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Getting started

This path takes you from registration to the first automated trade. Plan for about 10 minutes of setup plus additional time for market data warm-up.

Goal

Sign up → connect a Steam account → add items → create a strategy and apply it to the account → Start trading.

Step 1. Register and sign in​

Create an account from the login page with your email and password. We send a confirmation link to that email: open it and enter the same password you chose at signup — only then is the account created and you are signed in. A wrong password does not use up the link; after several wrong attempts confirmation is paused for about 15 minutes. If you signed up more than once, only the latest link works, with the password from that latest signup. No manual access grant is required. After signing in you land in the user dashboard, where your Steam accounts, market items, and settings live. You only see your own resources.

Step 2. Connect a Steam account​

Click Add Account on the dashboard and complete the four-step wizard: Connect (display name, Steam login, Steam password, maFile for mobile confirmations) → Proxy → Game → Review. You do not need to enter SteamID manually; it is detected after the first login. See Connecting a Steam account for details and safety notes.

After creation, the system starts the first connection and synchronization automatically: Steam session, wallet, and inventory. Wait until the account becomes Ready. There are no separate “connect Steam” or “sync inventory” buttons to press.

Step 3. Add items​

Items come from the shared catalog, which is filled automatically. You can add them in two ways:

  • Add items — pick catalog items by filters such as price, liquidity, and game.
  • Import inventory — the button on the Items tab adds items that are already present in your Steam inventory. See Inventory and holds.

Items can be organized into groups; a strategy can give each group its own settings.

note

Imported or newly added items start with trading disabled: buy/sell stay off until you turn them on. Do it in the strategy (next step): applying a strategy sets the buy/sell flags of its items.

Step 4. Create a strategy and apply it​

Trading settings — prices, algorithms, filters, trends, maintenance — live in shared strategies, and the runner starts only on an account that has one.

  1. Open Strategies in the sidebar and click New strategy. Start from Copy an account (this account's current settings, groups and items of the game), from the Platform template (conservative defaults, no items) or from Copy a strategy.
  2. On the strategy's Settings tab, review at least the Algorithm for buying and selling (the platform template uses AVG for both), the Target margin and the Buy order quantity (a percentage of monthly sales or a fixed number of units).
  3. On its Items tab, add the items you want to trade (if the strategy has none yet) and turn on Buy / Sell for them.
  4. On its Accounts tab, click Assign next to the account, review the preview and click Apply.

Then open the account's System tab → Account settings and set Max total exposure ($) as a hard cap for open buy orders. That card holds the few settings a strategy never sets: the game the runner trades, exposure, trading speed, live checks and the CS2 guards.

All parameters are described in Trading settings.

Step 5. Let market data warm up​

Prices are calculated from accumulated price snapshots collected roughly every 6–8 hours. A fresh account has little history, so allow the system to collect data for several days before expecting stable prices. Trading can start earlier, but price quality improves with history.

Step 6. Start trading​

Click Start trading for each account separately. It is available only once a strategy is applied: without one the button is disabled with the hint "Assign a shared strategy to this account to start the runner", and the System tab shows Assign a strategy instead. The runner then works on its own:

  • about every 5 minutes — buy/sell analysis and confirmations;
  • about every 10 minutes — session, wallet, and market-state checks;
  • about every hour — maintenance such as canceling stale orders and removing old listings, when configured (only while trading is started).
Before live actions

Before enabling broad live actions, start with a narrow scope and review audit logs. SteamMarketRunner can automate actions you configure, but you remain responsible for connected accounts, Steam wallet exposure, strategy settings, and any account action or market loss.

Watch progress on the dashboard and in the event log on the System tab. You can stop at any time with Stop trading. To list all suitable inventory immediately instead of waiting for the normal cycle, use List all on the Items tab.

Account lifecycle​

See Connecting a Steam account for status details.

Recommendation for the first run​

Start small: one account, 2–3 cheap items, and a low max total exposure. Verify that a real buy order is placed and at least one listing sells before scaling up.

Next​