A321Capt

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There was a time when I was quite confident that I had come up with a “hard-to-lose” strategy: running two futures grid bots at the same time — one Long and one Short — on the same trading pair. In my mind, the logic seemed flawless. If the market moved sideways, both bots would collect grid profits. If the price went up, the Long bot would profit. If the price went down, the Short bot would compensate. Just hearing it already sounded like the perfect solution for someone who isn’t good at predicting market direction, especially during a sideways market.

At first, reality seemed to support that belief. Grid profits were ticking up steadily. One bot was green, the other red, but overall everything still looked “fine.” The account didn’t grow fast, but it didn’t feel dangerous either. I started to think that if I just let the bots run long enough, profits would naturally accumulate.

Then the market entered a downtrend — not a sharp crash in a single day, but a slow, steady, and prolonged decline. That was when everything began to drift far away from theory. The Long bot kept accumulating more positions, and the unrealized loss expanded rapidly. Meanwhile, the Short bot was still profitable, but the speed of earning grid profit was painfully slow. It felt like one side was sprinting toward losses while the other was casually walking toward gains. A little grid profit each day, while the floating loss kept growing larger and larger.

The irony was that on the surface, everything still looked quite “comfortable.” Grid profit was green, and sometimes one of the bots was still showing profit. But equity kept declining, and total PnL became increasingly negative. That was when it really hit me: grid profit is just a number on the screen. It doesn’t mean much if unrealized loss keeps expanding and the bot hasn’t been closed. To put it humorously, it’s more like emotional comfort than real money.

My biggest mistake wasn’t the bot itself — it was my expectations. I believed the market would soon return to a sideways phase. I believed the downtrend would eventually end. So I let the bots keep running, day after day, hoping everything would balance itself out. But the market doesn’t care about hope. It didn’t wipe out my account in one dramatic move; instead, it slowly wore it down, a little bit each day, until the total loss became undeniable.

I wouldn’t dare to say that running two futures grid bots — one Long and one Short — is completely wrong. For highly experienced traders who can read trends, know when to turn bots on and off, and manage capital very strictly, this strategy might still have its place. However, for most beginners — especially those new to futures, who don’t fully understand unrealized loss and are easily misled by the feeling of “being in profit” — I honestly wouldn’t recommend trying it.

Bots aren’t stupid, and the market isn’t evil. Sometimes, we just believe too much in an idea that sounds very logical. If this post helps someone avoid paying the same “tuition fee” that I did, then at least that loss has brought a bit of value 😅.