Grid bot: why Grid Profit isn't your profit

For the third week the bot shows a green Grid Profit, yet it holds less money than you put in. The exchange hasn't made a mistake: Grid Profit simply measures something other than it seems. Here is what it leaves out and how to calculate how much the bot really made.

What Grid Profit shows

Grid Profit is the amount the bot earned on closed “buy lower — sell higher” pairs inside the range. Every grid level that completes adds a little profit. That's why the number is almost always positive and almost always growing.

What Grid Profit doesn't include:

• Open positions. When the price falls, the bot buys at every level and accumulates the coin at prices that are ever higher relative to the market. Until that position is sold, its loss doesn't show up in Grid Profit.
• Part of the fees. Depending on the exchange, fees are shown separately or not fully accounted for.
• Funding. Futures grids pay for holding the position every few hours, and over a long period it adds up — more in the article on funding.

How the real result is calculated

Or more simply, in money: the current value of everything in the bot minus everything you put into it. If you put in 1,000 USDT and the coins plus USDT in the bot are now worth 903.70, the bot is down 96.30, whatever the grid profit says.

The bot's result is what it holds now minus what you put in. Grid Profit is only part of it.

When the gap becomes dangerous

1. Price leaves the range downward. The bot stops trading and holds the coin it bought all the way down. Grid Profit freezes, the loss on the position grows.
2. Price leaves the range upward. The bot has sold everything and sits in USDT. No loss, but no earnings either — the money is tied up and the grid isn't working.
3. A futures grid with leverage. The open position is getting closer to the liquidation price. What matters most here is the distance to liquidation from the current price, not from the entry price.

Where else the result gets lost

• A range that's too narrow. The grid trades often and Grid Profit grows fast, but it leaves the range at the first noticeable move — and then holds a position without working.
• A grid that's too dense. The smaller the step, the more trades and fees. With a step comparable to a double fee, the bot trades at nearly zero.
• Manual interventions. Moved the range at the bottom, closed part of the position “just in case”, added money on the way up. Each such decision changes the result — and rarely does anyone count in which direction.
• Comparison with simply holding. If the coin rose 20% in a month and the grid on it made 3%, the bot is formally green but lost to a plain purchase. For the “keep it or not” decision, that matters more than the green number.

How to set the range and step so the grid sits idle less often — in a separate article on choosing the range.

How it looks in Ordo Trade

Ordo Trade pulls bots from the exchange via API and puts two numbers side by side: Grid Profit as the exchange shows it, and the real result from the execution ledger — with losing positions, fees and funding. For each grid you can see whether it's trading, how far it is from liquidation and what manual interventions cost. If a bot leaves its range, you get a Telegram message.