BasicMode (Mode 4) — The Recommended Starter

A 7-split grid with sell targets from +0.25% to +5%. No trailing stop, fully predictable behaviour. The most-tested mode in unCoded — start here.

BasicMode is the recommended starter for almost every new unCoded operator. It has the most-tested combination of buy ladder, sell ladder, and capital sizing in the entire suite. Predictable, mechanical, well-understood. If you’re starting unCoded for the first time, this is the mode.

The mode at a glance

Property	Value
Mode number	4
Default flag	✅ default mode
Buy splits	7
Sell-ladder rungs	+0.25%, +0.5%, +1%, +2%, +3%, +4%, +5%
Trailing stop	None
Recommended capital	~$20,000
Reserve recommendation	~$10,000 (50% of trading capital)
Best regime fit	Sideways and lightly-trending markets
Worst regime fit	Sustained sharp downtrends

What BasicMode does

BasicMode places a 7-split buy ladder that fills incrementally as price drops. Once any portion of the ladder fills, the mode places a sell ladder with 7 rungs at +0.25%, +0.5%, +1%, +2%, +3%, +4%, +5% above the entry price.

When the price moves up and hits a sell rung, that portion of the position closes profitably. When the next rung fills, more of the position closes. The cycle repeats.

There is no trailing stop in BasicMode. Exits are purely the sell ladder. This is intentional: it keeps the mode fully predictable and avoids the trailing stop’s downtime weakness.

Predictable mechanical behaviour

Every action the bot takes follows the same rules. No regime-detection, no adaptive logic. You always know what will happen next.

Works in chop and light trends

The narrow first rung (+0.25%) catches small upward moves quickly. The wider rungs (+3%, +4%, +5%) capture larger moves when they occur.

No regime-mismatch risk

Modes that arm trailing stops or detect regimes can fail badly when the regime shifts. BasicMode’s purely mechanical exits don’t have that failure mode.

Most-tested combination

Years of operator-day data on BasicMode + BTCUSDT + Binance. Edge cases are well-understood.

How a BasicMode trade flows

1. Pair becomes active

   You add BTCUSDT (or other pair) to the active set, assigned to Mode 4. The TradingBot picks up the configuration on next poll.

2. First buy split triggers

   When the mode’s buy condition holds for the pair, the first split (~$2,857 at $20,000 capital) fires as a limit buy.

3. Buy fills

   The exchange fills the buy order. The TradingBot’s WebSocket delivers the fill event within milliseconds.

4. Sell ladder is placed

   Immediately after the buy fills, the bot places 7 sell-ladder rungs at +0.25%, +0.5%, +1%, +2%, +3%, +4%, +5% above the average entry price.

5. Subsequent buy splits fire if price drops further

   If price drops to the next buy split’s trigger, that split fires too. The position grows. The sell ladder is recomputed against the new average entry.

6. Sell rungs fill as price moves up

   When price ticks up to the +0.25% rung, that small portion of the position closes profitably. As price continues up, more rungs fill.

7. Position closes

   When the final rung fills, the position is fully closed. The bot writes a complete round-trip record to the closed-trade ledger. The next cycle can begin.

Capital sizing for BasicMode

Why $20,000 is recommended

BasicMode has 7 buy splits. At $20,000 capital, each split is ~$2,857. That’s comfortably above Binance’s $10 min-notional floor, with substantial headroom for symbols with higher floors.

The split sizing also produces meaningful per-trade P&L — a +1% sell on $2,857 is $28.57, large enough that fees don’t dominate.

The acceptable range: $15,000 to $25,000

• $15,000: per-split ~$2,143. Still well above min-notional. Slightly smaller per-trade P&L.
• $20,000: the calibrated sweet spot.
• $25,000: per-split ~$3,571. Larger orders, slightly more market-impact risk on lower-liquidity symbols.

Anywhere in this range, BasicMode operates as designed.

Below $15,000 — switch to LowMoney

Below $15,000, BasicMode’s per-split sizing starts to compress per-trade P&L meaningfully. At $10,000, each split is $1,428 — a +0.25% rung is $3.57 per fill, and fees start to dominate.

Better at $10,000: Tsl2Sell (Mode 7) or LowMoney (Mode 5).

Better at $3,000–$5,000: LowMoney (Mode 5).

Better at $1,500–$3,000: MinimalMoney (Mode 6).

Above $25,000 — works fine

BasicMode at $50,000 or $100,000 works the same way as at $25,000 — same proportional ladder, larger absolute sizes. The main consideration: market-impact at higher per-order sizes on lower-liquidity symbols.

For majors (BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT), market-impact is minimal even at $100,000+. For altcoins with thin books, larger sizes can walk the order book.

Recommendation: at high capital, prefer majors-only and run the proportional larger sizing without concern.

When BasicMode performs well

✅ Sideways markets (chop)

BasicMode’s narrow first rung catches the small upward moves that characterize chop. Multiple round-trips per day at small per-trade P&L can compound to meaningful monthly returns.

Most “boring sideways” months are when BasicMode quietly outperforms more aggressive modes.

✅ Gentle uptrends

The mid-range rungs (+1%, +2%, +3%) catch gradual uptrending price moves. The mode trades round-trips along the way, rather than letting positions ride.

Underperforms a trailing-stop mode in strong sustained trends, but more reliable when the trend is uncertain.

✅ Mild downtrends

BasicMode’s buy ladder absorbs gradually falling prices. As price drops, more splits fire. When price recovers, the sell ladder closes positions across the full ladder.

Net positive over a mild downtrend that eventually reverses.

