I. What Is Trailing Grid?
Trailing Grid is an advanced feature of HTX Futures Grid. Once enabled, the grid's price range will automatically shift upward or downward in line with market trends, eliminating the need for manual readjustments.
Key Advantages:
- Automatic Trend Following: The price range adjusts dynamically to market movements, enabling hands-free trading.
- Reduced Bot Failures: Minimizes instances where the bot stops operating after the price breaks out of the preset range.
- Flexible Parameter Adjustments: Supports personalized settings for trailing conditions.
Two Trailing Directions:
- Trailing Up: Once enabled, the grid price range automatically shifts upward when the market price breaks above the set grid cap price.
- Trailing Down: Once enabled, the grid price range automatically shifts downward when the market price breaks below the set grid base price.
Once activated, you can modify or disable this feature at any point while the bot is running.
Tip: Please upgrade your HTX app to the latest version (11.26.0 or above) to experience this feature.
II. How Does Trailing Grid Work?
While the bot is running, if the market price moves beyond the preset range by a certain threshold, the grid range will automatically shift to establish a new trading range. The shift amount is determined by the number of grids and the grid type (Arithmetic or Geometric) you configure.
Example: An ETHUSDT Futures Bot Running a Long Strategy
- Initial Price Range: $2,000–$2,500
- Number of Grids: 5 (Arithmetic)
- Price Difference per Grid: $100
Scenario 1: Long + Trailing Up
Once Trailing Up is enabled, when the ETH market price rises continuously from $2,500 to $2,600:
- The system will cancel the previous lowest buy order at $2,000.
- The system will place a new buy order at the previous grid cap price of $2,500.
- The overall price range shifts upward by one grid to $2,100–$2,600, and the bot continues to operate within this new range.
| Market Price: $2500 |
→Market Price: $2600 |
||
| Price |
Direction |
Price |
Direction |
| - |
- |
$2600 |
N/A |
| $2500 |
N/A |
$2500 |
BUY |
| $2400 |
BUY |
$2400 |
BUY |
| $2300 |
BUY |
$2300 |
BUY |
| $2200 |
BUY |
$2200 |
BUY |
| $2100 |
BUY |
$2100 |
BUY |
| $2000 |
BUY |
$2000 |
Order Cancelled |
- If ETH continues to rise to $2700, this trailing process will repeat.
Scenario 2: Long + Trailing Down
Once Trailing Down is enabled, when the ETH market price undergoes a one-way decline from $2000 to $1900:
- While the bot runs, the system gradually fills buy orders as the price drops, placing corresponding sell orders on the next tier up to form the positions shown below.
- When the price falls to $1,900, the system closes the topmost long position.
- A new buy order is placed at $1,900, which is immediately filled to open a position.
- The overall price range shifts downward by one grid to $1,900–$2,400, and the bot continues to operate within the new range.
|
→Market Price: $1900 |
||||
| Price |
Direction |
Sample Position |
Price |
Direction |
Sample Position |
| $2500 |
SELL |
|
$2500 |
Order Cancelled |
|
| $2400 |
SELL |
0.001 |
$2400 |
SELL |
Close |
| $2300 |
SELL |
0.001 |
$2300 |
SELL |
0.001 |
| $2200 |
SELL |
0.001 |
$2200 |
SELL |
0.001 |
| $2100 |
SELL |
0.001 |
$2100 |
SELL |
0.001 |
| $2000 |
N/A |
0.001 |
$2000 |
SELL |
0.001 |
| - |
- |
- |
$1900 |
BUY |
0.001 |
Notes:
- If ETH continues to drop to $1,800, this trailing process will repeat.
- To maintain the maximum number of grid positions, the system closes the positions corresponding to the highest price tier and places a new buy order at the bottom of the new range.
- During a Long + Trailing Down process, the bot may experience short-term negative returns because some positions are closed prematurely.
The underlying mechanism remains identical for Short strategies under both Trailing Up and Trailing Down scenarios.
III. How to Enable the Trailing Grid Feature?
1. You can enable the Trailing Up or Trailing Down feature under Advanced Settings when creating a grid order.
2. When enabling this feature, you must set a Stop Price, which serves as the boundary for range adjustments:
- Set Trailing Up: The trailing up stop price must be greater than the grid cap price.
- Set Trailing Down: The trailing down stop price must be less than the grid base price.
3. Once configured, you can verify your trailing parameters and history in the "Double Confirmation Pop-up Window" and on the "Bot Details Page".
If the bot is already running and the market price has moved beyond the current grid price range, you can manually enable Trailing Up or Trailing Down by navigating to More → Trailing Grid.
IV. Terms and Conditions
1. What common scenarios may cause the Trailing Grid to pause?
1.1 Insufficient Margin
If margin is insufficient, the trailing operation will fail and pause automatically. Once the user adds sufficient margin, trailing will automatically resume. We highly recommend enabling Auto-Deposit Margin to avoid this issue.
1.2 High Margin Ratio
To safeguard user interests, when the margin ratio reaches ≥70%, the bot will enter a Trailing Paused status until the margin ratio falls below 70%.
1.3 Reaching the Stop Price
When the market price reaches the Trailing Stop Price you set, trailing will automatically stop. You can manually modify the Stop Price and re-enable it. Users may also actively stop trailing or modify the Trailing Grid Stop Price during bot operation.
2. What common scenarios may cause the Trailing Grid to be disabled?
When a trailing operation fails due to insufficient margin for over 30 days, the system will disable the Trailing Grid feature. You will then need to re-enable it manually.
3. TP/SL Priority
In both Long and Short strategies, if the market price triggers your set Take Profit / Stop Loss (TP/SL), the system will prioritize terminating the bot and closing positions.
4. Negative Returns
During a Long + Trailing Down or Short + Trailing Up process, some positions are closed during the trailing movement, which may result in negative returns. Once the market resumes a ranging pattern, subsequent grid profits may gradually offset these losses.
V. Other Questions
Q1: Can a Long strategy use the Trailing Down feature? Can a Short strategy use the Trailing Up feature?
Yes. The platform supports enabling both Trailing Up and Trailing Down for Long and Short strategies, allowing users to respond to market changes more flexibly. However, trailing in the opposite direction of the market trend may result in significant drawdowns or liquidation risk. Please use this feature cautiously, based on your own risk tolerance.
Q2: Does a Neutral strategy support Trailing Grids?
Currently, the Trailing Grid feature is supported only for Long and Short strategies. Support for Neutral strategies will be gradually rolled out in future versions.
Q3: Is there a maximum limit on how many times a grid can trail?
There is no limit. As long as the market stays within your configured Stop Price boundaries, the margin ratio remains below 70%, and sufficient margin is maintained, the Trailing Grid will continue to operate indefinitely.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our online customer support.
HTX Team
