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How Live Signals Work

TradeJS evaluates strategies only after a candle closes. You can run one evaluation cycle for inspection or keep a daemon aligned with candle boundaries:

# Evaluate every active setup once
npx @tradejs/cli signals

# Continue evaluating newly closed candles
npx @tradejs/cli signals-daemon
# Equivalent: npx @tradejs/cli signals --watch

Neither command places orders unless --makeOrders is explicitly present.

Configure a Live Setup​

Live settings are declared in the project's tradejs.config.ts. A deployment binds a connector and account to one or more complete strategy configurations:

export default defineConfig(basePreset, {
  runtime: {
    deployments: {
      production: {
        connectorName: 'bybit',
        accountId: 'bybit-main',
        tickers: ['BTCUSDT', 'ETHUSDT'],
        strategies: {
          DoubleTap: {
            enabled: true,
            selection: { tickers: ['BTCUSDT'] },
            config: { INTERVAL: '15', UNIVERSE: 'crypto', MAX_LOSS_VALUE: 1 },
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
});

Each strategy entry contains its enabled state and complete configuration. TradeJS derives strategyRevision from the verified package and parsed configuration; there is no manual version field. selection.tickers narrows that strategy to a subset of the deployment's symbols. If neither symbol list is present, the connector and UNIVERSE determine the available set.

--tickers is a temporary override for one command and does not edit tradejs.config.ts. When a symbol with an open position is removed from the selection, TradeJS retains it for exit and position-management decisions.

The web app displays deployed settings but does not rewrite them. Account credentials remain server-side.

Choose What to Evaluate​

Without filters, signals evaluates every enabled setup. These options narrow the current command:

  • --deployment <name>
  • --account <id>
  • --connector <name>
  • --timeframe <minutes>
  • --universe crypto|tradfi
  • --tickers, --exclude, --tickersLimit, and --chunk

Two enabled declarations of the same strategy may share a process only when they use different accounts. The same strategy and account combination is rejected as ambiguous.

What Happens on Each Closed Candle​

  1. Load the project configuration, accounts, plugins, and pause state.
  2. Resolve the connector and symbols for each active setup.
  3. Load the candles and required market context.
  4. Run the project-level beforeSignals hook.
  5. Evaluate every applicable strategy on the latest closed candle.
  6. Record decisions before producing optional charts.
  7. Apply risk, policy, AI, and ML filters.
  8. Place an order only when all checks pass and --makeOrders is enabled.
  9. Run afterSignals, notifications, and cycle monitoring.

A signal is a strategy decision, not an order or fill. Rejections, skips, cancellations, and fills are recorded separately so the order lifecycle can be diagnosed.

Restarts and Configuration Changes​

The daemon retains only recent deterministic calculation state. It reconstructs a strategy from warm-up candles after a restart, a candle gap, a relevant configuration change, or the configured live-bar limit. This avoids depending on unbounded in-memory state.

The project configuration and pause state are read on every cycle. A changed computed strategy revision, deployment composition, account, or selection rebuilds only the affected calculation. Catch-up processing does not place historical orders or send historical trade notifications.

For Bybit crypto markets, the daemon uses a public kline WebSocket by default and falls back to REST for startup, gaps, and reconnection. Set SIGNALS_KLINE_WS_ENABLED=0 for REST-only operation.

Pause, Resume, and Verify​

npx @tradejs/cli runtime-control verify \
  --user root --deployment production

npx @tradejs/cli runtime-control pause \
  --user root --deployment production --strategy DoubleTap

npx @tradejs/cli runtime-control resume \
  --user root --deployment production --strategy DoubleTap

Pause blocks new entries but continues managing open positions. Resume removes the temporary pause; it cannot enable a deployment or strategy configured with enabled: false. If the pause state cannot be validated, TradeJS blocks new entries.

Order Placement and Monitoring​

  • --makeOrders permits order placement; account, strategy, risk, AI, or ML rules can still reject it.
  • --notify sends accepted-signal notifications and optional AI commentary.
  • signals-summary creates a recent operational summary.

Run the daemon under a process supervisor, set a memory limit with SIGNALS_DAEMON_HEAP_MB, and alert on failed cycles and stale candles. See Running multiple strategies, Telegram notifications, and Compare live and replayed entries.