Paper Trading a Crypto Bot: A 4-Week Protocol for Going Live

Paper trading a crypto bot means running your strategy on live market data using simulated funds, so no real money is at risk while you observe how the bot actually behaves. It sits between backtesting (which uses historical data) and live trading (which uses real capital), and it is the step most traders skip at their own cost.

A structured 4-week paper trading protocol gives you enough time to see your bot handle different market conditions, ranging, trending, and volatile, before you commit funds. Each week has a specific focus: setup and baseline, stress-testing against volatility, refining parameters, and a final confirmation run.

Below is a week-by-week breakdown of what to track, what "good enough to go live" actually looks like, and the mistakes that quietly sabotage most paper trading runs.