How to Monitor Your Crypto Bot 24/7: Alerts, Dashboards, and Health Checks

A well-configured automated trading bot requires significantly less active attention than manual trading, but it does require structured monitoring. The goal of monitoring is not to second-guess every trade (which defeats the purpose of automation) but to quickly detect: when the bot stops working correctly (technical failures), when market conditions have changed beyond the strategy's designed parameters (performance drift), and when risk thresholds are being approached (position size, drawdown, or exposure issues). This guide covers the specific monitoring systems, alert configurations, and routine checks that provide comprehensive visibility over a 24/7 DennTech bot deployment with minimal time investment.

Related guides: VPS deployment, exchange outages, circuit breakers, trading journal.

Three Tiers of Monitoring

Tier 1: Critical Alerts (Immediate Response Required)

These alerts indicate something has stopped working or a significant risk event has occurred:

• Bot process stopped: The DennTech service has crashed or been killed on the VPS
• Exchange API connection lost: Bot cannot communicate with exchange for more than N minutes
• Circuit breaker triggered: Account drawdown has exceeded the configured threshold
• Unexpected position close: Exchange has closed a position (liquidation, margin call, exchange stop)
• Unusual position size: Bot has opened a position larger than configured maximum

Configure these as email and/or webhook alerts in DennTech → Settings → Alerts. For VPS process monitoring, use a simple systemd service or supervisord to automatically restart DennTech if the process dies. See our VPS guide.

Tier 2: Performance Alerts (Review Within Hours)

• Daily P&L outside normal range: Day's gain or loss exceeds ±X% of account (you set the threshold)
• No trades in expected period: Strategy has not generated a signal in an unusually long period — may indicate a stuck condition or changed market regime
• High consecutive losses: 3+ consecutive losing trades — check if strategy conditions have changed

Tier 3: Routine Review (Daily or Weekly)

• Review all open positions and their current P&L relative to the stop-loss level
• Review the last 24–48 hours of trade history in DennTech's trade log
• Check VPS disk usage, memory, and CPU load (should be low for a bot process)
• Log key metrics in your trading journal

DennTech's Built-in Monitoring Dashboard

DennTech's dashboard displays real-time monitoring metrics:

• Connection status: Live indicator of exchange API connectivity (green/yellow/red)
• Active positions: All open positions with entry price, current price, unrealized P&L, and distance to stop-loss
• Today's performance: Realized P&L for the current day, win/loss count
• Circuit breaker status: Current drawdown vs circuit breaker threshold — visual progress bar
• Strategy activity log: Timestamped log of all signals evaluated, entries, exits, and errors

Full documentation at DennTech docs. See all strategies at the strategies page.

VPS Health Monitoring

For bots deployed on a VPS (see our VPS guide), monitor the server itself alongside the bot process:

• CPU usage: DennTech should use less than 5–10% CPU at steady state; spikes may indicate API request errors being retried rapidly
• Memory: Steady-state memory usage should be stable; gradual growth over hours/days may indicate a memory leak in a custom configuration
• Disk space: Log files accumulate; check disk usage weekly and rotate/compress old logs monthly
• Network connectivity: Verify the VPS can reach exchange API endpoints; test with ping or curl to the exchange's API hostname

A free monitoring option: UptimeRobot (free tier) can ping your VPS IP every 5 minutes and send an email alert if the server stops responding. This provides external uptime monitoring independent of the VPS itself.

What to Do When Something Looks Wrong

Troubleshooting hierarchy when bot behavior is unexpected:

1. Check DennTech's activity log first: Timestamped log of all actions provides the most direct diagnostic. If the bot stopped, the last log entry before stopping often reveals the cause.
2. Check exchange API status page: If the bot stopped placing orders, the exchange API may be experiencing issues — not the bot itself. See our exchange outage guide.
3. Verify open orders on exchange interface: Log in to the exchange web interface and verify that open positions and stop orders match what DennTech reports. If there is a mismatch, allow DennTech to reconcile on reconnection rather than manually interfering.
4. Check VPS resource usage: High CPU or memory may prevent normal bot operation even if the process appears running.
5. Review recent market conditions: Unusual volatility or market structure can cause strategies to behave differently — check if the current market regime is within the backtested operating parameters. See our stress testing guide.

Monitoring Time Budget

A practical daily monitoring routine for a single-strategy DennTech deployment requires approximately 5–10 minutes per day:

• Morning check (3 min): Review overnight P&L, any critical alerts, open position status
• Evening check (3 min): Log daily performance in journal, review next-day market context
• Weekly review (20 min): Full performance metrics review, drawdown check, strategy performance vs benchmarks

This is dramatically less time than manual trading while maintaining adequate oversight. See our trading journal guide for structured weekly review templates. Start at the pricing page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to watch the bot continuously for it to be safe?

No — properly configured with exchange-side stop orders, circuit breakers, and position sizing limits, DennTech can operate for hours or days without active oversight. The monitoring routine described above (5–10 minutes daily) is sufficient for most single-strategy configurations. Exchange-side stops protect open positions even if the bot is completely unreachable. See our exchange outage guide and circuit breakers guide. Compare editions at the pricing page.

What alerts should I configure first when setting up DennTech?

Priority order: (1) Bot process stopped or service offline — critical; (2) Circuit breaker triggered — critical; (3) Exchange API connection lost for more than 10 minutes — critical; (4) Consecutive losses exceeding 3–4 trades — review-level; (5) No trades in expected period (strategy-specific threshold) — informational. The first three require immediate attention. The last two are performance awareness alerts that do not require immediate action but should be logged in your journal. Full alert setup documentation at DennTech docs.

How do I know if my bot is performing within normal parameters or has developed a problem?

Compare the live bot's per-trade metrics (win rate, average win/loss, drawdown) against the backtest baseline at monthly intervals. A strategy that backtested at 55% win rate and is producing 52–58% live is within normal variance. A strategy producing 38% live over 30+ trades has likely encountered a market regime shift or parameter issue that warrants review. See our journal guide for the tracking framework, and our profit factor guide and Calmar ratio guide for the metrics to monitor. Get started at the pricing page.

Operations suite: VPS deployment, monitoring (this guide), trading journal. All strategies at the strategies page.