Mavrick Bot: Building a Sandwich Trading Bot on Ethereum (Part 2)

Jane Karaks
3 min readAug 3, 2024

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Ready to take your MavrickBot to the next level? You’ve laid the groundwork with a solid smart contract. Now it’s time to bring your bot to life and start hunting for those juicy sandwich opportunities. Let’s dive in!

Mavrick Bot Cover

Sniffing Out Sweet Deals: Mempool Monitoring

Remember how sharks can smell blood in the water from miles away? That’s your bot in the mempool. Here’s how to give it that razor-sharp sense:

  1. Set up a full Ethereum node: This is your bot’s eyes and ears. Use Geth or Parity to stay connected to the network.
  2. Create a websocket connection: Keep your finger on the pulse of new pending transactions.
  3. Filter for Uniswap V3 transactions: Not all trades are sandwichable. Focus on the ones that matter.
  4. Analyze transaction data: Look for large swaps that could impact token prices significantly.

Size Matters: Calculating Optimal Trade Sizes

You wouldn’t use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, right? Same goes for your trades. Here’s how to fine-tune your approach:

  1. Estimate price impact: Use Uniswap V3’s quoteExactInputSingle function to see how the target trade will move the market.
  2. Calculate front-running amount: Start small and work your way up. You want to maximize profit without alerting the market.
  3. Consider liquidity depth: Deeper pools can handle larger trades without slippage. Adjust accordingly.
  4. Factor in gas costs: Every trade has overhead. Make sure your potential profit outweighs the gas fees.

Need for Speed: Optimizing Gas Strategies

In the world of sandwich trading, if you’re not first, you’re last. Here’s how to ensure your bot is always in pole position:

  1. Implement dynamic gas pricing: Use a gas price oracle to stay competitive without overpaying.
  2. Leverage flashbots: Submit your transactions directly to miners, bypassing the public mempool.
  3. Use gas tokens: In high gas environments, burning CHI or GST2 tokens can save on gas costs.
  4. Optimize contract calls: Every byte counts. Streamline your contract interactions to minimize gas usage.

Staying Safe: Implementing Safeguards

Don’t let your bot become the sandwich filling. Protect yourself with these safety measures:

  1. Set strict profit thresholds: Only execute trades that meet your minimum profit requirements.
  2. Implement slippage protection: Markets can move fast. Set a maximum acceptable slippage to avoid bad trades.
  3. Use a simulation layer: Test your trades in a forked environment before committing real funds.
  4. Monitor for sandwich attacks: Yes, your sandwich bot can get sandwiched too. Stay vigilant.

Keeping Score: Analytics and Monitoring

What gets measured, gets managed. Here’s how to keep your bot in top form:

  1. Track key metrics: Successful trades, failed attempts, average profit, gas spent — know your numbers.
  2. Set up alerts: Get notified when something’s off. Quick reactions can save you from big losses.
  3. Visualize performance: Use tools like Grafana to create dashboards. Spot trends and optimize accordingly.
  4. Regular audits: Review your bot’s performance weekly. Markets change, and so should your strategies.

The Road Ahead: Future Enhancements

Your MavrickBot is up and running, but the journey’s just beginning. Here are some exciting paths to explore:

  1. Multi-DEX arbitrage: Why stop at Uniswap? Expand to other DEXes for more opportunities.
  2. Machine learning integration: Train models to predict profitable trades and optimal sizes.
  3. Decentralized operation: Run your bot on decentralized infrastructure to reduce single points of failure.
  4. Collaborative sandwiching: Team up with other bots to tackle larger trades and share profits.

Building a sandwich trading bot is no small feat. But with MavrickBot, you’re well on your way to becoming a DeFi trading maestro. Remember, the crypto world moves fast. Stay curious, keep learning, and may your sandwiches always be profitable!

Disclaimer: Trading cryptocurrencies carries significant risk. This article is for educational purposes only. Always do your own research and never risk more than you can afford to lose.

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Jane Karaks

Passionate writer and tech enthusiast with a knack for exploring the latest in innovation.