Get Started with Alpaca #

Use cases for builders #

Alpaca is an API-first developer platform to connect the world to financial services. Below you will find some use cases we currently support.

Crypto API

Algorithmically trade crypto with bots.
Start building your crypto algo bot –>

Trading API

Automate your stock trading strategies.
Start building your crypto algo bot –>

Broker API

Build your next app or brokerage services as a business.

See Broker API guides –>

Market Data API

Build data-driven apps with market data for stocks and crypto.

See Market Data API reference –>

About Alpaca #

History & Founders #

Alpaca is a technology company headquartered in Silicon Valley that builds stock and crypto trading through a simple and modern API (Brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities LLC, a member of FINRA/SIPC). We are a team of diverse background individuals with deep financial and technology expertise, backed by some of the top investors in the industry globally. We are proud to be supported by the love of enthusiastic community members on various platforms.

Alpaca’s globally distributed team consists of developers, traders, and brokerage business specialists, who collectively have decades of financial services and technology industry experience at organizations such as FINRA, Apple, Wealthfront, Robinhood, EMC, Cloudera, JP Morgan, and Lehman Brothers. Alpaca is co-founded and led by Yoshi Yokokawa (CEO) and Hitoshi Harada (CTO/CPO). Our investors include a group of well-capitalized investors including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Elderidge, and Y Combinator as well as highly experienced industry angel investors such as Joshua S. Levine (former CTO/COO of ETRADE), Nate Rodland (former COO of Robinhood & GP of Elefund), Patrick O’Shaughnessy (“Invest Like the Best” podcast host & Partner of Positive Sum), Jacqueline Reses (former Executive Chairman of Square Financial Services), Asiff Hirjii (former President/COO of Coinbase), Aaron Levie (CEO of Box), and founders of leading Fintech companies including Plaid and Wealthsimple.

Vision #

Our vision is to allow the 7 billion people on the planet to access financial markets. We are committed to providing a secure, reliable and compliant platform for anyone who wants to build their own trading strategies, asset management automation, trading and robo-advisor apps, new brokerage services, investment advisory services and investment products. It is important for us to have a variety of developers who build exciting things using our API.

What services does Alpaca provide? #

Alpaca provides trading and clearing services for US equities under its subsidiary Alpaca Securities LLC. We currently support stocks, ETFs listed in the US public exchanges (NMS stocks) and cryptocurrencies. Support for other asset classes, such as options, futures, FX, private equities, and international equities are on our roadmap.

We work with retail traders and institutional investors directly, and also work with app developers, broker-dealers globally, investment advisors and fintech companies that offer US stock investing features to their end customers, both in and out of the United States.

To serve our customers, we provide Web API, Web dashboards, market data, paper trading simulation, API sandbox environment, and community platforms.

API Platform #

Why API? #

Alpaca’s features to access financial markets are provided primarily via API. We believe API is the means to interact with services such as ours and innovate your business. Our API is designed to fit your needs and we continue to build what you need.

REST, SSE and Websockets #

Our API is primarily built in the REST style. It is a simple and powerful way to integrate with our services.

In addition to the REST API which replies via synchronous communication, our API includes an asynchronous event API which is based on WebSocket and SSE, or Server-Sent Events. As many types of events occur in the financial markets (orders fill based on the market movement, cash settles after some time, etc), this event-based API helps you get updates instantly and provide the best user experiences to your customers.

Architecture #

Alpaca’s platform consists of APIs, Web dashboards, trade simulator, sandbox environment, authentication services, order management system, trading routing, back office accounting and clearing system, and all of these components are built in-house from the ground up with modern architecture.

The Alpaca platform is currently hosted on the Google Cloud Platform in the us-east4 region. The site is connected with dedicated fiber lines to a data center in Secaucus, NJ, to cross-connect with various market venues.

Under the hood, Alpaca works with various third parties. We work with Velox Clearing and Vision Financial for equities trade clearing and settlement on DTCC. Cash transfers and custody are primarily provided by BMO Harris. Citadel Securities, Virtu America, Jane Street, UBS, and other execution providers provide execution services for our customer orders. We integrate with ICE Data Services for various kinds of market data.

Audience #

This document is written primarily about our API-first products built for developers and product owners who build trading apps, investment products, and brokerage services. Alpaca products cater both individuals and businesses.

Disclosures

Brokerage services are provided by Alpaca Securities, member FINRA/SIPC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc.

Technology and services are offered by AlpacaDB, Inc.

Brokerage services are provided to customers who can write automated investment code and self-direct their own investments. Alpaca brokerage services are only provided to customers who agree to electronically sign agreements and agree to receive messages, confirmations, and statements electronically. Is Alpaca right for me?

