Robots and AI
Updated 6 October 2026, 4 min readA bot in eTrader does not run on your computer. You add it to your trading account in the terminal, press Start, and it runs on eTrader's servers from then on. Close the browser, shut the laptop, and it keeps trading. There is no server to rent and no terminal to leave open.
There are two kinds. An AI Bot is one you build from blocks in eTrader AI. A Bot is one you write in Tide in eTrader Code. The terminal runs both from the same window.
Open Bots
In eTrader Web, sign in to the trading account the bot should trade. Press the account chip at the top right and choose Bots. The window has two tabs, AI Bots and Bots.
What runs on an account belongs to that account, so it is the same wherever you sign in to it.
Connect your eTrader ID
Your AI Bots and your Code files live in your eTrader ID, so the window asks for it first. Under Connect eTrader ID, type your email, press Send Code and type the 6-digit code from the email. Or press Open eTrader ID, sign in on that page, and come back to the terminal.
It is the same sign-in as eTrader AI, eTrader Code and the ID page. If you are signed in to one of them in this browser, the window skips this step.
The first time, the window asks to link the trading account to your ID. Press Connect This Account. It needs no password, because you are already signed in to the account. An account can be on one eTrader ID at a time. If it is on another ID now, connecting moves it to yours, and the other ID's AI Bots come off it.
AI Bots
The AI Bots tab lists the AI Bots in your eTrader ID, with a search box. Each row shows its status on this account: Not Added, Stopped or Running.
- Press Add to This Account. The AI Bot is added stopped.
- Press Settings to set its mode and limits, then Save.
- Press Start.
Mode is Trade or Signals Only. Signals Only sends each trade idea as a notification instead of placing it. See Trade or Signals only.
Under Limits, Max Lots Per Order and Max Daily Loss % are your own limits for this account. Leave a field empty and the broker's limit applies; the window shows what it is. Your value can be tighter than the broker's, never looser. A looser one is refused when you press Save, and the window shows the broker's maximum.
If Start is greyed out, the broker has switched AI Bots off for this account or its server, and the row says so.
Stop switches the AI Bot off on this account. The bin button removes it from the account. Either way, its open positions stay open.
Bots from eTrader Code
The Bots tab has up to three lists:
- On This Account: the bots set up on this account, each with its instrument, timeframe and status, a Start or Stop button and Settings.
- From eTrader Code: the bots in your eTrader ID, with a search box. Indicators and libraries are not listed.
- Not Set Up: bots on the account with no setup. Set Up configures one again, and the bin deletes it.
Press Add to This Account on a bot from eTrader Code. eTrader builds the latest saved version of the file and sets it up on your chart's instrument and timeframe, stopped. Its settings open next. If the code does not build, the window names the line and asks you to fix it in eTrader Code.
There is no file to upload. You write the bot in eTrader Code, it saves to your eTrader ID, and you add it from here.
Set it up
The settings of a bot from eTrader Code have:
- Name, so you can tell two setups of the same bot apart.
- Instrument and Timeframe, the chart the bot watches.
- Mode: Trade or Signals Only.
- The bot's own inputs, grouped under the headings its author gave them. A secret field, used for licence keys and API keys, is masked and only says it is saved.
Press Save, then Start. A bot that is running restarts on the new values when you save. The status reads Running, Stopped or Error.
Watch what it does
Open a bot from On This Account to see two things.
Performance counts its trades, its wins, its profit and its open positions.
Journal is the bot's own log: everything it writes, every order it sends and every error it hits, each with a time. It updates live while the window is open. If a bot did something you did not expect, look here first.
A bot does not stop at its first error. The error goes in the journal and the bot carries on with the next event. Three errors in a row stop it, and you are told, because a bot that quietly does nothing while you think it is working is the worse outcome.
Stop, update or remove
| You want to | Do this |
|---|---|
| Pause one bot | Press Stop on its row. Start it again whenever you like. |
| Pause everything | Stop All Bots, at the bottom of the window. It stops every Bot on this account and switches off this account's AI Bots. |
| Run a new version | Change the bot in eTrader Code, then press Update on it under From eTrader Code. |
| Change its settings | Press Settings, edit, press Save. |
| Remove one setup | Open it and press the bin. Its settings and journal are deleted. |
| Remove an AI Bot | The bin on its row. It comes off this account and stays in eTrader AI. |
Update builds the latest saved version. A bot that is running keeps the old build until you stop it and start it again.
Stopping or removing a bot does not close its trades. Any positions it opened stay open on the account, with their stop loss and take profit, until you or the market closes them. Check the Positions list after you stop a bot.
Limits that protect the account
Every bot runs inside limits it cannot switch off. It cannot see another bot, its positions or its stored data. It cannot read or write files. It can reach only the web addresses it declared, and it places no more orders a minute than it declared. The Tide manual lists the rest. The footer of the Bots tab shows how many bots are running and the most this account can run at once.
An AI Bot is held to its account limits on every order, whatever its blocks say.
Those limits keep a bot inside its own box. They do not make its strategy sound. Run a new bot on a demo account, or in Signals Only mode, until its journal shows it doing what you expect.