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Perp Market Maker Strategy

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What It Does

The Perp Market Maker is a high-frequency grid scalper that quotes both buy and sell orders around the current price, earns the spread between them, and follows momentum with tight take-profits. In the Marketplace tab these presets appear under the XGrid family label. In plain terms: the bot keeps limit buy orders just below the market and limit sell orders just above it, on multiple levels. When price wiggles inside that band, both sides fill and the difference — minus fees — is profit. It repeats this many times per day. The hard part is not the spread capture; it’s surviving the moments when price doesn’t wiggle but trends, leaving you holding inventory at a loss. Most of this strategy’s machinery exists to detect, limit, and exit those moments. 
         ASK $100.10 ← bot sells here
              │
    spread ───┼─── your gross profit per round trip
              │
         BID $100.00 ← bot buys here

Good case: price oscillates → both sides fill repeatedly.
Bad case:  price trends down → bids fill, asks don't → you accumulate
           a losing long. The loss tiers / time decay / counter-scalp
           below handle this case.
This is the most configurable family (100+ parameters) and the current presets run 75x leverage. Start from a Marketplace preset with small sizes; do not hand-roll a config until you can read this strategy’s logs fluently.

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Core Concepts

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Equity-based sizing (equity_pct)

Modern presets size the quoting grid as a percentage of account equity rather than a fixed dollar amount: 
Account: $1,000, equity_pct: 5  →  grid budget $50 per cycle
Account grows to $1,200         →  grid budget $60 per cycle
Positions scale with profits automatically — and shrink after losses. Current presets range from equity_pct: 1.5 (MM Professional 2-Level on BloFin, the most conservative) to 10 (Minimalist Alpha on BloFin). Combined with leverage this compounds fast: 5% equity at 75x leverage means a fully-deployed grid can represent several times your account in notional. Understand the math before raising it. The Scaling Agent can adjust it for you (/set equity_pct 5).

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Multilevel quoting

Instead of a single bid and ask, the bot quotes 2–6 levels per side (preset-dependent), sized and spaced so closer levels are filled first and deeper levels catch larger moves. Spacing is dynamic: presets widen quotes when volatility rises, when the order book thins, or as drawdown grows.

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Position limits

Every preset carries a hard ceiling (max_position_usdt, 500–500–2,800 in current presets) that quoting will not exceed regardless of equity sizing.

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Risk Systems

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Tiered loss management

As an underwater position deepens, the bot steps through defensive tiers — widening spreads, cutting size, halting new entries, and finally force-closing. Tier thresholds are preset-specific. Two examples from current presets (values in basis points of loss):
Tier 1Tier 2Tier 3Hard stop
v7/v8 Counterscalp1005008001000 (10%)
HFT v61003006001000 (10%)
The hard stop is an emergency market exit with no exceptions.

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Time decay

Positions that age without reaching profit are progressively pushed toward the exit: take-profit targets shrink with age, then the bot accepts a small loss, then force-exits at market. Current preset values (v7 Counterscalp): accept a bounded loss exit after 8 hours, breakeven push after 96 hours, unconditional force exit after 48 hours. The MM Professional presets allow up to 96 hours before force exit; HFT v6 forces out at 24 hours. force_exit_enabled: false disables the unconditional exit if you’d rather positions ride. An attack-to-exit module can also actively work a stuck position out: after 30 minutes stuck, it adds small mean-reversion entries (capped at 1.25x the position) specifically to lower the breakeven and exit faster.

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XGrid counter scalp

When the main position is underwater and the XGrid trend signal confirms the move against you, the bot opens a counter-position (capped at 50% of the main) and scalps the adverse trend, offsetting part of the loss while the main position waits. Enabled in the v7/v8 Counterscalp and HFT v6 presets.

