by Steve
Last Updated 07/02/26
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Building an automated trading bot sounded impossible when I first started — no finance degree, no coding background. I’m not a software engineer. I don’t have a finance degree. But right now, as you’re reading this, I have a trading bot running 24/7 on a server in New York — automatically scanning stocks and crypto, placing buys when momentum signals line up, and cutting losses at 5% before they turn into bigger problems.
It took me a while to figure out, but the actual setup is simpler than I expected. In this post I’ll walk you through exactly how it works, what it cost me to get started, and what I’d do differently if I were starting over today.
What My Automated Trading Bot Actually Does
The bot runs every 30 minutes around the clock. Each cycle it pulls live price data for a watchlist of stocks and cryptocurrencies, calculates three signals (a 20-day moving average, a 50-day moving average, and the RSI), buys when all three line up, places an automatic stop-loss order at 5% below entry for stocks and 10% for crypto, and sells when momentum weakens.
What You Need to Get Started
Robinhood account — Free to open. A VPS (Virtual Private Server) — I use DigitalOcean, about $6/month. Python — the bot is written in Python, beginner friendly. Termius — a free app that lets you connect to your server from your phone. Total cost to run this: $6/month.
The Three Signals Explained Simply
20-Day Moving Average (MA20) — the average closing price over the last 20 trading days. If price is above this line, the stock has short-term momentum. 50-Day Moving Average (MA50) — same idea over 50 days, a stronger signal. RSI (Relative Strength Index) — a number between 0 and 100 measuring how overbought or oversold a stock is. The bot buys when RSI is between 50–70, strong but not overheated.
Why a Stop-Loss Matters More Than the Buy Signal
Most beginner investors spend all their energy finding the perfect entry point. That’s the wrong focus. The single most important rule in trading is: cut your losses small. This bot automatically places a stop-loss the moment it buys. Worst outcome on any single trade is a 5-10% loss. No holding a stock down 40% hoping it comes back. No emotional decisions. That was the moment the automated trading bot stopped feeling like magic.
What the Bot Trades
Stocks: TSLA, NVDA, AAPL, AMZN, MSFT, GOOGL, AMD, META, NFLX, CRWD and more. Crypto: BTC, ETH, DOGE, SOL, SHIB, AVAX, LINK, XLM, LTC, ADA, XRP and more.
Position Sizing
The bot allocates $50 per position with a maximum of 5 open positions at a time. Keeping position sizes small lets you learn how the bot behaves in real market conditions without risking significant capital.
The Honest Part
This bot will not make you rich quickly. It will get stopped out sometimes. It won’t predict market crashes. What it will do is trade systematically without emotion, cut losses automatically, and give you a real working system you can improve over time. The whole point of an automated trading bot is removing emotion from the trade.
In my next post I’ll walk through the exact step-by-step setup: creating your VPS, installing Python, connecting to Robinhood, and getting the bot running for the first time.
Want to get started with the same platform my bot trades on? Sign up for Robinhood here and we’ll both get a free stock 🎁
Steve is the founder of Bot and Bull. He personally uses every app reviewed on this site and only recommends what he genuinely believes in — no press releases, no paid placements.
Some links in this post are referral links, which means we both benefit when you sign up through them — at no extra cost to you. Bonus amounts, terms, and availability are set by each app and can change at any time. Always confirm the current offer before signing up. Terms apply.
Your Own Automated Trading Bot, Simplified
You don’t need a computer science degree to run an automated trading bot. If I could build an automated trading bot with no coding background, you can too — start with my guide on how to set up a Robinhood trading bot from scratch.