Your grid bot is green. So why is your balance down?

Count the whole position

A completed buy-and-sell cycle can make money while the assets still held lose more value. Pionex distinguishes grid profit from unrealized profit or loss in its spot-grid explanation. A green figure for one component does not establish that the combined investment is profitable.

Start with the question: what is all the bot’s cash and inventory worth at the same moment? The invented worksheet below illustrates that question. It is not an account screenshot, backtest or reproduction of every Pionex display formula. Futures and leveraged bots need different accounting.

A 2,000 USDT example with a negative result

Assume 2,000 USDT was deposited. Completed cycles contributed 60 USDT after their fees. The remaining 12 hypothetical tokens cost 1,390 USDT in total; their current illustrative price is 90 USDT each. There are no other transfers or charges.

Use a cash-flow check, not a second profit total

For a simple spot worksheet: result = current value of all assets + amounts withdrawn − all amounts deposited. Include the initial deposit and later additions. Value crypto transfers in the same reporting currency at their transfer time. This measures the bot up to withdrawal, not subsequent performance of assets moved elsewhere.

In our example, the unrealized inventory loss is 1,080 − 1,390 = −310 USDT. Combined with 60 USDT from cycles, that gives −250 USDT. Do not add the 60 again to the 1,750 current value: that money is already in the cash balance. Fees already deducted from balances must not be deducted twice either.

A withdrawal changes location, not the past result

If 40 USDT is withdrawn from that snapshot, 1,710 remains in the bot. The reconciliation is 1,710 + 40 − 2,000 = −250 USDT. Moving cash out has not erased the loss on the remaining assets.

A later 500 USDT top-up would bring current value to 2,250 against cumulative deposits of 2,500, assuming no intervening market move or cost. The monetary result is still −250. It is now −10% of contributions; that denominator change is not a time-weighted or money-weighted performance measure.

A valuation is not a guaranteed closing balance

Selling inventory can incur additional fees and a different execution price. At a hypothetical 0.05% fee, selling 1,080 USDT of inventory would cost 0.54 USDT before spread or slippage. Check the actual product and account rate; the public standard spot schedule is not every account’s all-in cost.

An open loss already reduces current wealth. Keeping the bot running does not guarantee recovery. Nor does extrapolating a few successful cycles into a yearly percentage show what will happen next.

Five checks before trusting a profit screenshot

• Use the same timestamp and currency for cash and every open holding.
• Reconcile deposits, top-ups, withdrawals and fees without counting anything twice.
• Separate completed trading cycles from the value of unsold inventory.
• Read the live metric definitions and closing preview for the exact bot.
• Review market, custody and country-access risks before registering. Crypto trading can cause total loss; none of these examples predicts a return.