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Cross Exchange Market Making

How it Works

Cross exchange market making is described in Strategies, with a further discussion in the Hummingbot white paper.

Schematic

The diagrams below illustrate how cross exchange market making works. The transaction involves two exchanges, a taker exchange and a maker exchange. Hummingbot uses the market levels available on the taker exchange to create bid and ask orders (act as a market maker) on the maker exchange (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Hummingbot acts as market maker on maker exchange

Buy order: Hummingbot can sell the asset on the taker exchange for 99 (the best bid available); therefore, it places a buy order on the maker exchange at a lower value of 98.

Sell order: Hummingbot can buy the asset on the taker exchange for 101 (the best ask available), and therefore makes a sell order on the maker exchange for a higher price of 102.

Figure 2: Hummingbot fills an order on the maker exchanges and hedges on the taker exchange

If a buyer (Buyer D) fills Hummingbot's sell order on the maker exchange (Figure 2 ❶), Hummingbot immediately buys the asset on the taker exchange (Figure 2 ❷).

The end result: Hummingbot has sold the same asset at $102 (❶) and purchased it for $101 (❷), for a profit of $1.

Prerequisites: Inventory

1. For cross-exchange market making, you will need to hold inventory on two exchanges, one where the bot will make a market (the maker exchange) and another where the bot will source liquidity and hedge any filled orders (the taker exchange).
2. You will also need some Ethereum to pay gas for transactions on a DEX (if applicable).

Initially, we assume that the maker exchange is an Ethereum-based decentralized exchange and that the taker exchange is Binance.

Configuration Walkthrough

The following walks through all the steps when running config for the first time.

Tip: Autocomplete Inputs during Configuration

When going through the command line config process, pressing <TAB> at a prompt will display valid available inputs.

Prompt	Description
What is your market making strategy >>>:	Enter cross_exchange_market_making. Currently available options: arbitrage or cross_exchange_market_making or pure_market_making or discovery (case sensitive)
Import previous configs or create a new config file? (import/create) >>>:	When running the bot for the first time, enter create. If you have previously initialized, enter import, which will then ask you to specify the config file location.
Enter your maker exchange name >>>:	In the cross-exchange market making strategy, the maker exchange is the exchange where the bot will place maker orders. Currently available options: binance, radar_relay, coinbase_pro, ddex, idex, or bamboo_relay (case sensitive)
Enter your taker exchange name >>>:	In the cross-exchange market making strategy, the taker exchange is the exchange where the bot will place taker orders. Currently available options: binance, radar_relay, coinbase_pro, ddex, idex, or bamboo_relay (case sensitive)
Enter the token symbol you would like to trade on [maker exchange name] >>>:	Enter the token symbol for the maker exchange. Example input: ZRX-WETH Note: ensure that the pair is a valid pair for the exchange, for example, use WETH instead of ETH.
Enter the token symbol you would like to trade on [taker exchange name] >>>:	Enter the token symbol for the taker exchange. Example input: ZRX-ETH Note: ensure that (1) the pair corresponds with the token symbol entered for the maker exchange, and that (2) is a valid pair for the exchange. Note in the example, the use of ETH instead of WETH.
What is the minimum profitability for your to make a trade? (Enter 0.01 to indicate 1%) >>>:	This sets min_profitability (see definition).
Do you want to actively adjust/cancel orders (Default True) >>>:	This sets active_order_canceling (see definition).
What is the minimum profitability to actively cancel orders? (Default to 0.0, only specify when active_order_cancelling is disabled, value can be negative) >>>:	This sets the cancel_order_threshold (see definition).
What is the minimum limit order expiration in seconds? (Default to 130 seconds) >>>:	This sets the limit_order_min_expiration (see definition).
Enter your Binance API key >>>: Enter your Binance API secret >>>:	You must create a Binance API key key with trading enabled ("Enable Trading" selected). Tip: You can use Ctrl + R or ⌘ + V to paste from the clipboard.
Would you like to import an existing wallet or create a new wallet? (import / create) >>>:	Import or create an Ethereum wallet which will be used for trading on DDEX. Enter a valid input: import: imports a wallet from an input private key. If you select import, you will then be asked to enter your private key as well as a password to lock/unlock that wallet for use with Hummingbot Your wallet private key >>> A password to protect your wallet key >>> create: creates a new wallet with new private key. If you select create, you will only be asked for a password to protect your newly created wallet A password to protect your wallet key >>> Tip: using a wallet that is available in your Metamask (i.e. importing a wallet from Metamask) allows you to view orders created and trades filled by Hummingbot on the decentralized exchange's website.
Which Ethereum node would you like your client to connect to? >>>:	Enter an Ethereum node URL for Hummingbot to use when it trades on Ethereum-based decentralized exchanges. For more information, see: Setting up your Ethereum Node](/installation/node/node). Tip: if you are using an Infura endpoint, ensure that you append https:// before the URL.

Configuration Parameters

The following parameters are fields in Hummingbot configuration files (located in the /conf folder, e.g. conf/conf_cross_exchange_market_making_strategy_[#].yml).

Term	Definition
min_profitability	An amount expressed in decimals (i.e. input of 0.01 corresponds to 1%). Minimum required profitability in order for Hummingbot to place an order on the maker exchange. Example: assuming a minimum profitability threshold of 0.01 and a token symbol that has a bid price of 100 on the taker exchange (binance), Hummingbot will place a bid order on the maker exchange (ddex) of 99 (or lower) to ensure a 1% (or better) profit; Hummingbot only places this order if that order is the best bid on the maker exchange.
active_order_canceling	True or False If enabled (parameter set to True), Hummingbot will cancel that become unprofitable based on the min_profitability threshold. If this is set to False, Hummingbot will allow any outstanding orders to expire, unless cancel_order_threshold is reached.
cancel_order_threshold	An amount expressed in decimals (i.e. input of 0.01 corresponds to 1%), which can be 0 or negative. When active order canceling is set to False, if the profitability of an order falls below this threshold, Hummingbot will cancel an existing order and place a new one, if possible. This allows the bot to cancel orders when paying gas to cancel (if applicable) is a better than incurring the potential loss of the trade.
limit_order_min_expiration	An amount in seconds, which is the minimum duration for any placed limit orders. Default value: 130 seconds.
top_depth_tolerance	An amount expressed in quote currency of maximum aggregate amount of orders at a better price than Hummingbot's order that are allowed before Hummingbot modifies its order. Example: assuming a top depth tolerance of 100 and a Hummingbot bid price of 20, if there exist an aggregate amount of orders of more than 100 at a better (higher) price than Hummingbot's bid, Hummingbot will cancel its order at 20 and re-evaluate the next opportunity to place a new bid.
trade_size_override	An amount expressed in quote currency of maximum allowable order size. If not set, the default value is ⅙ of the aggregate value of quote and base currency balances across the maker and taker exchanges. Example: assuming a trade size override of 100 and a token symbol of ETH/DAI, the maximum allowable order size is one that has a value of 100 DAI.