Knowledge baseStrategies

Grid strategy: the basics

A grid places a ladder of buy/sell orders and profits from oscillation inside a range. Best in sideways markets.

5 min read

The idea

A Grid system splits a price range into levels and places a ladder of orders: buy as price drops, sell as it rises. Each completed buy→sell pair books a small profit. Over many oscillations, those small profits add up.

Grid ladder: buy orders fill on dips, sell orders book profit on rallies

When Grid shines

  • Sideways / ranging markets with regular up-and-down movement.
  • Liquid pairs (BTC, ETH, major alts) where the spread is tight and fills are reliable.

When Grid struggles

  • Strong one-way trends. If price leaves the range and keeps going, the system keeps buying into a falling market (or misses the run up). This is where range bounds, hedging and a floating-loss guard matter.

Key parameters

  • Range (upper / lower): the band the grid operates in. Wider = safer but slower; narrower = more trades but higher breakout risk.
  • Number of grids: more levels = smaller, more frequent profits and tighter spacing.
  • Step distribution (arithmetic vs geometric): arithmetic spaces levels evenly; geometric widens spacing toward the edges — useful when you expect bigger moves at the extremes.
  • Deposit & leverage: define position size. Higher leverage amplifies both profit and liquidation risk.

A sensible first setup

Pick a liquid pair, a range around the current price you believe will hold, a moderate number of grids, low leverage (3–5x), and turn hedging on. Then backtest before going live.

Reading is free. So is testing.

Paper trading costs nothing and needs no card. Build a system, backtest it on real candles, and decide from the result.