Alpaca

United States. A key ID and a secret from Alpaca's dashboard; a paper account works the same way with its own pair.

Where the keys come from

In Alpaca's dashboard, under API keys, generate a key. Alpaca shows a key ID and a secret once; copy both. A paper-trading account has its own dashboard and its own pair, and the desk needs to know which kind it is, so switch Paper account on for a paper pair.

On Settings

Pick Alpaca · United States under Your broker, paste the key ID and the secret, set Paper if it applies, and click Save and connect. The desk asks Alpaca for the account and the positions at once and says how many holdings it found. A wrong pair, or Paper set the wrong way, comes back as "Alpaca did not accept these keys" with the reason.

What Desk · Home shows

Every position with quantity, average cost, the live mark, value, profit since cost and the day's move; cash and buying power. Alpaca hands out a current price for each position, and where it does not the desk marks the line from Yahoo. The status dot follows US hours.

Live prices

The desk asks Alpaca for live prices on Watch · Home, Watch · US and the ticker page, with the same keys as the account, and Watch · US takes them ahead of the free feed. The free Basic plan gives real-time prices from the IEX exchange only; the paid Algo Trader Plus plan, $99 a month, covers all US exchanges. If Alpaca refuses prices on the account, the desk uses the free feed (Yahoo) for the rest of the session.

What it does not show

No futures, no options tape, no margin bar: Alpaca's read for individuals does not serve them, so those panels stay out of the way. The options tape on US names is on the Flow screen for every reader, from CBOE.

Read-only

The desk reads the account and the positions and nothing else. Alpaca keys can trade, so treat the pair like a password: it sits in the settings file on your computer and the desk never shows it back.