README ¶
Kelp
Kelp is a free and open-source trading bot for the Stellar universal marketplace. Kelp is still in beta, so please submit any issues (bug reports and feature requests).
Kelp includes several configurable trading strategies, and its modular design allows you to customize your algorithms, exchange integrations, and assets. You can define your own parameters or use the existing repository to quickly implement a trading bot. With Kelp, you could be up and trading on Stellar in a matter of minutes.
Kelp is pre-configured to:
- Make spreads and make markets
- Create liquidity and facilitate price-discovery for ICOs
- Price and trade custom stablecoins
- Mimic order books from other exchanges
To learn more about the Stellar protocol check out this video created by Lumenauts. You can also search Stellar's Q&A.
Table of Contents
Getting Started
To get started with Kelp, either download the pre-compiled binary for your platform from the Github Releases Page or compile Kelp from source.
There is one binary associated with this project: kelp
. Once the binary is downloaded, run the bot by following the instructions in Running Kelp.
Download Binary
You can find the pre-compiled binary for your platform from the Github Releases Page.
Here is a list of binaries for the most recent release v1.1.1:
Platform | Architecture | Binary File Name |
---|---|---|
MacOS (Darwin) | 64-bit | kelp-v1.1.1-darwin-amd64.tar |
Windows | 64-bit | kelp-v1.1.1-windows-amd64.tar |
Linux | 64-bit | kelp-v1.1.1-linux-amd64.tar |
Linux | 64-bit arm | kelp-v1.1.1-linux-arm64.tar |
Linux | 32-bit arm5 | kelp-v1.1.1-linux-arm5.tar |
Linux | 32-bit arm6 | kelp-v1.1.1-linux-arm6.tar |
Linux | 32-bit arm7 | kelp-v1.1.1-linux-arm7.tar |
After you untar the downloaded file, change to the generated directory (kelp-v1.1.1
) and invoke the kelp
binary.
Here's an example to get you started (replace filename
with the name of the file that you download):
tar xvf filename
cd kelp-v1.1.1
./kelp
To run the bot in simulation mode, try this command:
./kelp trade -c sample_trader.cfg -s buysell -f sample_buysell.cfg --sim
Compile from Source
Note for Windows Users: You should use a Bash Shell to follow the steps below. This will give you a UNIX environment in which to run your commands and will enable the ./scripts/build.sh
bash script to work correctly.
To compile Kelp from source:
- Download and setup Golang.
- Install Glide for dependency management
curl https://glide.sh/get | sh
- Clone the repo into
$GOPATH/src/github.com/lightyeario/kelp
:git clone git@github.com:lightyeario/kelp.git
- Change to the kelp directory and install the dependencies:
glide install
- Build the binaries using the provided build script (the go install command will produce a faulty binary):
./scripts/build.sh
- Confirm one new binary file:
./bin/kelp
- Set up CCXT to use an expanded set of priceFeeds or orderbooks (see the Using CCXT section for details)
Running Kelp
Kelp places orders on the Stellar marketplace based on the selected strategy. Configuration files specify the Stellar account and strategy details.
These are the following commands available from the kelp
binary:
exchanges
: Lists the available exchange integrationsstrategies
: Lists the available strategiestrade
: Trades with a specific strategy against the Stellar universal marketplaceversion
: Version and build informationhelp
: Help about any command
The trade
command has three parameters which are:
- botConf: full path to the .cfg file with the account details, sample file here.
- strategy: the strategy you want to run (sell, buysell, balanced, mirror, delete).
- stratConf: full path to the .cfg file specific to your chosen strategy, sample files here.
Here's an example of how to start the trading bot with the buysell strategy:
kelp trade --botConf ./path/trader.cfg --strategy buysell --stratConf ./path/buysell.cfg
If you are ever stuck, just invoke the kelp
binary directly or type kelp help [command]
for help with a specific command.
Using CCXT
You can use the CCXT library via the CCXT REST API Wrapper to fetch prices and orderbooks from a larger number of exchanges.
You will need to run the CCXT REST server on localhost:3000
so Kelp can connect to it. In order to run CCXT you should install docker (linux: sudo apt install -y docker.io
) and run the CCXT-REST docker image configured to port 3000
(linux: sudo docker run -p 3000:3000 -d franzsee/ccxt-rest
). You can find more details on the CCXT_REST github page. The CCXT-REST server must be running on port 3000
before you start up the Kelp bot.
You can list the exchanges (./kelp exchanges
) to get the full list of supported exchanges via CCXT.
Note: this integration is still experimental and is also incomplete. Please use at your own risk.
Be Smart and Go Slow
Whenever you trade on Stellar, you are trading with volatile assets, in volatile markets, and you risk losing money. Use Kelp at your own risk. There is no guarantee you'll make a profit from using our bots or strategies. In fact, if you set bad parameters or market conditions change, Kelp might help you lose money very fast. So be smart and go slow.
Components
Kelp includes an assortment of strategies, price feeds, and plugins you can use to customize your bot. Kelp also enables you to create your own trading strategies.
Strategies
Strategies are at the core of Kelp. Without them it's just lazy, capable of nothing, thinking of nothing, doing nothing, like our friend scooter here. The strategies give your bot purpose. Each approaches the market in a different way and is designed to achieve a particular goal.
