How to trade metals on a crypto exchange: 5 Veles bots for gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium
Can you make money on a metal that’s getting cheaper? Yes, and five Veles bots for gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and copper prove it. Over the last three months all five bots finished in profit, and one earned 18% on its deposit on the metal that fell the most over that period.
Which metal that is and how much the other bots earned, you’ll find out below. And closer to the end of the article you’ll find the Veles rule that helps you determine the right balance for your bots from just a single backtest metric, before you even launch.
A selection of metals bots: results over three months
| Metal | Bot | Net profit | MAE to deposit | Trades | How the metal’s price changed over the period |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Copper | OKX XCU LONG (COPPER) BOT | +19% | −11% | 33 | +6% |
| Palladium | XPD OKX BOT | +18% | −15% | 19 | −8% |
| Silver | XAG/USDT LONG | +13% | −11% | 32 | −3% |
| Gold | PAXG/USDT LONG | +10% | −9% | 8 | −1% |
| Platinum | XPT KELT LIMIT BOT | +7% | −8% | 23 | +3% |
How to read the table:
- Net profit — profit on closed trades after trading fees, as a percentage of the bot’s deposit.
- MAE to deposit — maximum unrealized loss: how deeply an open position went into the red over the whole period, as a percentage of the deposit.
- How the metal’s price changed over the period — how much someone who bought the metal on July 5 and held it until October 5 (Buy & Hold) would have earned or lost.
The backtests account for exchange fees. The backtests for the gold and silver bots are calculated on tick data, the other three — on one-minute candles. Each link opens a backtest with its trades, charts, and settings, and the “Edit bot” button opens a copy of the strategy in the builder.
Why we chose to trade these five metals specifically
The prices of these metals are driven by different factors:
- Gold depends on Fed rates, the dollar exchange rate, and central bank purchases.
- Silver fluctuates more: 58% of its demand comes from industry, and according to the Silver Institute’s forecast the silver market is in deficit for the sixth year in a row.
- Platinum and palladium depend on the auto industry: they go into the catalytic converters of internal-combustion vehicles.
- Copper is needed for power grids, electric vehicles, and data centers, and in September its price set a new record.
So a single event — a Fed decision, auto-industry news, or data-center construction — affects each metal differently, which is why bots for different metals react to it differently.
Which metals bot to choose
Choose a bot based on your situation. All five bots have a 300 USDT deposit and cross margin; the figures are for three months, from July 5 to October 5.
1. You’re ready for small losses but not for long drawdowns
XAG/USDT LONG — a silver bot, Bybit exchange, x5 leverage, with a stop-loss.
- +13% to the deposit; silver fell 3% over that time
- one of 32 trades closed by the stop-loss, with a 1 USDT loss
- in a trade 37% of the time, the longest trade — 9 days
The bot buys when RSI on the one-minute chart is below 35 and the VMC indicator shows a divergence, and adds to the position with three orders. It closes the trade on a volume spike, and the stop-loss triggers when MACD on the 4-hour chart crosses the zero line.
2. You’re not ready to lose money
XPT KELT LIMIT BOT — a platinum bot, Bitget exchange, x3 leverage, no stop-loss.
- MAE −8% of the deposit — the smallest drawdown in the selection
- +7% to the deposit; platinum rose 3% over that time
- the longest trade — 8 days
The bot buys platinum after a sharp 15-minute drop if the Money Flow Index (MFI) has fallen below 35. It takes profit in two parts; after the first, the remainder of the position is closed no lower than the average entry price. Over three months it earned less than its maximum unrealized loss.
3. You want your deposit not to be in a trade all the time
XPD OKX BOT — a palladium bot, OKX exchange, x5 leverage, no stop-loss.
- in a trade 30% of the time — the least in the selection; the longest trade — 7 days
- +18% to the deposit, even though palladium fell 8%
- MAE −15% of the deposit — the deepest drawdown in the selection
The bot enters when palladium is oversold by CCI and RSI, and adds to the position only if the oversold condition is confirmed on higher timeframes. Take-profit — 1%. How this bot behaves across different exchanges we broke down in the article “The palladium bot earned 58%”.
