Using FreqTrade with Docker

Install Docker

Start by downloading and installing Docker CE for your platform:

• Mac
• Windows
• Linux

Once you have Docker installed, simply prepare the config file (e.g. config.json) and run the image for freqtrade as explained below.

Download the official FreqTrade docker image

Pull the image from docker hub.

Branches / tags available can be checked out on Dockerhub.

docker pull freqtradeorg/freqtrade:develop
# Optionally tag the repository so the run-commands remain shorter
docker tag freqtradeorg/freqtrade:develop freqtrade

To update the image, simply run the above commands again and restart your running container.

Should you require additional libraries, please build the image yourself.

Prepare the configuration files

Even though you will use docker, you'll still need some files from the github repository.

Clone the git repository

Linux/Mac/Windows with WSL

git clone https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade.git

Windows with docker

git clone --config core.autocrlf=input https://github.com/freqtrade/freqtrade.git

Copy config.json.example to config.json

cd freqtrade
cp -n config.json.example config.json

To understand the configuration options, please refer to the Bot Configuration page.

Create your database file

Production

touch tradesv3.sqlite
````

Dry-Run

```bash
touch tradesv3.dryrun.sqlite

Note

Make sure to use the path to this file when starting the bot in docker.

Build your own Docker image

Best start by pulling the official docker image from dockerhub as explained here to speed up building.

To add additional libraries to your docker image, best check out Dockerfile.technical which adds the technical module to the image.

docker build -t freqtrade -f Dockerfile.technical .

If you are developing using Docker, use Dockerfile.develop to build a dev Docker image, which will also set up develop dependencies:

docker build -f Dockerfile.develop -t freqtrade-dev .

Note

For security reasons, your configuration file will not be included in the image, you will need to bind mount it. It is also advised to bind mount an SQLite database file (see the "5. Run a restartable docker image" section) to keep it between updates.

Verify the Docker image

After the build process you can verify that the image was created with:

docker images

The output should contain the freqtrade image.

Run the Docker image

You can run a one-off container that is immediately deleted upon exiting with the following command (config.json must be in the current working directory):

docker run --rm -v `pwd`/config.json:/freqtrade/config.json -it freqtrade

Warning

In this example, the database will be created inside the docker instance and will be lost when you will refresh your image.

Adjust timezone

By default, the container will use UTC timezone. Should you find this irritating please add the following to your docker commands:

Linux

-v /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro

# Complete command:
docker run --rm -v /etc/timezone:/etc/timezone:ro -v `pwd`/config.json:/freqtrade/config.json -it freqtrade

MacOS

There is known issue in OSX Docker versions after 17.09.1, whereby /etc/localtime cannot be shared causing Docker to not start. A work-around for this is to start with the following cmd.

docker run --rm -e TZ=`ls -la /etc/localtime | cut -d/ -f8-9` -v `pwd`/config.json:/freqtrade/config.json -it freqtrade

More information on this docker issue and work-around can be read here.

Run a restartable docker image

To run a restartable instance in the background (feel free to place your configuration and database files wherever it feels comfortable on your filesystem).

Move your config file and database

The following will assume that you place your configuration / database files to ~/.freqtrade, which is a hidden folder in your home directory. Feel free to use a different folder and replace the folder in the upcomming commands.

mkdir ~/.freqtrade
mv config.json ~/.freqtrade
mv tradesv3.sqlite ~/.freqtrade

Run the docker image

docker run -d \
  --name freqtrade \
  -v ~/.freqtrade/config.json:/freqtrade/config.json \
  -v ~/.freqtrade/user_data/:/freqtrade/user_data \
  -v ~/.freqtrade/tradesv3.sqlite:/freqtrade/tradesv3.sqlite \
  freqtrade --db-url sqlite:///tradesv3.sqlite --strategy MyAwesomeStrategy

Note

db-url defaults to sqlite:///tradesv3.sqlite but it defaults to sqlite:// if dry_run=True is being used. To override this behaviour use a custom db-url value: i.e.: --db-url sqlite:///tradesv3.dryrun.sqlite

Note

All available bot command line parameters can be added to the end of the docker run command.

Monitor your Docker instance

You can use the following commands to monitor and manage your container:

docker logs freqtrade
docker logs -f freqtrade
docker restart freqtrade
docker stop freqtrade
docker start freqtrade

For more information on how to operate Docker, please refer to the official Docker documentation.

Note

You do not need to rebuild the image for configuration changes, it will suffice to edit config.json and restart the container.

Backtest with docker

The following assumes that the download/setup of the docker image have been completed successfully. Also, backtest-data should be available at ~/.freqtrade/user_data/.

docker run -d \
  --name freqtrade \
  -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \
  -v ~/.freqtrade/config.json:/freqtrade/config.json \
  -v ~/.freqtrade/tradesv3.sqlite:/freqtrade/tradesv3.sqlite \
  -v ~/.freqtrade/user_data/:/freqtrade/user_data/ \
  freqtrade --strategy AwsomelyProfitableStrategy backtesting

Head over to the Backtesting Documentation for more details.

Note

Additional bot command line parameters can be appended after the image name (freqtrade in the above example).