Backup, recovery, and state persistence
Chapter 66 established that broker state is ground truth and local state must reconcile against it. This chapter covers what "local state" needs to actually survive — disk failure, VPS loss, accidental deletion — independent of the broker relationship entirely.
What actually needs backing up
| Data | Why it matters | Recovery source if lost |
|---|---|---|
| Trade journal (ch 89) | Tax records, performance history | Irrecoverable if lost — this is the one thing with no broker-side backup |
| Strategy state machine state (ch 88) | Resume mid-position correctly | Reconcilable from broker positions/orders, but loses your *reasoning* context |
| Historical price data (ch 30) | Backtesting | Re-fetchable from broker API (slow, rate-limited) |
| Config, credentials | Bot operation | Should already exist elsewhere (password manager, chapter 6) |
| Instrument master cache (ch 21) | Symbol resolution | Trivially re-fetchable, don't bother backing up |
The trade journal is the one genuinely irreplaceable asset — treat its backup with the seriousness of financial records, because for tax purposes (chapter 97) it effectively is one.
Simple, effective backup pattern
#!/bin/bash
# backup.sh — run daily via cron/systemd timer, after market close
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d)
tar -czf "backups/algo-bot-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" \
data/journal.db data/market.db .env config.py
# Upload offsite — never rely solely on the same VPS disk that could fail
aws s3 cp "backups/algo-bot-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" s3://your-backup-bucket/ 2>/dev/null || \
rclone copy "backups/algo-bot-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" remote:algo-bot-backups/# systemd timer, daily after market close
[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* 16:00:00 Asia/KolkataRecovery drill — test this before you need it, not during a crisis
def recovery_checklist():
"""Run manually after restoring from backup, before resuming trading."""
steps = [
"1. Verify journal.db integrity: sqlite3 data/journal.db 'PRAGMA integrity_check;'",
"2. Re-authenticate with broker (chapter 10)",
"3. Reconcile positions against broker (chapter 66) — trust broker, not restored local state",
"4. Reconcile pending orders against broker order book",
"5. Verify kill switch and heartbeat are functioning before resuming live trading",
]
for step in steps:
print(step)An untested backup is not a backup — actually restore from one of your backup files periodically (e.g. monthly, to a separate throwaway directory) and confirm the recovery steps work, rather than discovering a corrupted or incomplete backup during an actual emergency.
Encrypt backups containing credentials or PII
If your backup includes .env or anything with account details, encrypt the archive before uploading offsite:
gpg --symmetric --cipher-algo AES256 "backups/algo-bot-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"