Getting Started

Before you begin, make sure you have:

• An account on a supported exchange (currently BitMEX). See the Exchanges guide for setup instructions.
• An API key on that exchange with trading permissions enabled — never enable withdrawal permissions.
• A plutarc subscription. You can sign up and choose a plan on the pricing page.

Sign up using your email or a social login provider. After creating your account, choose a subscription plan. Each plan determines how many bots, API keys, and strategy templates you can use — see Account & Billing for plan details.

Navigate to the API Keys page in your dashboard and click Add Key. Fill in:

• Label — a friendly name so you can identify this key later.
• Exchange — the exchange this key belongs to.
• API Key & Secret — copy these from your exchange account.
• Contract Type — Linear (USDT-margined) or Inverse (BTC-margined).

Your API secret is encrypted with AES-256-GCM and only decrypted in-memory at runtime. For full details, see API Keys.

Strategy templates define how your bot trades — which indicators to watch, how to combine their signals, and when to enter or exit positions.

If you're just getting started, pick a system template. These are built-in, tested configurations that you can use out of the box. You can always duplicate a system template later to customise it.

If you want to build your own, head to the Strategy Builder to learn about components, roles, combination modes, and sessions. The Strategy Cookbook also has ready-made configurations you can use as starting points.

Before deploying live, always run your strategy through the Backtester. Backtesting simulates your strategy against real historical market data so you can evaluate performance, drawdowns, and win rates without risking capital.

Configure the symbol, exchange, date range, initial equity, leverage, and fee rate — then run the simulation. Review the results to see equity curves, trade-by-trade breakdowns, and key metrics before going live.

Go to the Bots page and click Deploy Bot:

1. Give your bot a label so you can identify it.
2. Assign an API key — your bot needs an active key to place orders. Each key can only be assigned to one bot at a time.
3. Assign a strategy template — choose the template your bot will execute.
4. Configure risk limits — set position limits, loss limits, and execution safety parameters to control exposure.

Once deployed, your bot begins its lifecycle and starts trading according to its strategy. For full details on bot management, see Bots.

With your bot running, use these pages to track results:

• Dashboard — fleet-wide KPIs, bot status cards, open positions, and live activity feeds.
• Trades — complete trade history with entry/exit details, execution metrics, and CSV export.
• Analytics — equity curves, drawdown charts, win rates, signal analysis, and activity heatmaps.

• Strategy Cookbook — explore example strategy configurations for trend following, mean reversion, breakouts, and more.
• Strategy Builder — learn how to build custom strategies from composable components.
• Exchanges — detailed exchange setup guides, permissions, and market type explanations.
• Troubleshooting — solutions to common issues if something isn't working as expected.