The following strategies are available out of the box with Kelp:
-
sell (source):
- What: creates sell offers based on a reference price with a pre-specified liquidity depth
- Why: To sell tokens at a fixed price or at a price that changes based on an external reference price
- Who: An issuer could use Sell to distribute tokens from an ICO pre-sale
- Complexity: Beginner
-
buysell (source):
- What: creates buy and sell offers based on a specific reference price and a pre-specified liquidity depth while maintaining a spread.
- Why: To make the market for tokens based on a fixed or external reference price.
- Who: Anyone who wants to create liquidity for a stablecoin or fiat token
- Complexity: Beginner
-
balanced (source):
- What: dynamically prices two tokens based on their relative demand. For example, if more traders buy token A from the bot (the traders are therefore selling token B), the bot will automatically raise the price for token A and drop the price for token B.
- Why: To let the market surface the true price for one token in terms of another.
- Who: Market makers and traders for tokens that trade only on Stellar
- Complexity: Intermediate
-
mirror (source):
- What: mirrors an orderbook from another exchange by placing the same orders on Stellar after including a spread. Note: covering your trades on the backing exchange is not currently supported out-of-the-box.
- Why: To hedge your position on another exchange whenever a trade is executed to reduce inventory risk while keeping a spread
- Who: Anyone who wants to reduce inventory risk and also has the capacity to take on a higher operational overhead in maintaining the bot system.
- Complexity: Advanced
-
delete (source):
- What: deletes your offers from both sides of the specified orderbook. Note: does not need a strategy-specific config file.
- Why: To kill the offers placed by the bot. This is not a trading strategy but is used for operational purposes only.
- Who: Anyone managing the operations of the bot who wants to stop all activity by the bot.
- Complexity: Beginner
Price Feeds
Price Feeds fetch the price of an asset from an external source. The following price feeds are available out of the box with Kelp:
- coinmarketcap: fetches the price of tokens from CoinMarketCap
- fiat: fetches the price of a fiat currency from the CurrencyLayer API
- exchange: fetches the price from an exchange you specify, such as Kraken or Poloniex. You can also use the CCXT integration to fetch prices from a wider range of exchanges (see the Using CCXT section for details)
- fixed: sets the price to a constant
Configuration Files
Each strategy you implement needs a configuration file. The format of the configuration file is specific to the selected strategy. You can use these files to customize parameters for your chosen strategy.
For more details, check out the examples section of the readme.
Exchanges
Exchange integrations provide data to trading strategies and allow you to hedge your positions on different exchanges. The following exchange integrations are available out of the box with Kelp:
- sdex (source): The Stellar Decentralized Exchange
- kraken (source): Kraken
- binance (
"ccxt-binance"
) (source): Binance via CCXT - only supports priceFeeds and mirroring (buysell, sell, and mirror strategy) - poloniex (
"ccxt-poloniex"
) (source): Poloniex via CCXT - only supports priceFeeds and mirroring (buysell, sell, and mirror strategy) - bittrex (
"ccxt-bittrex"
) (source): Bittrex via CCXT - only supports priceFeeds and mirroring (buysell, sell, and mirror strategy)
Plugins
Kelp can easily be extended because of its modular plugin based architecture. You can create new flavors of the following components: Strategies, PriceFeeds, and Exchanges.
These interfaces make it easy to create plugins:
- Strategy (source) - API for a strategy
- PriceFeed (source) - API for price of an asset
- Exchange (source) - API for crypto exchanges
Directory Structure
The folders are organized to make it easy to find code and streamline development flow. Each folder is its own package without any sub-packages.
github.com/lightyeario/kelp
├── api/ # API interfaces live here (strategy, exchange, price feeds, etc.)
├── cmd/ # Cobra commands (trade, exchanges, strategies, etc.)
├── examples/ # Sample config files and walkthroughs
├── model/ # Low-level structs (dates, orderbook, etc.)
├── plugins/ # Implementations of API interfaces (sell strategy, kraken, etc.)
├── support/ # Helper functions and utils
├── trader/ # Trader bot logic; uses other top-level packages like api, plugins, etc.
├── glide.yaml # Glide dependencies
├── main.go # main function for our kelp binary
└── ...
Accounting
You can use Stellar-Downloader to download trade and payment data from your Stellar account as a CSV file.
Examples
It's easier to learn with examples! Take a look at the walkthrough guides and sample configuration files below.
Walkthrough Guides
- Setting up a trading account: This guide uses an example token,
COUPON
, to show you how to set up your account before deploying the bot. - Market making for a stablecoin: This guide uses the buysell strategy to provide liquidity for a stablecoin.
- ICO sale: This guide uses the
sell
strategy to make a market using sell offers for native tokens in a hypothetical ICO. - Create liquidity for a Stellar-based token: This guide uses the
balanced
strategy to create liquidty for a token which only trades on the Stellar network.
Configuration Files
Reference config files are in the examples folder. Specifically, the following sample configuration files are included:
- Sample Sell strategy config file
- Sample BuySell strategy config file
- Sample Balanced strategy config file
- Sample Mirror strategy config file
Contributing
See the Contribution Guide and then please sign the Contributor License Agreement.
Changelog
See the Changelog.
Questions & Improvements
- Ask questions on the Stellar StackExchange; use the
kelp
tag - Submit a Bug Report
- Submit a Feature Request
- Raise an issue that is not a bug report or a feature request
- Contribute a PR
Documentation ¶
There is no documentation for this package.