Trading automation

Goal

Compose mp CLI commands with OS scheduling (cron/launchd) to run unattended trading strategies: dollar-cost averaging, limit orders, and stop losses. The agent generates shell scripts and schedules them — no new tools needed.

Prerequisites

• Authenticated: mp user retrieve
• Funded wallet: mp token balance list --wallet <name> --chain <chain>
• mp binary on PATH: which mp (note the full path for scheduled scripts)
• jq installed: which jq

Shell script pattern

Every strategy uses the same base pattern. Scripts live in ~/.config/moonpay/scripts/ and log to ~/.config/moonpay/logs/trading.log.

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

MP="$(which mp)"  # absolute path for cron/launchd
LOG="$HOME/.config/moonpay/logs/trading.log"
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$LOG")"

log() { echo "[$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)] $*" >> "$LOG"; }

# --- Config (agent fills these in) ---
WALLET="main"
CHAIN="solana"
FROM_TOKEN="EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v"  # USDC
TO_TOKEN="So11111111111111111111111111111111111111111"         # SOL
AMOUNT=5

# --- Execute ---
log "SWAP: $AMOUNT $FROM_TOKEN -> $TO_TOKEN on $CHAIN"
RESULT=$("$MP" --json token swap \
  --wallet "$WALLET" --chain "$CHAIN" \
  --from-token "$FROM_TOKEN" --from-amount "$AMOUNT" \
  --to-token "$TO_TOKEN" 2>&1) || {
  log "FAILED: $RESULT"
  exit 1
}
log "OK: $RESULT"

Key points:

• mp --json outputs single-line JSON, ideal for jq parsing
• Use $(which mp) and store as MP — cron/launchd have minimal PATH
• Wallet names only in scripts — mp handles keychain decryption at runtime
• If the user gives token names/symbols, resolve to addresses first with mp token search

DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging)

"Buy $5 of SOL every day at 9am"

Script: ~/.config/moonpay/scripts/dca-sol.sh

Use the base pattern above with the user's token, amount, wallet, and chain.

Schedule with cron (Linux)

# Buy $5 of SOL daily at 9am UTC — moonpay:dca-sol
0 9 * * * ~/.config/moonpay/scripts/dca-sol.sh

Add with: (crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo '0 9 * * * ~/.config/moonpay/scripts/dca-sol.sh # moonpay:dca-sol') | crontab -

Common intervals:

• Every hour: 0 * * * *
• Every 4 hours: 0 */4 * * *
• Daily at 9am: 0 9 * * *
• Weekly Monday 9am: 0 9 * * 1

Schedule with launchd (macOS)

Write a plist to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.moonpay.dca-sol.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.moonpay.dca-sol</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/bin/bash</string>
    <string>/Users/USERNAME/.config/moonpay/scripts/dca-sol.sh</string>
  </array>
  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict>
    <key>Hour</key>
    <integer>9</integer>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>0</integer>
  </dict>
  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
  <string>/Users/USERNAME/.config/moonpay/logs/dca-sol.err</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Load with: launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.moonpay.dca-sol.plist

Important: Tilde (~) does NOT expand in plist files. Always use the full path (e.g., /Users/USERNAME/...). Get it with echo $HOME.

Limit order

"Buy SOL when price drops below $80"

Script: ~/.config/moonpay/scripts/limit-buy-sol.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail

MP="$(which mp)"
LOG="$HOME/.config/moonpay/logs/trading.log"
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$LOG")"
log() { echo "[$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)] $*" >> "$LOG"; }

# --- Config ---
WALLET="main"
CHAIN="solana"
TOKEN="So11111111111111111111111111111111111111111"
BUY_WITH="EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v"  # USDC
BUY_AMOUNT=50
TARGET_PRICE=80
SCRIPT_NAME="limit-buy-sol"

# --- Check price ---
PRICE=$("$MP" --json token search --query "$TOKEN" --chain "$CHAIN" | jq -r '.items[0].marketData.price')

if [ -z "$PRICE" ] || [ "$PRICE" = "null" ]; then
  log "LIMIT $SCRIPT_NAME: price fetch failed, skipping"
  exit 0
fi

# --- Compare ---
if (( $(echo "$PRICE < $TARGET_PRICE" | bc -l) )); then
  log "LIMIT $SCRIPT_NAME: price $PRICE < $TARGET_PRICE — executing buy"
  RESULT=$("$MP" --json token swap \
    --wallet "$WALLET" --chain "$CHAIN" \
    --from-token "$BUY_WITH" --from-amount "$BUY_AMOUNT" \
    --to-token "$TOKEN" 2>&1) || {
    log "LIMIT $SCRIPT_NAME FAILED: $RESULT"
    exit 1
  }
  log "LIMIT $SCRIPT_NAME OK: bought at $PRICE — $RESULT"

