NOFX is an open source AI trading terminal you can self-host — a TradingView and 3Commas alternative where a language model reads the market and places trades, while a Go runtime enforces risk limits the model can't override.

What is NOFX?

NOFX is an open source trading terminal where the strategy is a language model. It runs a continuous loop — read market data, ask an AI model what to do, then execute — while a Go runtime clamps position size, leverage, and drawdown so the model can never override your risk limits. You point it at your own exchange accounts and it trades autonomously.

What is NOFX best for?

NOFX suits technical retail traders who want to run AI-driven strategies on their own hardware instead of renting a hosted bot. It fits people comfortable managing exchange API keys, running a server, and sizing risk deliberately — and who want to experiment with different AI models as the “brain” behind crypto perpetuals, tokenized equities, commodities, indices, and FX.

What can NOFX do?

Autopilot trading — an AI agent scans your configured markets and opens or closes positions every few minutes without manual input.
Model-agnostic strategies — plug in DeepSeek, OpenAI, Claude, Qwen, Gemini, Grok, Kimi, MiniMax, or pay-as-you-go metering via the Claw402/x402 protocol.
Nine exchanges — Binance, Bybit, OKX, Hyperliquid, Bitget, KuCoin, Gate, Aster, and Lighter from one terminal.
Strategy Studio — configure coin universes, indicators, leverage, and the AI prompt that drives decisions.
Hard risk controls — position and concurrent-position caps, leverage clamps at order time, exchange-side stop-loss/take-profit, drawdown auto-close, and trade throttling with minimum hold times and cooldowns.
Live dashboard — real-time positions, orders, statistics, and the model’s stated reasoning, with TradingView charts.
Public leaderboard — an optional competition ranking strategies by realized returns.

Where does NOFX fall short?

NOFX hands trade decisions to a language model, which is inherently non-deterministic — the same market can produce different calls, and the AI can be confidently wrong, so the runtime’s risk clamps are doing the real safety work, not the strategy. Treat it as experimental capital, not a set-and-forget system.

It is also crypto-first: the broadest exchange and asset coverage runs through crypto venues, and the “stocks, commodities, forex” support arrives as tokenized instruments via Hyperliquid rather than a traditional brokerage, so it won’t replace Interactive Brokers for regulated equities.

Finally, running costs stack up beyond the free software: every decision loop consumes paid AI model tokens, and live trading requires funded exchange wallets (a documented ~$12+ USDC minimum on connected exchanges plus a small AI-fee wallet), so an idle-but-active terminal still burns money.

Is NOFX free?

Yes — NOFX is free and open source under the AGPL-3.0 license, with no license fees to self-host. You pay third parties, not NOFX: your chosen AI provider (or Claw402 pay-as-you-go) for model calls, exchange trading fees, and the capital you fund your accounts with. Everything runs on your own machine, and exchange credentials are encrypted at rest.

What does NOFX replace?

NOFX stands in for hosted trading automation and charting subscriptions. It overlaps most with 3Commas and Cryptohopper for automated crypto bots, and with TradingView premium for charting plus strategy execution — except the automation logic is an AI model you configure, and it runs on your infrastructure instead of a vendor’s cloud.

FAQ

Is NOFX open source? Yes. NOFX is licensed under AGPL-3.0, with the full Go backend and React/TypeScript frontend published on GitHub. The AGPL means network-deployed modifications must be shared under the same license.

Can I self-host NOFX for free? Yes. The software is free to run via a Linux/macOS install script, Docker, or Railway. You still pay for AI model usage, exchange fees, and your trading capital — but there is no subscription for NOFX itself.

Is NOFX a good 3Commas or Cryptohopper alternative? It is if you want AI-driven decisions and full control of your keys and infrastructure. Unlike those hosted platforms, NOFX runs on your own machine and lets you swap AI models — at the cost of doing your own setup and monitoring.

What do I need to run NOFX? A Linux or macOS machine (or Docker/Railway), Go 1.21+ if building from source, an API key for at least one supported AI model, and funded accounts on one or more of the nine supported exchanges. It stores data in SQLite, so no separate database is required.