What is laddering and how do you ladder entry prices

What is laddering?

Laddering entries is a technique where instead of buying at a single price, you could buy coins at different prices. 

Pros

• It’s useful if you’re looking to get into slower trades with wider entry zones
• You can ladder your entry and you will likely be able to get into the trade
• Once you’re comfortable with the number of entries, you can leave the trade open and then forget about it.

Cons

• It may take time to set up properly
• It may not be advisable to ladder into faster trades because the price action can move so quickly.

How can I ladder trades in ProfitFarmers?

On the trading from simply click on the Laddering option to enable it.

How does it work?

When enabled, your entry prices will be split into 5 entries by default and the entry prices will be based on the signal's entry zone. The system will use a portion of the amount you've allocated to buy the coins once the price reaches those levels. The amount used will be based on the percentage you've set.  

  Important: Any remaining buy-side targets (stop buys) will cancel/close as soon as the 1st sell-side target is hit.

Standard, Aggressive, and Defensive Entry styles with Laddering enabled

With the standard preset, the system will use 20% of the amount you’ve allocated for each entry price.

Aggressive will use 30%, 30%, 20%, 10%, 10% for each entry price.

Defensive will use 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 50% at each level.

Can I still edit the allocated amount, entry prices, and the number of entry prices?

YES. However, you’ll need to make sure that the total allocated amount adds up to 100%. 

You can set between 2-5 entry prices but make sure that your Entry Price 1 should be  higher than your Entry Price 2; Entry Price 2 should be higher than Entry Price 3 and so on.

Market Buy

This feature allows the user to enter into the trade right away.

How does this work?

Once enabled, the system will buy the coins based on the market price. You will no longer be able to adjust your entry price.

How do I enable the Market Buy feature?

On the trade form, simply click on the Market Button

Can I use laddering with Market Buy enabled?

YES.  If both market buy and laddering features are turned on, the market price will be used for the first entry (Entry Price 1). You are still able to adjust the amount allocated for each entry price and you set the prices for Entry Price 2 until Entry Price 5.

Reminder: It’s important to note that not all signals are viable for laddering. It’s unlikely that anyone can ladder into a fast trade because the price can move away from the entry zone very quickly. 

You can refer to our signal strategies guide to find out which trades are fast (you’re likely in or not) and which trades are slow (viable to ladder into). 

Use the Trailing Crypto Dollar Cost Average (DCA) buy/sell feature for Laddering your entries.

The DCA features a great way to protect losses and reach your target profit in a quicker time compared to buying the whole lot at a fixed price. Let's have a quick look at how you can setup up the DCA in the manual trading terminal

How to Configure DCA

STEP 1: Select order type CUSTOM OSO

STEP 2: Select the Stop Buy option in the Primary order

Click on Add target to add your multiple buy targets. In this example. I have added 4 buy targets at -0.1%, -1%, -2%, -3% with respective quantities relative to main quantity. Fill your total buy quantity as well in the quantity input below the coin pair.

STEP 3: Select DCA mode to True from advance options in primary order

STEP 4: Click the Next button then Select the OCO Sell option from the secondary Order dropdown.

You can also select only TP or SL. You will notice quantity input is disabled this is because quantity in secondary order will be automatically adjusted based on the number of filled targets in primary order in real-time. Once done click on submit the form.

Here's an example:

 Primary Order – STOP BUY -> 3 BUY Targets with DCA enabled:

BUY TARGET 1: -0.1% 10$

BUY TARGET 2: -1% 20$

BUY TARGET 3: -2% 30$

BUY TARGET 4: -3% 40$

Secondary Order – OCO -> 1 TAKE PROFIT, 1 STOP LOSS

Take Profit: +3%

Stop Loss: -8%

Quantity Auto Adjustment

When buy target 1 will be hit then both sell orders quantity will be set to 10$, when buy target 2 will be hit then both sell orders quantity will be set to 30$, when buy target 3 will be hit then sell orders quantity will be 60$ and so on.

This is how the sell orders quantity will be automatically adjusted based on filled buy targets.

Sell Targets Auto adjustment

When multiple buy targets will be hit then a new average buy price will be calculated by the software and stop prices in sell orders will be re-adjusted according to the new break-even price or average buy price. In the above example when buy target 1 and 2 is hit then average buy price will be -0.55% so Take profit +3% will be re-calculated based on new average buy price and will be equal to +2.45%. As more buy targets will fill, sell targets will keep getting lower in accordance with the new average buy price.

DCA feature to Open a Short position

Same as the above example only different will be order combination in CUSTOM OSO. For short position. You can select Take profit in primary order and OCO buy-in Secondary Order.

DCA feature in Signal/Trigger-based Trades

Users can set up DCA in Signal based orders by adding multiple buy target in the primary order. 1st buy target price will be overridden by buy price from signal message rest buy targets will be calculated based on entry price.

Reminder: None of the content on this article should be deemed as financial advice. Always do your own research before committing to any trades.