📘 Sell Only When You Should! Freqtrade Quantitative Custom Exit Guide — Precise Exits, Profit Without Loss

In automated trading, exiting a trade is even more important than entering. Freqtrade provides two functions to help you build smarter sell strategies:

• custom_exit: Controls whether to exit at market price
• custom_exit_price: Controls the limit price for exit

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✳️ Function 1: custom_exit — Control Whether to Sell (Market Order)

Overview

custom_exit() determines whether to exit immediately at market price. Use it when you want to:

• Sell when reaching a target profit (take profit)
• Stop loss when exceeding a threshold
• Exit based on time or external signals

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🧪 Example 1: 10% Take Profit, 5% Stop Loss

A common exit strategy: Sell if profit > 10%; stop loss if loss > 5%; otherwise, hold.

def custom_exit(self, trade, current_time, current_rate, current_profit, **kwargs) -> float | bool:
    """
    Logic:
    - Current profit > 10%, sell immediately (take profit)
    - Current profit < -5%, sell immediately (stop loss)
    - Otherwise, hold
    """
    if current_profit > 0.10:
        return True
    if current_profit < -0.05:
        return True
    return False

✅ Note: Returning True means “sell now,” False means “hold.”

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✳️ Function 2: custom_exit_price — Set Limit Exit Price

Overview

custom_exit_price() does not decide whether to exit; it sets the desired limit price. Useful for:

• Placing a slightly higher sell order to maximize profit
• Custom limit order exit strategies
• Getting a better price than market, though execution may be slower

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🧪 Example 2: Limit Sell 1% Above Current Price

def custom_exit_price(self, pair, trade, current_time, current_rate, current_profit, exit_tag, **kwargs) -> float | None:
    """
    If current profit > 5%, place a limit sell 1% above current price.
    Otherwise, return None (no limit order)
    """
    if current_profit > 0.05:
        return current_rate * 1.01  # 1% above current price
    return None

⚠️ Notes

Make sure "exit": "limit" is set in order_types:

// Required for limit-based exit
"order_types": {
  "entry": "limit",
  "exit": "limit"
}

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🔄 Can Both Functions Be Used Together?

Yes, and it works well:

• custom_exit_price: sets a limit order first
• If the price doesn’t fill in time, or market moves sharply…
• custom_exit triggers a market exit to lock in profit or stop loss

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🧪 Example 3: Limit + Forced Exit for Extra Profit

def custom_exit_price(self, pair, trade, current_time, current_rate, current_profit, exit_tag, **kwargs) -> float | None:
    # Place limit 1% above current price if profit > 5%
    if current_profit > 0.05:
        return current_rate * 1.01
    return None

def custom_exit(self, trade, current_time, current_rate, current_profit, **kwargs) -> float | bool:
    # Force market sell if profit > 15%
    if current_profit > 0.15:
        return True
    # Stop loss if loss > 6%
    if current_profit < -0.06:
        return True
    return False

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🔍 Usage & Configuration Requirements

To make both functions work correctly, configure config.json:

"order_types": {
  "entry": "limit",
  "exit": "limit"
},
"use_exit_signal": true

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📊 Comparison Table: custom_exit vs custom_exit_price

Feature	custom_exit	custom_exit_price
Exit Type	Market Order	Limit Order
Immediate Exit	✅ Yes	❌ No
Execution Speed	Fast (may slip)	Slower (better price)
Return Value	True / False / float	float or None
Prerequisite	None	Must enable limit orders
Recommended Use	Stop loss, fast take profit	Wait for higher price, slow arbitrage

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🎯 Summary Tips

• Want to sell fast? Use custom_exit
• Want to sell smart? Use custom_exit_price
• Combine both: place a limit order while keeping a safety exit line

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📍Next Preview: 👉 Chapter 3: Smart Stop Loss — Using custom_stoploss + trailing_stop Together Learn how to implement trailing stops, breakeven exits, and automated profit protection!

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