Trading Account

Alpaca Brokerage Account (Live Trading)

After creating an Alpaca Paper Only Account, you can enable live trading by becoming an Alpaca Brokerage Account holder. This requires you to go through an account on-boarding process with Alpaca Securities LLC, a FINRA member and SEC registered broker-dealer. We now support brokerage accounts for individuals and business entities from around the world.

With a brokerage account, you will be able to fully utilize Alpaca for your automated trading and investing needs. Using the Alpaca API, you’ll be able to buy and sell stocks in your brokerage account, and you’ll receive real-time consolidated market data. In addition, you will continue to be able to test your strategies and simulate your trades in our paper trading environment. And with the Alpaca web dashboard, it’s easy to monitor both your paper trading and your real money brokerage account. All accounts are opened as margin accounts. Accounts with $2,000 or more equity will have access to margin trading and short selling.

Individuals

Alpaca Securities LLC supports individual taxable brokerage accounts. At this time, we do not support retirement accounts.

Businesses/Incorporated Entities

You can open a business trading account to use Alpaca for trading purposes, but not for building apps/services.

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Alpaca currently accepts entities that are Corporations, LLCs and Partnerships in the U.S., and around the world. There is a $50,000 minimum deposit required for opening a business account at Alpaca.

Markets Supported

Currently, Alpaca only supports trading of listed U.S. stocks and select cryptocurrencies.

The Account Object

The account API serves important information related to an account, including account status, funds available for trade, funds available for withdrawal, and various flags relevant to an account’s ability to trade.

An account maybe be blocked for just for trades (trading_blocked flag) or for both trades and transfers (account_blocked flag) if Alpaca identifies the account to be engaging in any suspicious activity. Also, in accordance with FINRA’s pattern day trading rule, an account may be flagged for pattern day trading (pattern_day_trader flag), which would inhibit an account from placing any further day-trades.

Please note that cryptocurrencies are not eligible assets to be used as collateral for margin accounts and will require the asset be traded using cash only.

Sample Object

{
  "account_blocked": false,
  "account_number": "010203ABCD",
  "buying_power": "262113.632",
  "cash": "-23140.2",
  "created_at": "2019-06-12T22:47:07.99658Z",
  "currency": "USD",
  "crypto_status": "ACTIVE",
  "non_marginable_buying_power": "7386.56",
  "accrued_fees": "0",
  "pending_transfer_in": "0",
  "pending_transfer_out": "0",
  "daytrade_count": "0",
  "daytrading_buying_power": "262113.632",
  "equity": "103820.56",
  "id": "e6fe16f3-64a4-4921-8928-cadf02f92f98",
  "initial_margin": "63480.38",
  "last_equity": "103529.24",
  "last_maintenance_margin": "38000.832",
  "long_market_value": "126960.76",
  "maintenance_margin": "38088.228",
  "multiplier": "4",
  "pattern_day_trader": false,
  "portfolio_value": "103820.56",
  "regt_buying_power": "80680.36",
  "short_market_value": "0",
  "shorting_enabled": true,
  "sma": "0",
  "status": "ACTIVE",
  "trade_suspended_by_user": false,
  "trading_blocked": false,
  "transfers_blocked": false
}

Account Properties

AttributeTypeDescription
idstringAccount ID.
account_numberstringAccount number.
statusstring<account_status>See detailed account statuses below
crypto_statusstring<account_status>The current status of the crypto enablement. See detailed crypto statuses below.
currencystring"USD"
cashstringCash balance
portfolio_valuestring[Deprecated] Total value of cash + holding positions (Equivalent to the equity field)
non_marginable_buying_powerstringCurrent available non-margin dollar buying power
accrued_feesstringThe fees collected.
pending_transfer_instringCash pending transfer in.
pending_transfer_outstringCash pending transfer out
pattern_day_traderbooleanWhether or not the account has been flagged as a pattern day trader
trade_suspended_by_userbooleanUser setting. If true, the account is not allowed to place orders.
trading_blockedbooleanIf true, the account is not allowed to place orders.
transfers_blockedbooleanIf true, the account is not allowed to request money transfers.
account_blockedbooleanIf true, the account activity by user is prohibited.
created_atstringTimestamp this account was created at
shorting_enabledbooleanFlag to denote whether or not the account is permitted to short
long_market_valuestringReal-time MtM value of all long positions held in the account
short_market_valuestringReal-time MtM value of all short positions held in the account
equitystringcash + long_market_value + short_market_value
last_equitystringEquity as of previous trading day at 16:00:00 ET
multiplierstringBuying power (BP) multiplier that represents account margin classification

Valid values:
- 1 (standard limited margin account with 1x BP),
- 2 (reg T margin account with 2x intraday and overnight BP; this is the default for all non-PDT accounts with $2,000 or more equity),
- 4 (PDT account with 4x intraday BP and 2x reg T overnight BP)
buying_powerstringCurrent available $ buying power; If multiplier = 4, this is your daytrade buying power which is calculated as (lastequity - (last) maintenance_margin) 4; If multiplier = 2, buyingpower = max(equity – initial_margin,0) 2; If multiplier = 1, buying_power = cash
initial_marginstringReg T initial margin requirement (continuously updated value)
maintenance_marginstringMaintenance margin requirement (continuously updated value)
smastringValue of special memorandum account (will be used at a later date to provide additional buying_power)
daytrade_countintThe current number of daytrades that have been made in the last 5 trading days (inclusive of today)
last_maintenance_marginstringYour maintenance margin requirement on the previous trading day
daytrading_buying_powerstringYour buying power for day trades (continuously updated value)
regt_buying_powerstringYour buying power under Regulation T (your excess equity - equity minus margin value - times your margin multiplier)

Account Status ENUMS

The following are the possible account status values. Most likely, the account status is ACTIVE unless there is an issue. The account status may get to ACCOUNT_UPDATED when personal information is being updated from the dashboard, in which case you may not be allowed trading for a short period of time until the change is approved.

statusdescription
ONBOARDINGThe account is onboarding.
SUBMISSION_FAILEDThe account application submission failed for some reason.
SUBMITTEDThe account application has been submitted for review.
ACCOUNT_UPDATEDThe account information is being updated.
APPROVAL_PENDINGThe final account approval is pending.
ACTIVEThe account is active for trading.
REJECTEDThe account application has been rejected.