Messaribot: cryptocurrency charts for Discord

API credentials

First things first: create an account with Messari.

You can access the API without one but your maximum requests per day doubles… and it’s FREE… so why not?

Discord account

We will also need to enable our account to retrieve a secret token for the bot - here is an easy guide to follow along.

Python modules

Last but not least, below are a few of the libraries we’ll need for this to work.

import os
import sys
import requests

from io import StringIO
from datetime import datetime, timedelta, date 

import pandas as pd 
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

import discord

Compute statistics

After we fetch our cryptocurrency data, Messaribot then calculates some statistics:

• Moving average: based on the closing price using a 100 day rolling window
• Volatility index: difference between the daily closing price and moving average

# 100 DAY MOVING AVERAGE
df['price_ma'] = df.rolling(window=100)['close'].mean()

# VOLATILITY INDEX
df['price_volatility'] = df['close'] / df['price_ma'] - 1

The above uses my own Turtle Trader Rules so feel free to change to a shorter or longer time frame you are comfortable with.

Build plots

The code below stacks one chart on top of the other.

• Daily price: closing price with a dotted line for the trended moving average
• Volatility chart: index which color codes the different buy/sell thresholds

# DAILY PRICE CHART
plt.subplot(2, 1, 1)
plt.plot(df.date, df.close)
plt.plot(df.date, df.price_ma, linestyle='--', color='salmon')
plt.fill_between(df.date.values, df.high, df.low, alpha=0.3)
plt.axhline(y=dx.close.item(), color='steelblue', linestyle=':')  
plt.ylabel("Price ($)")
plt.ylim(0, df.high.max()*1.20)
plt.title(title, fontsize=15, horizontalalignment='left', x=0.05)

# VOLATILITY INDEX CHART
plt.subplot(2, 1, 2)
plt.plot(df.date, df.price_volatility, color='black', alpha=0.5)
plt.axhline(y=0.40, color='red', linestyle=':')
plt.axhline(y=0.20, color='orange', linestyle=':')
plt.axhline(y=0, color='grey', linestyle=':')
plt.axhline(y=-0.20, color='green', linestyle=':')
plt.axhline(y=-0.40, color='steelblue', linestyle=':')
plt.fill_between(df.date.values, 0.20, 0.40, color='red', alpha=0.25)
plt.fill_between(df.date.values, 0.00, 0.20, color='orange', alpha=0.25)
plt.fill_between(df.date.values, 0.00, -0.20, color='green', alpha=0.25)
plt.fill_between(df.date.values, -0.20, -0.40, color='steelblue', alpha=0.25)
plt.ylabel("Volatility Index (%)")
plt.ylim(df.price_volatility.min()-0.5, df.price_volatility.max()+0.5)

plt.savefig("/YOUR/FILEPATH/NAME/HERE/toast.png")

Here is an example of what that final chart looks like for Bitcoin:

[New] Messaribot: #cryptocurrency charts for @discord (via @MessariCrypto API) https://t.co/sRY7bKipXm

For those off the cuff moments you don't want to pull up a dashboard app but need quick stats and #dataviz

cc: @twobitidiot will work for higher frequency data :) pic.twitter.com/OVQ0V9g2eL

— Christopher Yee (@Eeysirhc) July 1, 2021

(insert Inception joke here)

Disclaimer: not financial or investment advice.

The volatility index helps me make (somewhat) rational decisions for crypto trading.

For example, if a specific cryptocurrency price drops into the green region then I buy $100. If it lands in the blue region then I double down at $200. If it goes even lower than that? Triple down with $300.

Disclaimer: not financial or investment advice.

Discord interface

You will need to make two edits in this section of the source code.

• Command prefix: the default listens to Discord messages which start with $ but you can also set it to use periods, colons, exclamation marks, etc.
• Token: insert your super secret token for your Discord bot

client = commands.Bot(command_prefix = '$')
TOKEN = 'YOUR_DISCORD_SECRET_TOKEN_HERE'

And finally, the function below pulls everything together and pushes our crypto plots to the designated Discord channel.

@client.command()
async def messaribot(ctx, coin):
    coin = coin.upper()
    messari_fetch(coin)
    await ctx.send(file=discord.File(r'/YOUR/FILEPATH/NAME/HERE/toast.png'))

Bot server

One problem with the above: you can’t run any other shell based programs or turn off your computer.

Hosting this on a dedicated server is outside the scope of this article but what I have done is port all files onto a Raspberry Pi. This ensures my Messaribot is running 24/7 so everyone in my Discord server can continue to use this while I am away.

TMW you decide it’s easier to build your own #raspberrypi cluster instead of making it a habit to turn off your AWS instances

cc: @johnmurch pic.twitter.com/ob5dSeg0d6

— Christopher Yee (@Eeysirhc) May 4, 2021