4. You’re ready to sit through a long drawdown for maximum profit
OKX XCU LONG (COPPER) BOT — a copper bot, OKX exchange, x3 leverage, no stop-loss.
- +19% to the deposit — the best result in the selection; copper rose 6% over that time
- in a trade 80% of the time, the longest trade — 13 days
- MAE −11% of the deposit
The bot buys copper after a short correction on a Mean Reversion Channel signal and adds to the position with three orders if the price falls further. It closes the trade on a WaveTrend indicator signal.
5. You have no exchange account or are just starting out
The gold and silver bots run on Bybit, so they can be launched through Veles Broker without a separate exchange account.
PAXG/USDT LONG — a gold bot, Bybit exchange, x5 leverage, with a stop-loss.
- +10% to the deposit; gold fell 1% over that time
- MAE −9% of the deposit
- the longest trade — 16 days
The bot buys a pullback in an uptrend on a Keltner Channel signal and adds to the position with five orders. It takes profit on a breakout above the upper boundary of the Turtle zone, and the stop-loss triggers when an hourly candle closes below its lower boundary. Other gold strategies — in the February selection of precious-metals bots.
What XAUUSDT and PAXG are, and how to find metal tokens on a crypto exchange
Metals are traded on crypto exchanges in two ways.
Perpetual futures on a price index. These are contracts with the tickers XAUUSDT (gold), XAGUSDT (silver), XPTUSDT (platinum), XPDUSDT (palladium), XCUUSDT (copper). The contract price follows the metal’s price on the traditional market, and profit and loss are calculated in USDT. The contract has no expiration date, so you can hold a position as long as you like, as long as you have enough margin. To keep the contract price from drifting away from the index, every few hours longs and shorts pay each other funding: for example, on OKX for palladium and platinum — every 4 hours.
Metal-backed tokens. The most well-known is PAXG by Paxos: one token corresponds to one troy ounce of gold in London Good Delivery bars stored in London. There are also futures on PAXG on exchanges — that’s the kind of contract the gold bot from the selection runs on.
How to find a metal on an exchange. Open the USDT-M perpetual futures section and type the metal’s code in the search: XAU, XAG, XPT, XPD, XCU, or PAXG. In Veles a metal is selected the same way as a cryptocurrency: when creating a bot, specify the exchange’s futures market and the pair, for example XAG/USDT.
Why this is convenient for a retail trader:
- No broker and no exchange schedule. All you need is a crypto exchange account. The contracts trade 24/7, while the classic metals market is closed on weekends.
- A low entry threshold. A position can be opened for tens of USDT, and the bots in the selection are set up for a 300 USDT deposit.
- Trades in both directions. Futures let you earn both on a rise (long) and a fall (short). All five bots in the selection are long: they buy on a decline and sell on a bounce.
How Veles works with stocks, commodities, and metals we wrote about in the article “Trading tokenized assets through Veles bots”.
What balance to keep on the exchange
For bots on cross margin without a stop-loss — on copper, palladium, and platinum — the Veles help center has a rule:
- If the MAE is less than the bot’s deposit — keep deposit × 2 on the exchange balance.
- If the MAE is greater than the deposit — keep MAE × 2.
- If you have several bots, the sum of their MAE should be no more than half the balance.
For bots with a stop-loss — on gold and silver — the rule is different:
- The loss of a single stop should be no more than 1% of the balance.
- So the balance is the loss of a single stop × 100.
- Estimate the stop loss in advance — in the backtest or via “Preview” in the bot settings.
How to launch a metals bot in Veles
- Register on the exchange where the chosen bot runs: OKX, Bybit, or Bitget.
- Create an API key on the exchange with trading rights and no withdrawal rights, and connect it to Veles — instructions.
- Open the bot’s backtest via the link in the table and click “Edit bot” — a copy of the strategy will open in the builder.
- Check the deposit and leverage, and if needed extend the backtest on your exchange.
- Top up the balance according to the rule above and launch the bot.
If you trade on another exchange, first test the same strategy with a backtest on it: candles and indicator values differ across exchanges, and the result may change.
Frequently asked questions
This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute individual investment advice. Backtest results on historical data do not guarantee similar returns in the future. Trading cryptocurrency and futures involves a high risk of capital loss.