Make Your First Trade with the REST SDK

This quickstart guide explains how to make a trade, from setup to execution, using the Advanced API Python REST Client.

This REST Client is a Python package that makes it easy to interact with the REST API.

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Introduction

See the SDK README for detailed instructions, plus the full suite of SDK functions.

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Prerequisites

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Creating API Keys

To you use the SDK, you must first create your own API key on the Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP).

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Installing the SDK

To install the Coinbase Advanced API Python SDK, run the following command in a terminal:

pip3 install coinbase-advanced-py

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Setting up your Client

Create a Python project with the following code we have set up for you. Replace the api_key and api_secret with your own API key and Secret.

from coinbase.rest import RESTClient
from json import dumps

api_key = "organizations/{org_id}/apiKeys/{key_id}"
api_secret = "-----BEGIN EC PRIVATE KEY-----\nYOUR PRIVATE KEY\n-----END EC PRIVATE KEY-----\n"

client = RESTClient(api_key=api_key, api_secret=api_secret)

You are now ready to start sending out requests!

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Sending your First Request

Let’s start by calling List Accounts to retrieve a list of authenticated accounts for the current user.

Optional parameters:

• limit = A pagination limit with default of 49 and maximum of 250
• cursor = Cursor used for pagination.

Add get_accounts to your code, using the same client you just created. This retrieves the accounts associated with the user account and immediately prints them in formatted JSON.

accounts = client.get_accounts()
print(dumps(accounts.to_dict(), indent=2))

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Placing a Market Order

You are ready to place your first order!

The Create Order endpoint creates an order with a specified product_id (i.e., “BTC-USD”), side (i.e. “BUY”/“SELL”), and other parameters listed in the API docs.

In this example, we use the same client to place a $10 market-buy order on BTC-USD. Then, if the order was executed successfully, we retrieve the order’s specific fill information using the order_id. If the order failed to execute, then we print the error information.

Required parameters:

• client_order_id: UUID for the order, generated by the client. Must be unique for each order.
• product_id: The product this order was created for.
• quote_size: Amount of quote currency to spend on order.

order = client.market_order_buy(
    client_order_id="00000001",
    product_id="BTC-USD",
    quote_size="10"
)

if order['success']:
    order_id = order['success_response']['order_id']
    fills = client.get_fills(order_id=order_id)
    print(json.dumps(fills.to_dict(), indent=2))
else:
    error_response = order['error_response']
    print(error_response)

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Placing a Limit-buy Order

Now let’s get a bit more… advanced!

In this final section, we combine various calls to:

1. Retrieve the current price of BTC-USD.
2. Place a limit-buy order 5% below said price.
3. Cancel the order using the order_id.

Let’s dive in!

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Retrieving the Current Price

First, retrieve the current price of BTC-USD using the Get Product endpoint. The product_id is required as a parameter. In this case, it’s “BTC-USD”.

Later, we’ll calculate and obtain the price 5% below the current price. This will be stored in adjusted_btc_usd_price to later indicate our limit price.

import math

product = client.get_product("BTC-USD")
btc_usd_price = float(product["price"])
adjusted_btc_usd_price = str(math.floor(btc_usd_price - (btc_usd_price * 0.05)))

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Placing an Order 5% Below Price

Now, we place a limit-buy order using the Create Order endpoint. It’s similar to placing a market-buy order, but with some new parameters:

• base_size: Amount of base currency to spend on order.
• limit_price: Ceiling price for which the order should get filled.

Here we place a limit-buy order for 0.0002 BTC at a price of 5% below the current price of BTC-USD. We also set the client_order_id to “00000002” to differentiate it from the previous order we placed. In this example, we will keep it simple and only store the order_id if the order executed successfully; otherwise, we print the error information.

order = client.limit_order_gtc_buy(
    client_order_id="00000002",
    product_id="BTC-USD",
    base_size="0.0002",
    limit_price=adjusted_btc_usd_price
)

if order['success']:
    order_id = order['success_response']['order_id']
else:
    error_response = order['error_response']
    print(error_response)

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Cancelling the Order

Finally, cancel the order you just placed with the Cancel Orders endpoint:

...
if order['success']:
    order_id = order['success_response']['order_id']
    client.cancel_orders(order_ids=[order_id])
...

And we are done!

You successfully placed Market and Limit orders using the Advanced API Python REST SDK.