You should really read the wiki. No, really, people have worked to make it available, it's rude to just ignore it.
BOT_DELAY 1 Values: numerical – represents a multiplier value used in the formula to delay the bot. Bot will delay processing a new pair for a random amount of milliseconds. Useful for when Poloniex complains about sending to many requests. Formula: random value between 200 an 400 ms * BOT_DELAY
interval_ticker_update 25000 Values: numerical – represents time in milliseconds. This parameter defines after how many milliseconds new prices are being pulled from the exchange for each pair (default value of 25000 = 25 seconds). Set this to a lower value if you want Gunbot to retrieve prices faster, for example while you’re interested in following shorter trends.This value is related to "period_storage_ticker”, since it defines how often new prices are being added to the array
Thanks for the answer.
I did read the wiki, a dozen times at least and it seems to me that the difference between BOT_DELAY and interval_ticker_update is explained in a way that is obvious only to someone who already understands the mechanics behind the communication between the bot and the exchange.
Don't get me wrong, I am a person who likes learning new stuff and I try to solve the problems I encounter by myself, whenever I can. Now, for someone looking for increasing the time interval in which the bot communicates with the exchange, increasing interval_ticker_update seems like a completely reasonable solution.
After starting the bot, reading the output and noticing that the delay between retrieving the price from the exchange is 7 seconds, and not 25 seconds as is set in interval_ticker_update, I tried to fiddle with the value of interval_ticker_update, which did not yield any results.
So my problem here was that I was not able to understand the difference between Gunbot "processing a new pair" and Gunbot "pulling the prices from the exchange for each pair" solely from the explanations given in the Gunbot wiki.
I have to admit I still do not understand the difference.
E.g. I have two pairs running on Gunbot, and Gunbot pulls the price from the exchange for pair A, processes the pair and concludes there are no opportunities to trade. Seven seconds have passed and Gunbot moves on to pair B, pulls the price from the exchange, processes it and concludes there are no opportunities to trade. The cycle begins anew, Gunbot pulls the price from the exchange for pair A etc. (I am not sure if this is how the bot functions, just my assumption)
In total, cca 14 seconds have passed for the processing of two pairs, and the pair A is processed again after 21 seconds. How would the interval_ticker_update with a value of 25 seconds fit in this example? (I am aware the value can be changed, I just wish to understand how the bot works so I can control it more efficiently)
I bought Gunbot and I think it's an excellent tool if you understand how to use it, but I also have the feeling that the wiki is written by the programmers for the programmers (although the documentation is definitely better than for the previous versions). That is not a big problem as I'm sure there are people in the community who would take their time to help and write the wiki and make it more accessible to non-programmers, myself included. So if any admins/moderators are reading this, I'll gladly help in any way I can in making this project and its wiki be even better than it is now.