The path at a glance
Five steps separate a fresh account from a live arbitrage position: activate the subscription (this provisions your dedicated trading server), connect at least two exchanges, fund those exchange accounts, pick an opportunity in the scanner, and launch a trading card. Nothing ever trades by itself — a card only starts trading after you explicitly run it.
Realistically the setup takes under an hour, and most of it is on the exchanges' side: creating API keys and moving funds in. The Arbitron part — defaults, scanner, card — is minutes.
Set your defaults once
Open Settings and fill in the Quick Start defaults — these pre-populate every card you create from the scanner: order size in USD, leverage, maximum number of orders per cycle, and the protective limits (force-stop and exit-on-loss thresholds).
Order size deserves the most thought. It must clear the minimum order notional on both exchanges (usually $5–20 per order), and your account balance should cover order size × max orders with comfortable margin headroom on top. For a first run, pick the small end of what your balance allows.
Timing parameters (entry delays, order cooldown) and auto-spread settings ship with sensible defaults — leave them alone for now and revisit after a few cycles. Every field is explained in Trading Card Settings.
From a scanner row to a card
The scanner continuously backtests every coin across every pair of your exchanges and ranks the results. When a row looks attractive, the Quick Start button turns it into a trading card: symbol, exchange pair and the open/close spread thresholds are taken from the backtest, your defaults fill in the rest. The close threshold defaults to roughly 30% of the open threshold — a proven starting ratio.
On the Pro tier, Quick Start offers a choice: classic two-leg arbitrage, or one-leg mode using either exchange as the trading venue. Start with classic — it is the market-neutral one.
Before committing, open the row's spread chart and look at the actual spread history: does it oscillate (good — cycles can close), or did it step to a new level once (suspect)? Check both legs' funding cadence too — a funding interval mismatch can fake a spread.
Open first, then Run
A card has three user-facing states. Closed: dormant, no data, no trading. Open: connected to live order books — you see the real spread, depth and funding, but nothing trades. Running: the execution engine is armed and will trade when conditions are met. The recommended first move is Open — watch the live spread behave for a while before going further.
When you press Run, the engine waits for the spread to cross your open threshold with sufficient order-book depth on both legs. Depending on the pair this can take minutes or hours — a Running card that has not traded yet is not broken, it is being patient. Both legs execute simultaneously as market orders when the moment comes.
You stay in control throughout: stop a Running card at any time, and if anything goes wrong (API error, failed leg) the card flips to Error, stops trading and notifies you on Telegram. Cards never restart themselves.
Pre-flight checklist
Balances: both exchanges hold enough margin for order size × max orders, plus at least 30% headroom for adverse spread moves and funding payments.
Keys tested green on both legs, server IP whitelisted. Position mode is handled for you — Arbitron sets one-way mode automatically before trading.
Telegram notifications connected — you want to know about fills, completed cycles and errors without staring at the dashboard.
Start with one card and a small order size. Watch a complete cycle — open, hold, close — and reconcile the PnL breakdown against your expectations before adding size or more cards. Scaling is easy; un-learning a bad first habit is not. See Risk Management before sizing up.