Tired of manual crypto trading, the author decided to build an automated trading bot. The goal was to create a bot running on a cheap VPS that could execute a basic trading strategy. This involved fetching market data, generating trading signals, and placing orders on an exchange. The core insight was that robust "plumbing" like reliable data, order execution, and error handling was more crucial than complex algorithms.The bot uses the ccxt library to get Binance market data and implements a simple mean-reversion strategy. If the price drops 2% below its 20-period SMA, it goes long, and if it rises 2% above, it exits the trade. Initially, the author's monolithic script lacked crucial features like position tracking and error handling, leading to potential issues.A refactored version addressed these problems by separating concerns into distinct functions for fetching, deciding, and acting. This improved version includes position tracking to prevent accidental trades and robust order sizing that respects exchange limitations. Comprehensive error handling ensures the bot continues running even through network issues or exchange errors.Running this bot on a $5 VPS provides a sleep-friendly, semi-automated trading system that logs all actions. This foundation allows for easier experimentation with more advanced strategies in the future. The author emphasizes that automation frees up mental energy to focus on strategy development rather than manual execution. The piece encourages readers to experiment with the provided code and share their trading bot modifications.