Scaling to Live and Keeping It Honest

Goal

Establish the final, complete checklist for transitioning from paper bot to live trading, ensuring every element of the strategy has been validated before real capital is at risk.

Mistake This Prevents

Going live "because it's time" rather than because specific, objective criteria have been verified, and discovering mid-drawdown that a critical element was not ready.

All five pre-live requirements must be met before committing real capital. Skipping any check increases the risk of deploying a strategy that is not ready for live market conditions.

The Pre-Live Deployment Checklist

Section A: Strategy Validation

Backtest completed with minimum 30 trades across 2+ market phases
Walk-forward efficiency ≥ 0.5 (out-of-sample validation passed)
Profit factor ≥ 1.5 in backtest (combined)
Profit factor ≥ 1.0 in bear market phase specifically
Maximum drawdown ≤ 25% in backtest

Section B: Paper Bot Performance

Paper bot run for minimum 8 weeks (two full iteration cycles)
Paper bot profit factor ≥ 1.3 (acceptable live performance threshold)
Override rate < 10% (you follow the bot's signals ≥ 90% of the time)
No systematic override patterns (not skipping signals after losses)
Execution gap between bot and manual paper trading ≤ 15%

Section C: Regime Confirmation

Current market is in the strategy's "deploy" regime (per the deployment rule from Module 17)
On-chain score: ≥ 2/3 bullish (or neutral, but not bearish)
Derivatives score: Funding not extreme; OI + price aligned
Not within 48 hours of a major macro event

Section D: Risk Framework

Three-level risk framework written and accessible
Maximum 1% risk per trade calculated for live capital
Stop-loss orders protocol tested (OCO or equivalent on chosen exchange)
India VDA tax records system ready (spreadsheet or ClearTax Crypto)

Section E: Capital and Exchange

Live capital amount determined (starting with 20% of planned allocation)
Exchange account verified (KYC complete)
Sufficient stablecoins on exchange for first 3 trades at planned size
Order types tested on exchange (place and cancel test limit and stop orders)

The Go-Live Ceremony When all sections are checked:

Take a 24-hour reflection period (do not go live immediately after completing the checklist)
Write a 1-paragraph "going live" statement summarising your strategy, risk rules, and how you will respond to the first loss
Share with an accountability partner (trading community, mentor, friend)

Test every order type on a demo account before going live. Limit orders, market orders, stop-losses, and OCO pairs all behave slightly differently across exchanges. Discovering a quirk on demo costs nothing.

Checklist

All five sections A–E completed
24-hour reflection completed
Going-live statement written and shared

Common Mistakes

Going live during a major market event week
Not testing order types on the live exchange before deploying (discovering the OCO doesn't work during your first trade)
Skipping the 24-hour reflection, when the statement forces you to confront the plan for the first loss

Fedha Tool Tie-in

FedhaAcademy's Pre-Live Checklist is built into the platform. Each of the five sections must be marked complete before the system generates a "Live Deployment Approval" certificate, the final credential before Module 18 completion.