  # Self-disable after fill
  if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
    launchctl unload "$HOME/Library/LaunchAgents/com.moonpay.${SCRIPT_NAME}.plist" 2>/dev/null || true
  else
    crontab -l | grep -v "$SCRIPT_NAME" | crontab -
  fi
  log "LIMIT $SCRIPT_NAME: disabled after fill"
else
  log "LIMIT $SCRIPT_NAME: price $PRICE >= $TARGET_PRICE — waiting"
fi

Schedule every 5 minutes:

• Cron: */5 * * * * ~/.config/moonpay/scripts/limit-buy-sol.sh # moonpay:limit-buy-sol
• Launchd: use <key>StartInterval</key><integer>300</integer> instead of StartCalendarInterval

Stop loss

"Sell all my SOL if price drops below $70"

Same structure as limit order but sells instead of buys. For "sell all", query the balance first:

# --- Config ---
SELL_TOKEN="So11111111111111111111111111111111111111111"   # SOL
TO_TOKEN="EPjFWdd5AufqSSqeM2qN1xzybapC8G4wEGGkZwyTDt1v" # USDC
TRIGGER_PRICE=70
SCRIPT_NAME="stop-loss-sol"

# --- Check price ---
PRICE=$("$MP" --json token search --query "$SELL_TOKEN" --chain "$CHAIN" | jq -r '.items[0].marketData.price')

if (( $(echo "$PRICE < $TRIGGER_PRICE" | bc -l) )); then
  # Get current balance to sell all
  BALANCE=$("$MP" --json token balance list --wallet "$WALLET" --chain "$CHAIN" \
    | jq -r --arg addr "$SELL_TOKEN" '.items[] | select(.address == $addr) | .balance.amount')

  if [ -n "$BALANCE" ] && (( $(echo "$BALANCE > 0" | bc -l) )); then
    log "STOP-LOSS $SCRIPT_NAME: price $PRICE < $TRIGGER_PRICE — selling $BALANCE"
    RESULT=$("$MP" --json token swap \
      --wallet "$WALLET" --chain "$CHAIN" \
      --from-token "$SELL_TOKEN" --from-amount "$BALANCE" \
      --to-token "$TO_TOKEN" 2>&1) || {
      log "STOP-LOSS $SCRIPT_NAME FAILED: $RESULT"
      exit 1
    }
    log "STOP-LOSS $SCRIPT_NAME OK: sold at $PRICE — $RESULT"
    # Self-disable (same pattern as limit order)
  fi
fi

Managing automations

List active automations

# macOS
launchctl list | grep moonpay

# Linux
crontab -l | grep moonpay

Remove an automation

# macOS
launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.moonpay.dca-sol.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.moonpay.dca-sol.plist

# Linux
crontab -l | grep -v "moonpay:dca-sol" | crontab -

View logs

tail -50 ~/.config/moonpay/logs/trading.log

Pause / resume (macOS only)

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.moonpay.dca-sol.plist   # pause
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.moonpay.dca-sol.plist     # resume

Platform detection

Detect the OS and use the appropriate scheduler:

if [[ "$OSTYPE" == "darwin"* ]]; then
  # macOS: use launchd (fires even if machine was asleep)
else
  # Linux: use crontab
fi

Tips

• Start with a small DCA amount to verify the setup works before going bigger
• Check logs after the first run: tail -20 ~/.config/moonpay/logs/trading.log
• Scripts don't contain secrets — mp decrypts wallets via OS keychain at runtime
• The machine must be logged in (user session active) for keychain access to work
• Price checks via mp token search are free; swaps cost gas
• Limit order checks every 5 minutes is reasonable — don't go below 1 minute
• Use bc -l for decimal price comparison (bash can't compare floats natively)
• If bc isn't available, use: awk "BEGIN {exit !($PRICE < $TARGET)}"
• Always tag cron entries with # moonpay:{name} so they can be found and removed

Related skills

• moonpay-swap-tokens — Swap and bridge command syntax
• moonpay-check-wallet — Check balances before setting up automation
• moonpay-discover-tokens — Research tokens and resolve addresses
• moonpay-price-alerts — Observe-only price notifications (no trading)