January 10, 2023
Building a Flash Loan Trading Bot in Python to Automate Arbitrage Opportunities on Decentralized Exchanges
In this tutorial, we will walk through the steps of building a flash loan trading bot in Python. Our bot will be designed to continuously scan decentralized exchanges (DEXs) for arbitrage opportunities, and log all data to a PostgreSQL database. By automating this process, we can take advantage of price discrepancies across different DEXs and potentially earn profits with minimal effort.
Before we begin, make sure you have Python and PostgreSQL installed on your machine. You will also need to install the Web3
, Uniswap
, and FlashLoans
libraries, which we will use to connect to DEXs and make trades.
Once you have everything set up, the first step is to create a PostgreSQL database and a table to store the arbitrage data. You can do this using SQL commands, or you can use a GUI tool such as pgAdmin.
Next, we will use the Web3
library to connect to DEXs and fetch the current market prices for the assets we want to trade. We will also use the Uniswap
library to get the current liquidity pool information and calculate the exchange rates for the assets on Uniswap.
With this information in hand, we can now check for arbitrage opportunities. For example, if the price of ETH on one DEX is higher than the price of ETH on Uniswap, we can borrow a flash loan and make a trade on Uniswap to take advantage of the discrepancy.
To borrow a flash loan, we will use the FlashLoans
library. This library provides a convenient interface for interacting with flash loan contracts on Ethereum. Once we have borrowed the flash loan, we can use the dex.make_trade
function in the Web3
library to execute the trade on the DEX.
Finally, we will calculate the profit/loss from the trade and log the details to the PostgreSQL database. This will allow us to keep track of our trades and analyze our performance over time.
To automate the process, we can set up a cron job or some other scheduling mechanism to run the script periodically. This way, we can continuously scan for new arbitrage opportunities and take advantage of them as they arise.
With this setup, we have a powerful tool for automating arbitrage trades on DEXs. By leveraging the speed and flexibility of flash loans, we can quickly take advantage of price discrepancies and potentially earn profits with minimal effort.
- Set up a PostgreSQL database and create a table to store the arbitrage data.
- Use the
Web3
library to connect to decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and fetch the current market prices for the assets you want to trade. - Use the
Uniswap
library to get the current liquidity pool information and calculate the exchange rates for the assets on Uniswap. - Use the
FlashLoans
library to borrow a flash loan and make trades on the DEXs to take advantage of any arbitrage opportunities. - Log the details of the trades, including the assets traded, the exchange rates, and the profit/loss, to the PostgreSQL database.
- Set up a cron job or some other scheduling mechanism to run the script periodically to check for new arbitrage opportunities.
Here is some sample code to get you started:
import web3
from uniswap import Uniswap
from flashloans import FlashLoans
import psycopg2
# Connect to the PostgreSQL database
conn = psycopg2.connect(dbname='arbitrage', user='user', password='password', host='localhost')
cursor = conn.cursor()
# Set up the Web3 and Uniswap clients
w3 = web3.Web3()
uniswap = Uniswap(w3)
flashloans = FlashLoans(w3)
# Fetch the current market prices for the assets you want to trade
eth_price = w3.eth.get_price()
asset_price = w3.asset.get_price()
# Get the current liquidity pool information and calculate the exchange rates
eth_pool = uniswap.get_pool_info('ETH')
asset_pool = uniswap.get_pool_info('ASSET')
eth_exchange_rate = uniswap.get_exchange_rate('ETH', 'ASSET')
asset_exchange_rate = uniswap.get_exchange_rate('ASSET', 'ETH')
# Check for arbitrage opportunities
if eth_price * asset_exchange_rate > asset_price:
# Borrow a flash loan and make the trade on the DEX
flashloan_amount = w3.eth.get_balance()
flashloan_id = flashloans.borrow(flashloan_amount)
w3.dex.make_trade(flashloan_id, 'ETH', 'ASSET', asset_price / eth_exchange_rate)
# Calculate the profit/loss and log the details to the database
profit_loss = (asset_price - eth_price * asset_exchange_rate) / eth_price
cursor.execute('INSERT INTO trades (asset_1, asset_2, exchange_rate_1, exchange_rate_2, profit_loss) VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s, %s)', ('ETH', 'ASSET', eth_exchange_rate, asset_exchange_rate, profit_loss))
conn.commit()
# Close the database connection
cursor.close()