Cypher on Arcus.
Fast, selective entries.

A market maker, not a price prediction

Cypher places limit orders to buy and sell on Arcus. When another trader fills a quote, your account acquires or reduces a position. The engine updates its quotes as the book changes and manages the resulting inventory.

It builds on Hermes execution, adding price improvement where the spread allows and a short-term gate on exposure-increasing orders. Buying into a falling market or selling into a rising one can be expensive even when the exchange charges no maker fee. The gate is designed to avoid some of those entries.

Cypher runs on the server. You do not need to keep your browser or computer on. It is not a hedged, delta-neutral pair: while a position is open, your account is exposed to price movement.

Connect the account you want to trade

Before you begin

• You need an Arcus account with available trading collateral. A balance in your wallet alone is not the same as collateral deposited on the exchange.
• Use the wallet that owns that account. If Arcus or the connection screen requires an invite or account activation, complete that step first.
• Do not run another bot or place manual trades on the same account while Cypher is managing it. Shared positions and collateral make session control and accounting harder to interpret.
• Never share your seed phrase, wallet private key or API secret in chat, screenshots or a support message.

Wallet connection

1. Open the public Arcus connection page. Check the domain is sypherscore.com and the selected venue is Arcus.
2. Choose Connect wallet, then the wallet connection method. Select your wallet in the picker or use its WalletConnect flow.
3. Read and approve the requested connection and trade-authorization messages in your wallet. Reject any unexpected transfer or withdrawal request.
4. Wait for the site to confirm that trading access is ready, then continue to settings. A connected wallet address alone does not prove that the trading key is ready.

Already have an Arcus API key?

Use the manual API-key option on the same connection screen and follow its fields. Use the key for the account you intend to trade, with trading permissions and no withdrawal permission. Paste it only into the site’s connection form. Do not put it into a URL or send it to support.

Non-custodial means the funds remain in your exchange account. A trade-only key still authorizes real orders, which can lose money. It does not make trading risk-free.

Venue, market, mode, size

1. In settings, confirm Arcus. Choose the market you intend to trade. BTC is the market used for the release validation; do not assume identical economics on stocks, metals or other books.
2. Select Cypher, the first strategy card marked New and Recommended. Check the actual selection, especially if you previously saved another mode.
3. Set your margin allocation and leverage. Review the resulting quote size and maximum inventory shown by the panel before starting.
4. Press Save settings. The page confirms the save and takes you to the dashboard. Saving settings does not start trading.
5. On the dashboard, verify the venue, market and mode again. Press Start and approve the requested authorization. Check the resulting live state rather than assuming the click succeeded.

Margin

The collateral allocation used to derive the session’s buying power. It is not a maximum-loss limit or a promise that the rest of a cross-margin account is isolated.

Leverage

Multiplies the notional exposure available for a given margin allocation. More leverage does not make CPM cheaper by itself. It can increase liquidation risk.

Buying power

Approximately margin × leverage. For illustration, $30 at 5× corresponds to $150 of buying power, not $150 of deposited funds.

Quote size

The notional value of an order, not the amount you will necessarily lose. The illustrated release UI derives the larger quote from buying power in $50 steps, normally within $50–$150. Available margin, position and exchange rules can reduce actual order sizes.

Maximum inventory

The configured ceiling for net position exposure. It limits size, not dollar loss, execution slippage or the time needed to exit.

A real settings example

The screenshots below show the public settings page before connecting an account: $34 margin at 3×, giving approximately $102 buying power. The preview shows a $50 larger quote and a $12.50 opposite quote. These are real UI values, not a sizing recommendation or proof that a funded account passed admission.

Use a size you can monitor and afford to lose. Follow the live panel’s validation if a setting is unavailable; do not raise leverage simply to force a larger order or bypass an insufficient-margin warning.

Entry gates are not a freeze on exits

Fast execution, with maker boundaries

Cypher uses a WebSocket trading path for order placement and modification. Quotes can change quickly without waiting for the page to refresh. Actual speed depends on the exchange, network and account state; there is no guaranteed fill time.

On a sufficiently wide book, it can improve an entry price inside the spread. A reducing exit can improve its price by a tick where space permits. The quote still respects the maker boundary: getting priority is not permission to cross the opposite quote.

The short-term entry gate

The release preset observes short-term price movement over a three-second window. During startup it first warms up that history. If the move is adverse to a new entry, the gate blocks the side that would add that exposure.

• During a downward move, adding a long can be blocked.
• During an upward move, adding a short can be blocked.
• An order that reduces an existing position is not blocked by this entry gate.

This is a local, short-horizon rule, not a prediction of the next candle. A large red candle on your chart does not mean that every order must disappear: a sell may be reducing an existing long, and a different side may still be permitted.

Holding and broader market guards

The broader volatility guard is separate from the short-term entry gate. When enabled in the saved session configuration, it can hold back new exposure during an unfavorable regime while the engine works down inventory. The hidden UI checkbox does not rewrite older saved choices, so two accounts can show different phases.

