More than 80 percent of private traders make losses. Especially beginners find it difficult to classify risks correctly: they decide emotionally, overlook market trends and trade manually instead of leaving this work to automation software. This is why, in the professional field, trading bots are used to tackle these challenges – algorithms that automatically determine the right time for buying and selling. The cost of these computer programs can go into the thousands. The Viennese FinTech startup Trality aims to transform the market by making bot trading accessible to a broad public.
“We want to bring automated trading from Wall Street to private trading. In the beta phase, we are initially targeting traders of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies who already have some experience in developing trading bots. Developers can use their Python skills to build sophisticated bots, test their strategies with real market data and trade live on exchanges. The financial support from FFG now enables us to further develop our platform to also address those traders who are still inexperienced in bot trading”, says Moritz Putzhammer, Co-Founder and CEO of Trality.
An “App Store” for bots
Until the fall, Trality wants to make bot-trading possible for beginners as well. “After the crypto hype of 2017, many Austrians have invested in bitcoin, ether, etc. However, many lack the time and how-how to successfully trade with it. We are therefore building a marketplace where developers can publish their best bots. Where everyone can replicate the trading strategies of these bots with just a few clicks by renting it on a monthly basis. Similar to the App Store, but for trading bots,” Moritz Putzhammer explains the marketplace principle. Trality attaches great importance to the protection of the intellectual property of the developers: The algorithm of the bot remains visible only to its original developer.
Launch on the crypto market only the first step
For Trality, the cryptomarket is the first step in the course of the long-term planned expansion into trading with classic securities. Because unlike stock trading, crypto offers many advantages: free access to exchanges, lower trading fees and no brokers as middlemen. With the help of FFG funding, Trality also wants to integrate Machine Learning into its platform: This would allow bots to be developed even smarter, for example by independently predicting market trends in real-time.
Focus on responsible trading
The security of the traders and their bots is Trality’s top priority. Measures for the protection of the users include in particular
- Quality screening of bots offered on the marketplace
- Secure storage of trading algorithms
- Ability to encrypt trading algorithms
Trality does not sell or trade digital assets itself, the platform purely acts as a cloud provider for bots. Trading and custody of cryptocurrencies are therefore only carried out on approved exchanges to which the traders can connect.
Introduction of the Bot Marketplace
After the completed beta phase, Trality wants to launch the marketplace for trading bots in the fall of 2020. For a monthly rental fee, bots can be used on the marketplace, a part of these revenues will be paid out to the developer of the bots.
Trality currently supports the crypto exchange Binance and extends trading to the ever-growing number of exchanges. For beginners, the start-up allows trading with virtual money on a test exchange before real crypto assets are traded.