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Getting started

This takes about ten minutes. You need Docker (Docker Desktop on Windows or macOS, Docker Engine on Linux) and Git.

1. Install and start

git clone https://github.com/DLMCW/apathia.git
cd apathia
docker compose up --build

Note

Access required while Apathia is in private testing.

The first start builds the app, which takes a few minutes. When it's running, open http://localhost:8000 in your browser.

There's nothing to configure. Apathia creates its own secret keys on the first start and keeps them in the data/ folder next to the code.

2. Create your account

On the first visit you see Create account. Pick a username and a password of at least 10 characters. This is the only account; it protects the app and the exchange keys you may add later.

3. Add a trading pair

Open Trading Pairs and click Add Trading Pair. Pick an exchange, the spot market and a pair such as BTC/USDT. Paper trading needs no API keys: Apathia reads public prices from the exchange.

4. Get a strategy

The quickest way is a ready-made one:

  1. Open Strategies and click Strategy Library.
  2. Open a strategy, for example Golden Cross, and read How it works.
  3. Click Add to my strategies. It's now an ordinary strategy you can edit.

Or click Create Strategy to build your own: choose Buy or Sell, add entry conditions (like "RSI crosses above 30"), and pick an exit (Standard Exit with a take-profit and stop-loss, Indicator-Based Exit, or Buy and Hold).

5. Backtest it

Open Backtest, pick your pair and strategy, and click Execute Backtest. You'll see each trade on the chart and in the table, with fees included. Past results don't predict future ones, but a backtest shows how the rules behave.

6. Paper trade it

  1. Open Trading Center and click Build Trade.
  2. Pick the pair and the strategy. Leave the mode on paper.
  3. Set the order size (a fixed amount, or a % of the paper balance) and the order type (market or limit). These two have no default: you choose them.
  4. Save, then set the trade to Active. In the trade's Status column the badge then reads Running in a cyan outline once the engine picks it up (until then it shows a dashed outline).

Apathia now runs the strategy around the clock with a paper balance of 10,000 in the pair's quote currency. Paper trades only run on spot pairs for now.

Back up your data

Everything lives in the data/ folder: your strategies, signals and trades, your encrypted API keys and the keys that decrypt them. Back up the whole folder and keep the backup private: anyone who has it can decrypt your stored keys. If you lose data/secrets/, saved API keys can't be recovered and have to be entered again.

Updating

Pull the new version and start again with docker compose up --build. Apathia doesn't convert old data: if a release changes a stored format, the release notes say so and you start fresh (stop, delete data/, start).