Holding is not the same as Stopped. The session remains active and may resume quoting when its conditions allow. Gates cannot prevent every adverse fill, reverse an already executed trade or guarantee an immediate exit.

Know what each number is telling you

Status & Pulse

Shows whether the engine is making markets, holding, stopping or waiting on a connection. Confirm the header says Arcus and cypher. An Active label alone is not proof of recent fills.

Account equity

The account-level value, not just closed profit from this session. It can move with an open position and other account events.

Volume

Executed notional attributed to the session. An opening fill and its closing fill both contribute. An unfilled, canceled or rejected quote is not traded volume.

Spent · Fees

Recorded trading fees. Zero fees do not mean zero trading cost: losses from the entry/exit prices still matter.

Realised

The result recognized from completed executions. Read the card’s fee note: if fees are already included, subtracting them again double-counts the cost.

CPM

Dollar cost normalized to $1 million of traded volume. While the session is live, equity and unrealised exposure can affect the displayed cost; see the explanation below.

Open positions

Current net positions, not the order book or trade history. It may be empty between fills even while quotes are resting on the exchange.

Activity

Recent session events and fills. It is a recent-event feed, not an exhaustive archive of every quote modification. Use session history and the exchange record for reconciliation.

My results / History

Session records, including the current open session and completed runs. Compare the same session, start time and market; an account-wide or all-time number is a different scope.

A fill is one execution, possibly a partial execution. It is not necessarily a complete buy-and-sell round trip. Fast fills can occur between two dashboard refreshes.

Maker fees are not the whole cost.

CPM means cost per million of turnover. It scales the session’s net cost to a common volume so runs of different sizes can be compared. It is not a fee charged by Vesper and not a forecast of what the next million will cost.

Illustration only, not a measured return or target. $1.20 ÷ $10,000 × 1,000,000 = $120.

Why can CPM rise if maker fees are zero?

• Adverse selection: a resting buy fills just before the market falls, or a resting sell fills just before it rises.
• Inventory: the price moves against an open position. The live equity-based CPM can change before that position is closed.
• Forced exits: Stop or emergency cleanup can use a taker execution, which may pay a fee and cross the spread.
• A small denominator: a few cents of loss divided by very little volume can show a large CPM. Early-session readings are especially unstable.

Arcus maker executions in the release checks had zero maker fees. This does not promise zero fees on every execution. Taker exits have different economics; exchange fee schedules and account conditions can change. Check the actual fill record. Funding and other account cash flows can also affect equity.

How to compare sessions fairly

Compare the same market and similar size over meaningful volume, preferably after the position is flat and the session is finalized. During a run, the live CPM may use the change in session equity, whereas Realised reflects booked executions. After Stop, allow final fills to settle into history. Avoid deposits, withdrawals or unrelated manual trades during a measurement window: they make an equity comparison harder to interpret.

Lower CPM is better for cost efficiency, but it is not the only measure. Check actual dollar P&L, volume, exposure, maker share and time spent trading. No single CPM value is guaranteed in calm or volatile markets.

Finish the session, not just the browser tab

1. Use the dashboard’s Pause Vesper / Stop control and complete any requested authorization. This starts the session shutdown and cleanup workflow.
2. Wait for the stopped state. A button click or an HTTP acknowledgment alone does not prove that exchange cleanup has finished.
3. Check Arcus for remaining positions and open orders. Confirm the session appears as completed in History before switching strategies or reusing the account.

Stop cancels managed quotes and attempts to close the managed position. It is not a promise to wait for a profitable maker exit. Cleanup may use a taker order and realize a loss. The final result can change while the last exchange fills arrive.

Closing the tab

Closing or refreshing the browser does not stop server-side trading. Reopen the dashboard with the same wallet to view the session. Disconnecting the wallet from the page is not a substitute for Stop.

Server restart

Running sessions are designed to recover from persisted state and reconcile with the exchange before continuing. A confirmed user Stop is persisted so a restart does not intentionally start that session again. Recovery still depends on working exchange access and infrastructure; verify the state if there has been an outage.

RECONNECTING or unknown status

The page may keep the last confirmed numbers while it cannot reach the engine. Treat those numbers as stale, not as proof the position is flat. Do not repeatedly press Start or launch another strategy on the same account. Check the exchange and contact support if fresh state does not return.

Common questions

A final check is worth the pause

• I am on the official site, using the intended Arcus account and market.
• The selected mode is Cypher; I have checked margin, leverage, quote size and inventory.
• I understand that the mode can hold directional exposure, lose money and be liquidated.
• I am not relying on a hidden stop-loss, holding timer or a guaranteed CPM.
• No other bot or manual strategy is sharing this account while the session runs.
• I know where to find Stop and how to verify positions and orders directly on Arcus.

Cypher is trading software, not a guaranteed return. Network failures, exchange outages, gaps, slippage and unexpected fills can occur. Position limits and entry gates reduce specific risks; they do not remove them.