Overall entry decision: ALLOWED or BLOCKED (with reason)
›Cooldown and max-trades status

Verbose logging is invaluable for debugging scenarios where you expect trades to open but they are not. The log will tell you precisely which condition is blocking entry. It is also useful for validating that your indicator thresholds are configured as intended before going live.

Verbose logging generates significant output and can grow log files quickly. It is recommended to enable it only for debugging sessions, then disable it once you have confirmed your configuration is working correctly.

Candlestick Lookback Period

The lookback period determines how many historical candles TradeSmith fetches and uses when calculating indicator values. The default is 50 candles.

How Lookback Affects Indicators

›RSI (period 14): Requires at minimum 14 candles for any reading. More candles give a more stable initial reading but the current value is always based on the most recent 14.
›MACD (26, 12, 9): Requires at minimum 35 candles to produce a signal line value. With only 35 candles, the first few MACD values are less stable. 50+ candles is recommended.
›Bollinger Bands (period 20): Requires 20 candles minimum. More candles improve the stability of the standard deviation calculation.
›EMA200: Requires at minimum 200 candles. If your lookback is only 50, EMA200 cannot be calculated. Increase the lookback to 250 or more when using EMA200.

Recommended Lookback Settings

Indicator Set	Minimum Lookback	Recommended Lookback
RSI + MACD + Bollinger	50 candles	100 candles
+ EMA50	75 candles	150 candles
+ EMA200	250 candles	300 candles

Increasing the lookback period has a minor impact on calculation time — a few extra milliseconds per pair per cycle. For most setups this is imperceptible. The stability improvement in indicator readings is worth the negligible overhead, especially for longer-period indicators like EMA200.

Configuring the Lookback

Navigate to Settings → TradeSmith → Analysis and set the candle_lookback value. If you are using EMA200 as a trend filter, set this to at least 250. For RSI/MACD/Bollinger only, the default of 50 is sufficient but 100 gives more stable readings.

Entry & Exit Conditions

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