Been running two setups in parallel for a few months, one custodial-style through a bot that pools execution on its side, one where signals just fire a TradingView webhook into my own Alpaca account.
I used to think this was a non-issue. Bugs happen either way.
But after 3Commas shut down its crypto signal dispatching and a bunch of people I know lost their whole crypto workflow overnight, I started weighing this differently. If the system never touches your funds, a shutdown just means you stop getting signals. If it does, you're stuck migrating positions under pressure.
I've tried a few things in this space, including Kronos Trading, mainly because execution stays inside my own brokerage account.When 3Commas pulled crypto dispatching, Kronos users just reconnected their API keys to Kronos Bridge, its in-house dispatcher, with no lost funds or frozen assets.
That said I don't think non-custodial wins on everything. Custodial setups tend to have faster fills and tighter infra since they're not routing through your broker's API and rate limits. For fully automated trading bot use where latency actually matters, that tradeoff might be worth it.
Curious where people land on this, especially anyone who got burned when a provider disappeared.