When BasicMode struggles

❌ Sharp sustained downtrends

A -30%+ symbol drop fully invests the buy ladder, then continues falling. The position is underwater with no further capital available. The sell ladder doesn’t trigger because price never recovers to entry.

Mitigation: 50% reserve, kill switch on bad news, position sizing per pair to limit single-symbol exposure.

❌ Vertical melt-up rallies

A symbol that goes +30% in a day fills the entire 7-rung sell ladder rapidly, then keeps rising. BasicMode missed the rally beyond +5%.

Mitigation: a trailing-stop mode (FullBullMarket, Tsl2Sell) captures more of the rally. But these modes underperform BasicMode in chop. Pick one based on regime confidence.

❌ Very low liquidity symbols

BasicMode’s per-order sizes (~$2,857 at default capital) can move thin books. Slippage on very low-volume altcoins can erode the small per-rung profits.

Mitigation: stay on majors with BasicMode. Use lower-capital modes (LowMoney, MinimalMoney) for thinner symbols.

What you can tune in BasicMode

The Modes panel in the Dashboard exposes editable parameters. For BasicMode:

Sell percentages — the 7 rungs

Default: [0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. You can edit these — wider rungs ([0.5, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10]) catch larger moves but trade less frequently. Narrower rungs ([0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3]) trade more frequently with smaller per-trade P&L.

Most operators leave the defaults alone for the first 1–2 months. Tune later based on observed behaviour.

Buy splits — the count and shape

Default: 7 splits. You can change the count, but doing so without care is a recipe for misconfiguration. Per-split sizing depends on this — fewer splits = larger orders.

Recommendation: don’t change splits unless you understand the implications.

canBuy / canSell flags

Default: both true. Set canBuy: false to wind down a pair (let existing positions close out without opening new ones). Set canSell: false to take delivery rather than rotate.

Useful for transitions and operator-driven pauses.

Stop-loss percentage

Default per-mode value. Sets the maximum drawdown the mode tolerates before market-closing the position.

For BasicMode the default is conservative. Operators sometimes tighten or loosen this based on personal risk tolerance.

Common questions

Why no trailing stop in BasicMode?

Trailing stops have a downtime weakness: while the bot is offline (VPS reboot, network blip), the trailing-stop reference doesn’t advance with new highs. On reboot, the stop is at its last server-side level rather than at the highest price during the gap.

For BasicMode’s “predictable mechanical exits” thesis, this trade-off doesn’t fit. Modes that depend on trailing stops accept the downtime risk in exchange for trend-capture upside. BasicMode trades the trend-capture upside for predictability.

Can I add a trailing stop to BasicMode?

Not via the standard mode configuration. If you want trailing-stop behaviour, switch to a mode that includes one (FullBullMarket, Tsl2Sell, etc.).

Alternative: run BasicMode for the predictable bulk of operation, and a SignalEditor strategy that flips canSell: false on specific pairs during identified strong-trend periods (so positions ride longer). This is an advanced pattern.

What's the average hold time?

Highly regime-dependent. In active markets, full ladder closures can occur within hours. In quiet markets, partial fills can take days.

Typical observation: average per-trade hold time 1–48 hours, with a long tail for trades that hit the wider rungs during slower moves.

Can I run BasicMode on multiple symbols?

Yes — that’s the standard pattern. Most operators run BasicMode on BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, SOLUSDT simultaneously. Each pair gets its own capital allocation; the mode behaves independently per pair.

Is BasicMode profitable?

Honest answer: it depends on the market regime. BasicMode captures the small-move opportunity that exists in chop and gentle trends. In sustained sharp moves (either direction), it underperforms.

Over multi-month periods of typical crypto market behaviour, BasicMode has historically been profitable for most operators. Specific monthly returns vary widely. There are no guaranteed returns — that’s the honest take.

What's the max drawdown I should expect?

Backtesting on BTCUSDT over various windows shows BasicMode with ~10–25% max drawdown across many windows. A bad month can produce -5% to -10% realized. A bad quarter can produce -15% to -20%.

Plan accordingly: don’t allocate capital you can’t comfortably hold through a -25% drawdown without panicking.

Can I scale BasicMode capital without changing the mode?

Yes — capital allocation is per-pair. You can run BasicMode on BTCUSDT at $20,000 for a month, then increase to $30,000 if you’re comfortable. The mode’s behaviour scales linearly with capital.

Tip: scale up gradually (e.g., +25% per quarter) rather than doubling overnight. Compound your confidence with your capital.

Best practices

• ✅ Start with BTCUSDT on BasicMode at $15,000–$25,000 + 50% reserve.
• ✅ Run for 1 month before changing anything. First month is paid education.
• ✅ Don’t tune sell percentages or split counts in the first 1–2 months.
• ✅ Add ETHUSDT and SOLUSDT after month 1 if you want diversification within BasicMode.
• ✅ Watch the live trades panel daily to build intuition for the mode’s rhythm.
• ✅ Hold a 50% reserve in USDT, not allocated.
• ✅ Don’t run BasicMode below $15,000 — switch to LowMoney or MinimalMoney instead.
• ✅ Don’t run BasicMode on illiquid altcoins — stay on majors.
• ✅ Treat the kill switch as your most important control — flip it for any unfamiliar market behavior.
• ✅ Backtest before changing anything — use the Backtester to validate any tweak before going live.

What’s next

FullBullMarket (Mode 1)

The trailing-stop alternative for sustained up-trends.

LowMoney (Mode 5)

The right starter for $3,000–$5,000 capital.

MinimalMoney (Mode 6)

The minimum-capital starter at $1,500.

TradingBot

The execution engine that runs BasicMode.

Backtester

Validate BasicMode behavior on historical data.

Risk Management

How BasicMode fits into a broader risk framework.