Progress Report - November 24, 2025

Project: Trader-7 Automated Trading System

✅ Completed

• Multi-Exchange Price Aggregation System Deployed - Implemented 5-layer fallback system combining Gemini and Coinbase for reliable price data. Eliminated single-point-of-failure from geographic restrictions and API issues. Averaging prices from both exchanges achieving <$36 divergence (0.015%).

• Stale Price Bug Fixed - Resolved 18-hour position staleness issue where TP/SL triggers weren't executing. Root cause: position cache returning snapshot prices instead of live market data. Now fetches real-time prices on every position lookup.

• Live Trading System Compatibility - Extended symbol normalization and price fetching to work for both paper and live trading modes. Reconciliation system now properly compares positions regardless of symbol format ('BTC' vs 'BTC/USD').

• Sprint 7 Perpetual Futures Plan Created - Comprehensive 4-phase implementation plan (650+ lines) for upgrading from spot trading to perpetual futures. 97% fee reduction potential (0.50% → 0.015%). Includes database migrations, risk management framework, and complete rollback plan.

• Parallel Development Strategy Adopted - System proven stable (211 proposals, 3 positions, 4+ error-free cycles). Strategic decision to build perpetuals NOW while spot trading validates TP/SL execution. Saves 3 weeks vs sequential approach.

🐛 Issues & Learnings

Issue: Stale Position Prices Preventing TP/SL Execution

• Root Cause Chain:

  1. Position cache created once at entry with snapshot current_price
  2. get_position() returned cached objects without refreshing prices
  3. Database symbol format mismatch ('BTC/USD' query vs 'BTC' storage)
  4. Database prices themselves were 18 hours stale
  5. Single exchange dependency hit geographic restrictions (Binance HTTP 451)

• Fix Evolution (5 commits):

  1. Attempted position cache refresh → database query failed
  2. Switched to live Coinbase fetching → assumed prices were wrong
  3. Switched to Binance → geo-blocked
  4. Switched to Gemini → worked but had false assumption
  5. Multi-exchange aggregation → FINAL SOLUTION

• Prevention:

  • Multi-source aggregation now standard (not single-source)
  • Price refresh on every position lookup (no stale caches)
  • Symbol normalization helper for consistent formatting
  • Divergence warnings for data quality monitoring
  • Never use fallback prices that could trigger trades

• Time Impact: ~5 hours (debugging + 5 fix attempts + comprehensive documentation)

Critical Mistake: Assumed Valid Data Was Wrong

• Root Cause: When Coinbase showed $87k vs "expected" $98k, dismissed it as incorrect data instead of questioning our assumption.

• Fix: Implemented multi-exchange verification - both Gemini and Coinbase confirmed actual price was $87k (our $98k expectation was wrong).

• Prevention: Always verify assumptions with multiple independent sources before dismissing data. Multi-source aggregation eliminates this class of error.

• Time Impact: Cost 2 additional fix attempts that could have been avoided with proper verification.

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Impact Summary

Fixed critical 18-hour position staleness bug that was blocking all TP/SL executions. System now fetches real-time prices from dual exchanges (Gemini + Coinbase) with 5-layer fallback cascade. Positions can now close when real price targets hit. Also completed strategic planning for perpetual futures upgrade (97% fee reduction potential) and adopted parallel development approach to save 3 weeks on timeline.

Next Steps

• Monitor 3 open positions for TP/SL execution validation
• Begin Sprint 7 Phase 1 (perpetual futures database schema)
• Set up Coinbase Perpetuals account
• Continue paper trading validation while building perpetuals locally

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Generated from progress.md on 2025-11-24 at 22:30