Connect Alpaca to Tradetron

Before you start

• An Alpaca account that is funded, or a paper account where Alpaca offers one.
• Options legs need the options trading level Alpaca has approved on your account (Alpaca grades it 1 to 3).
• One broker account per Tradetron account: you cannot add the same broker twice.

Connect Alpaca

1. Sign in to Tradetron, open My Account → Broker & Exchanges, click Add Broker and choose Alpaca.
2. There are no credential fields for Alpaca. Click Save (or Skip for now). Tradetron opens the secure connection page, run by SnapTrade, the connection provider Tradetron uses for US brokers.
3. On that page, pick Alpaca and sign in with your Alpaca username, password and two-factor code. Tradetron never sees them: Alpaca issues a token to the connection.
4. Approve the permissions (read the account, place orders). You come back to Tradetron and the broker shows as connected.
5. If Alpaca offers more than one account under your login, pick the one strategies should trade (verify the account picker with a live account).

Paper trading

For paper trading, add "Alpaca PaperTrading" instead: it uses the API key and secret from your Alpaca paper dashboard (verify the field names on the Broker & Exchanges page).

After connecting

1. Deploy a strategy in Live Offline first: it reads live prices and places no order.
2. Check the broker log on the deployment after the first signal: it shows what Tradetron sent and what Alpaca answered.
3. Go live when the Live Offline run behaves as you expect. You can exit any deployment with one tap; the connection can be removed from Broker & Exchanges at any time, and revoked at Alpaca too.

Good to know

• Paper and live are separate Alpaca accounts: connect the one you mean.
• Alpaca approves options trading by level; a strategy whose legs exceed your level is rejected by Alpaca, not by Tradetron.
• Real-time market data on Alpaca is a paid add-on on their side; Tradetron reads prices through the connection.
• Run the strategy in Live Offline first; it sees live prices and places no order.
• US sessions are 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM ET; set the strategy's times in your trading hours.

Order types

Tradetron's Market, Limit, Stop-loss and Stop-loss-market orders map to the broker's market, limit, stop-limit and stop orders. Quantities are whole shares or whole contracts (one contract is 100 shares).

Still stuck? Write to [email protected] with the broker name and the time of the attempt; include a screenshot of the Broker & Exchanges row.