📘Chapter 1: "Freqtrade Common Commands Guide – Master Crypto Trading Bot Operations in One Article"

This article was produced by the Quantitative Trading Lab at https://www.itrade.icu. Visit for more benefits. “Master the key commands for cryptocurrency trading bots from beginner to live trading in one article!”

Freqtrade is a powerful open-source cryptocurrency automated trading framework that supports strategy development, historical backtesting, parameter optimization, data analysis, and live trading. For beginners, the functions and uses of various commands may not be intuitive. This article categorizes and explains all core Freqtrade commands, providing common use cases and CLI examples.

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🎯 Command Structure Overview

Freqtrade’s CLI tool uses freqtrade as the main command, with different subcommands for different tasks:

freqtrade <subcommand> [options]

You can view the main command help via freqtrade -h, or see detailed parameters of a subcommand with freqtrade <subcommand> -h.

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📦 Quick Command Classification

Category	Example Commands	Overview
Data Handling	download-data, convert-data	Download / process historical market data
Strategy Dev & Testing	new-strategy, backtesting, hyperopt	Create and test trading strategies
Live Trading	trade, webserver	Start the bot for trading or dry-run
System Configuration	new-config, create-userdir	Initialize config and project structure
Query & Diagnostics	show-trades, list-data, list-pairs	Query strategies, data, and trade history
Visualization	plot-dataframe	Chart-based visualization of strategy behavior

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🚀 1. Live and Dry-Run Trading Commands

trade – Start the trading bot (live or dry-run)

freqtrade trade \
  --config user_data/config.json \
  --strategy MyStrategy \
  --dry-run

• --dry-run: Simulated trading without real orders (recommended for beginners)

• --db-url: Specify database (stores trade history)

• --logfile: Path to save logs

⚠️ Ensure the strategy has been backtested and config.json is properly set before starting!

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📥 2. Data Downloading and Processing Commands

download-data – Download historical market data

freqtrade download-data \
  --exchange binance \
  --pairs BTC/USDT \
  --timeframes 1h \
  --timerange 20230101-20230301

• --exchange: Supports multiple exchanges like binance, bybit, etc.

• --pairs: Can specify multiple trading pairs at once

• --timeframes: Supports 1m, 5m, 15m, 1h, 1d intervals

convert-data – Convert data format (CSV → JSON)

Use this when importing external data sources (e.g., CCXT, Kaggle) to Freqtrade format.

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🧪 3. Strategy Development and Backtesting Commands

new-strategy – Create a strategy template

freqtrade new-strategy --strategy MyNewStrategy

Generates a .py file with annotated structure in user_data/strategies/.

backtesting – Backtest strategy performance

freqtrade backtesting \
  --config user_data/config.json \
  --strategy MyStrategy \
  --timeframe 15m \
  --timerange 20220101-20230101

• Simulate historical trades to evaluate strategy PnL

• Can set timeframe, trading pairs, etc.

• Recommended to use with backtesting-show for chart visualization

hyperopt – Parameter optimization

freqtrade hyperopt \
  --config user_data/config.json \
  --strategy MyStrategy \
  --hyperopt-loss SharpeHyperOptLoss

• Automatically search for optimal parameter combinations (e.g., RSI thresholds, take-profit ratios)

• Supports multiple evaluation metrics (Sharpe, Sortino, pure profit, etc.)

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📊 4. Data Visualization Command

plot-dataframe – Visualize strategy behavior in charts

freqtrade plot-dataframe \
  --config user_data/config.json \
  --strategy MyStrategy \
  --timerange 20230101-20230201

• Generates HTML charts showing buy/sell points, candlesticks, and indicators

• Charts are saved in user_data/plot/

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⚙️ 5. Configuration and Project Initialization Commands

new-config – Create a configuration file

freqtrade new-config --config user_data/config.json

Includes basic settings such as trading pairs, strategy name, risk management, and capital allocation.

create-userdir – Initialize project structure

freqtrade create-userdir --userdir user_data

Creates common directories (logs, data, strategies, configs).

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🔍 6. Query and Utility Commands

Command	Description
show-trades	Display trade / backtesting history
list-data	View available local historical data
list-pairs	Show trading pairs supported in current config
list-exchanges	List exchanges supported by Freqtrade
list-strategies	Display strategy classes in strategies/ folder
list-timeframes	Show supported timeframe formats

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✅ Commands to Master for Daily Use

freqtrade download-data
freqtrade backtesting
freqtrade hyperopt
freqtrade trade
freqtrade show-trades

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🐳 Running Commands in Docker

Most commands also work under Docker:

docker compose run --rm freqtrade trade \
  --config /quants/freqtrade/user_data/config.json \
  --strategy MyStrategy

Ensure the mount paths in docker-compose.yml are correct.

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📌 Summary

Freqtrade’s CLI covers the entire quantitative workflow: from data → backtesting → optimization → live trading, making it ideal for developers and strategy researchers.

Recommended workflow:

1. Download data (download-data)

2. Write strategy (new-strategy)

3. Backtest & tune (backtesting + hyperopt)

4. Run live (trade + Web UI)

5. Visualize results (plot-dataframe)

Master these commands, and you can independently manage a full cryptocurrency automated trading system!