Getting started with AutoScanTrade - first start, keys and paper mode
Before the desk opens for the first time, the risks and disclaimers window appears. Read it, tick the box confirming your stops are software stops, and agree. You can read it again at any time, with the RISKS button in the header.
In this video
The 30-second version
The same topic in thirty seconds, made for a phone screen.
Both videos use the desk in paper mode with made-up symbols and prices.
Read the transcript
Your first start
Before the desk opens for the first time, the risks and disclaimers window appears. Read it, tick the box confirming your stops are software stops, and agree. You can read it again at any time, with the RISKS button in the header. The same text is also saved in a file beside the program.
What you need
You need a Windows PC, and an Alpaca market-data key on your own data plan. Enter it under DATA, choose the SIP or IEX feed, and press TEST DATA. For live orders, add your broker's keys under EXECUTION, and press TEST BROKER. In this build, orders can go to TradeZero or Alpaca. SAVE writes them to a settings file on your own PC. Testing a key never saves it, and you do not need a broker account to try the desk in paper.
It opens in paper
The desk always opens in paper mode, with SYSTEM: OFF, and every automatic engine disarmed. Nothing trades by itself when the program starts. Paper fills come from the live prices, paid from a virtual wallet that starts at one thousand dollars.
A first session
Check the header says feed live. Set your scanner filters for the session. Click a row, set a size, and practise with BUY, SELL and the hotkeys. Then open the ladder and the chart, to see where your stop and target sit.
Fit it to your screens
A minus and A plus change the text size everywhere. The WINDOWS row opens each list in its own window, for more than one monitor, and LAYOUT saves the arrangement you like. The desk was designed for a wide screen, or more than one monitor.