This post contains affiliate and referral links. If you sign up through my links, I may earn a small commission or reward at no extra cost to you. This helps support the blog.
My Trading Bot Bought Nothing and that is still doing something.
There was a stretch early on where I’d open the log and see the same thing every 30 minutes — bot ran, scanned everything, and my trading bot bought nothing. Day after day.
My first instinct was that something was broken.
It wasn’t.
What the Log Actually Said
The bot was running fine. Logging in, pulling data, scanning over a thousand stocks and nearly 30 cryptocurrencies, checking every one against the signals. It just wasn’t finding anything that met the criteria.
No qualifying RSI. Prices below the moving averages. Market conditions that simply didn’t line up with what the bot was looking for.
So it did nothing. And logged off.
Why That’s the Right Answer
Here’s the thing most people don’t think about when they imagine an automated trading bot: the most important thing it can do some days is not trade.
Discretionary traders — people making manual decisions — have a hard time sitting on their hands. There’s always a reason to convince yourself a trade looks good. You’re bored. You want to see something happen. You talked yourself into it.
The bot doesn’t have that problem. It has no ego, no impatience, no fear of missing out. If the signals aren’t there, it doesn’t trade. Full stop.
That’s not a bug. That’s the whole point.
The Market Wasn’t in the Bot’s Sweet Spot
My bot is looking for a specific kind of setup — stocks showing early momentum, not overbought, trending above their moving averages. When the broader market is choppy, selling off, or just grinding sideways, those setups disappear. The stocks that usually qualify are consolidating or pulling back. The RSI readings are all over the place.
During those stretches the trading bot bought nothing and that isn’t a failure. It’s the bot correctly identifying that conditions aren’t right and protecting capital by staying out.
A bot that trades in any conditions is actually more dangerous than one that waits for the right ones.
What I Did While the Bot Did Nothing
Watched the log. Checked that everything was still running. Resisted the urge to lower the bar on the signals just to see something happen.
That last one was harder than it sounds. When the trading bot bought nothing, the temptation was to tweak the strategy — loosen the criteria, adjust a threshold, convince yourself you’re “improving” it when really you’re just impatient. I’ve seen this called curve fitting or overfitting. You end up with a strategy optimized for recent market conditions that falls apart as soon as conditions change.
I left the signals alone and let the bot wait.
And Then the Market Shifted
Eventually conditions changed. Momentum came back to the right kinds of stocks. The signals started lining up again. The bot found qualifying setups and started buying.
Those trades had better setups than anything it would have taken during the quiet stretch. Because it waited.
The Takeaway
If you build one of these bots and there are days — or even weeks — where it does nothing, don’t panic and don’t start changing things. Ask yourself: is the bot running correctly? Is it scanning and logging? If yes, the bot is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.
Patience is the strategy. The bot just enforces it automatically.
Up Next
In my next post I’ll share the first real performance numbers — what the bot has actually returned, what it’s gotten wrong, and what I’m changing because of it.
If you haven’t already, sign up for Robinhood with my link 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.