This is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or cryptocurrencies, or open a brokerage account or cryptocurrency account in any jurisdiction where Alpaca Securities or Alpaca Crypto respectively, are not registered or licensed, as applicable.

The Paper Trading API is offered by AlpacaDB, Inc. and does not require real money or permit a user to transact in real securities in the market. Providing use of the Paper Trading API is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell securities, securities derivative or futures products of any kind, or any type of trading or investment advice, recommendation or strategy, given or in any manner endorsed by AlpacaDB, Inc. or any AlpacaDB, Inc. affiliate and the information made available through the Paper Trading API is not an offer or solicitation of any kind in any jurisdiction where AlpacaDB, Inc. or any AlpacaDB, Inc. affiliate (collectively, "Alpaca") is not authorized to do business.

You should know that the use or granting of any third party access to your account information or place transactions in your account at your direction is solely at your risk. Alpaca does not warrant against loss of use or any direct, indirect or consequential damages or losses to you caused by your assent, expressed or implied, to a third party accessing your account or information, including access provided through any other third party apps, systems, or sites.

Market prices, data and other information available through Alpaca are not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and are subject to change without notice. System response and account access times may vary due to a variety of factors, including trading volumes, market conditions, system performance, and other factors. A more complete description of the impact these factors may have can be found in our risks of automated trading systems section.

All investments involve risk and the past performance of a security, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. Keep in mind that while diversification may help spread risk it does not assure a profit, or protect against loss, in a down market. There is always the potential of losing money when you invest in securities, or other financial products. Investors should consider their investment objectives and risks carefully before investing.

There are risks unique to automated trading algorithms that you should know about and plan for. You should setup a method or system of continuous monitoring or alerting to let you know if there is a mechanical failure, such as connectivity issues, power loss, a computer crash, or system quirk. You should also monitor for instances where your automated trading system experiences anomalies that could result in errant, missing, or duplicated orders. A more complete description of these and other risks can be found in our FAQ section.

Conditional orders may have increased risk as a result of their reliance on trigger processing, market data, and other internal and external systems. Such orders are not sent to the market until specified conditions are met. During that time, issues such as system outages with downstream technologies or third parties may occur. Conditional orders triggering near the market close may fail to execute that day. Furthermore, our executing partner may impose controls on conditional orders to limit erroneous trades triggering downstream orders. Alpaca Securities may not always be made aware of such changes to external controls immediately, which may lead to some conditional orders not being executed. As such, it is important to monitor conditional orders for reasonability. Conditional orders are “Not Held” orders whose execution instructions are on a best efforts basis upon being triggered. Furthermore, conditional orders may be subject to the increased risks of stop orders and market orders outlined above. Given the increased potential risk of using conditional orders, the client agrees that Alpaca Securities cannot be held responsible for losses, damages, or missed opportunity costs associated with market data problems, systems issues, and user error, among other factors. By using conditional orders the client understands and accepts the risks outlined above. Alpaca Securities encourages leveraging the use of Paper accounts to become more comfortable with the intricacies associated with these orders.

ETFs can entail risks similar to direct stock ownership, including market, sector, or industry risks. Some ETFs may involve international risk, currency risk, commodity risk, and interest rate risk. Trading prices may not reflect the net asset value of the underlying securities.

All accounts are opened as limited purpose margin accounts. You should know that margin trading involves interest charges and risks, including the potential to lose more than deposited or the need to deposit additional collateral in a falling market. Before using margin, customers must determine whether this type of trading strategy is right for them given their specific investment objectives, experience, risk tolerance, and financial situation. For more information please see Alpaca's Margin Disclosure Statement and Margin Agreement. These disclosures contain information on Alpaca Securities's lending policies, interest charges, and the risks associated with margin accounts.

Commission-Free trading means that there are no commission charges for Alpaca Securities self-directed individual brokerage accounts that trade U.S. listed securities through an API. Relevant regulatory fees may apply.

Commission free trading is available for Alpaca's retail customers. Alpaca reserves the right to charge additional fees if it is determined that orders flow is non-retail in nature.

Cryptocurrency is highly speculative in nature, involves a high degree of risks, such as volatile market price swings, market manipulation, flash crashes, and cybersecurity risks. Cryptocurrency is not regulated or is lightly regulated in most countries. Cryptocurrency trading can lead to large, immediate and permanent loss of financial value. You should have appropriate knowledge and experience before engaging in cryptocurrency trading. For additional information please click here.

Cryptocurrency services are made available by Alpaca Crypto, a FinCEN registered money services business (NMLS # 2160858), and a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc. Alpaca Crypto is not a member of SIPC or FINRA. Cryptocurrencies are not stocks and your cryptocurrency investments are not protected by either FDIC or SIPC. Please see the Disclosure Library for more information.