Buying a Deriv bot? What to check before you pay

Deriv bots are sold as XML files on stores such as Payhip and Gumroad, and through Telegram channels. Before you pay, you usually see only the listing, not the file. A good listing tells you enough to judge the bot: the contract it trades, the market, how the stake moves after a loss and when it stops. This guide covers what to look for, how to work out what the staking can cost from the numbers on the listing, and where to find a free bot that trades the same contract, so you can compare before you spend anything.

What you are buying

Many paid Deriv bots are an XML file: a set of blocks for Deriv's Bot Builder, the same format Binary Bot used. You can open one in any builder that reads that format, see every block, and change any number. BinaryTick's Bot Builder reads them too.

A few listings sell a program that runs on your computer instead. You cannot open that to read its rule, and it has to connect to your Deriv account to trade. If a listing does not say which kind it is, ask before you pay.

What a good listing tells you

The contract. Under 8, Over 2, Even / Odd, Differs, Rise / Fall: the contract decides how many outcomes win and what a win pays. A listing that names it lets you look up the payout for yourself.

The market and the duration. Volatility 10, Volatility 100, a 1s index; one tick or five. These change how fast a session runs.

The entry rule. What the bot waits for before it buys, in a sentence. "Buys Under 8 on every tick" is a rule. "Smart AI entries" is not one you can check.

The staking. The starting stake, the martingale factor, and how many stakes the ladder runs before it resets.

The stopping rules. A stop loss, a take profit, and a limit on losses in a row, with their default values.

If the listing leaves one of these out, ask the seller. A clear answer means you can judge the bot before you buy it.

Work out what the staking can cost

You can work out the most a losing run costs from the staking numbers alone. Say a listing gives a 0.35 USD starting stake, a martingale factor of 2.2 and a ladder of four stakes. The stakes run 0.35, 0.77, 1.69 and 3.73 USD, so four losses in a row cost about 6.54 USD before the ladder resets. The stop loss caps the session as a whole, but it is checked after each trade, so a session can end down by just under the stop loss plus the largest stake on the ladder: with a 10 USD stop loss, just under 13.73 USD. That is the figure your balance needs to cover.

A win rate on a listing does not tell you this. The win rate guide explains why a bot's results come from what each win pays and what each loss costs, together.

Compare it with a free bot

For most contracts a paid bot trades, BinaryTick has free bots that trade the same one, with the rule and every setting on the card before you press Run bot. Every one is on the Bots page, and each row below links its family.

Run the free bot on your demo balance with the same contract, market and staking the listing describes. You will see how that contract behaves at those numbers before you decide whether the paid one adds something you want.

If you buy one

Load the file in Bot Builder before you run it: press Load and pick the XML. Then read the blocks the listing described, and check the stake, the martingale and the stopping rules match what you were told. The XML upload guide walks through loading and reading a file, and the checklist before real money covers the settings to confirm before a funded session.

Run one now

Pick the row in the table that matches the bot you were looking at, open one of its free bots and run it on your demo balance. Change one number on the card, the stake or the stop loss, and run it again. That is the same test you would give a paid bot, and it costs nothing.