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Microstructure defenses

  • Whale detection — finds large resting orders (“walls”) and places quotes near them, so your orders sit behind real support/resistance
  • Trap detection — exits fills whose immediate aftermath is toxic (price instantly moving against the fill)
  • Cascade detection — recognizes liquidation cascades and stands aside instead of quoting into them
  • Reactive spacing — widens quotes up to 10x when the order book thins or volatility spikes

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Current Marketplace Presets

All values below are read from the actual preset configs. Bybit/BloFin variants of the same preset are merged into one Marketplace card with an exchange toggle.
PresetLevelsSizingMax positionLeverageCounter-scalpForce exit
MM Professional 2-Level21.5% equity (BloFin) / 3% (Bybit)2,000/2,000 / 2,80075xoff96h
MM Professional (5-level)52% equity$2,00075xoff96h
MM Minimalist Alpha510% equity (BloFin) / 3% (Bybit)2,000/2,000 / 2,80075xBybit only48h
v7 Long Short Counterscalp45% equity$2,00075xon48h
v8 Long Short Counterscalp (BloFin)45% equity$2,00075xon48h
HFT v6 Long Short MM6fixed 7–7–10 quotes$2,00075xon24h
ASTER Scalper MM (BloFin)5fixed ~$11 quotes$50075x—24h
Notes:
  • MM Professional 2-Level is the suggested starting point for this family: only 2 quote levels, the lowest equity percentage, and professional sizing with inventory skew. Single- and multi-symbol variants exist on both exchanges.
  • v7 vs v8: v8 raises take-profit targets to 9 bps (vs 6 bps on v7) for more profit per trade at the cost of fewer fills.
  • v7 spread settings (both exchanges): 15 bps base spread, 8 bps floor, 50 bps ceiling, with reactive spacing widening up to 10x.
  • HFT v6 uses fixed quote sizes rather than equity scaling, with the tightest loss tiers and the fastest forced exit.

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Key Parameters

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proactive_multilevel.equity_pct
float
default:"0"
Grid budget as a percentage of account equity. 0 falls back to legacy fixed sizing. Presets: 1.5–10.
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proactive_multilevel.levels
integer
Quote levels per side. Presets: 2–6.
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position.max_position_usdt
float
Hard position ceiling in USDT. Presets: 500–500–2,800.
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position.leverage
integer
Leverage multiplier. All current presets: 75.
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spread.base_spread_bps
integer
default:"5"
Base half-spread from mid in basis points (code default 5; counterscalp presets use 15, the professional/scalper presets 5).
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loss_management.hard_stop_loss_bps
integer
Emergency exit threshold. All current presets: 1000 (10% of position).
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time_decay.force_exit_after_seconds
integer
Unconditional market exit for aged positions. Presets: 24–96 hours. Gate with force_exit_enabled.
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xgrid_counter_scalp.enabled
boolean
default:"false"
Counter-trend scalping against a stuck main position. See the XGrid guide.

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Risk Notes

  • Leverage: at 75x, a 1.33% adverse move equals 100% of position margin. The position ceiling and loss tiers bound this, but only if you don’t override them.
  • Trend risk: market making profits in chop and bleeds in trends. The defensive stack reduces — not removes — trend losses.
  • Counter-scalp risk: counter positions lose money on sharp reversals while the main position recovers. The 50% cap bounds the damage.
  • No performance promises: spreads, tiers, and exits are configuration facts, not return estimates.

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Troubleshooting

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”Spread too tight, not quoting”

The market spread is below min_profitable_spread_bps (presets require ~11 bps over round-trip fees). Either the symbol is too tight to make markets on profitably, or wait for higher volatility.

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”Position stuck at a loss”

Check which loss tier you’re in (the logs state it) — the bot may be intentionally in defend-only mode. Verify time decay is enabled; check whether counter-scalp is active and offsetting.

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”Orders keep getting cancelled and re-placed”

Reactive spacing repositions quotes as conditions change — normal. If you hit exchange rate limits, reduce quote levels.

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Next Steps

Preset Guide

Choose between the XGrid-family presets

XGrid Signal Engine

The trend signal behind counter-scalp

Scaling Agent

Adjust equity_pct and other settings conversationally

Risk Management

Sizing rules that keep you alive