How to Set Up Alpaca Paper Trading

This guide walks you through setting up a Alpaca Paper account and connecting it to Tradoflow for testing your strategies.

Step 1: Sign Up for an Alpaca Paper Account

• Visit the Alpaca website.
• If you don't already have an account, click on the "Create an account" button and follow the prompts to create an account.

Step 2: Verify that you are logged into the Paper account

• Once logged in, navigate to the Dashboard and verify that you see the "Paper" label in the top left corner.

Step 3: Find API Keys for Your Paper Account

• Scroll down until you find the API Keys section.
• Click the Regenerate button to generate a new set of keys.
• Copy the Key and Secret provided by Alpaca. You will need these keys later to connect to Tradoflow.

Step 4: Connect to Tradoflow in Paper Mode

• Open Tradoflow and navigate to the Connections section.
• Click on Create Connection and select Alpaca from the list of available exchanges.
• Choose Paper mode, which simulates trading with demo funds instead of real money.
• Paste the Key from Alpaca into the API Key field in Tradoflow.
• Paste the Secret into the API Secret field.
• Save your connection settings.

Additional Notes

• Why Paper Mode? - Paper mode allows you to test your strategies in a risk-free environment using simulated trading. It's ideal for refining your strategies before deploying them with real funds.
• Troubleshooting - If you encounter issues connecting your Alpaca demo account to Tradoflow, double-check your API key settings and ensure that you are using the correct keys for the demo environment.

By following these steps, you'll be able to set up and test your Alpaca integration in Tradoflow using paper mode, allowing you to validate your strategies without financial risk.