Getting Started #

This is a quick guide on how to start submitting orders via APIs. Starting from beginning to end, this section outlines how to install Alpaca’s software development kit (SDK), create a free alpaca account, locate your API keys, and how to submit orders applicable for both stocks and crypto.

Installing Alpaca’s Client SDK #

In this guide, we’ll be making use of the SDKs provided by Alpaca. Alpaca maintains SDKs in four languages: Python, JavaScript, C#, and Go. Follow the steps in the installation guide below to install the SDK of your choice before proceeding to the next section.

Alpaca requires Python >= 3.7. To install the Python client SDK, Alpaca-py, use pip:

pip install alpaca-py

Install the JavaScript client SDK using npm:

npm install --save @alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api

Please note the following runtime dependencies:

  • Node.js v14.x or newer
  • npm version 6 and above

Navigate to inside of your .NET application folder and run:

dotnet add package Alpaca.Markets

Install the Go SDK by running the command:

go get -u github.com/alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api-go/v2/alpaca

Creating an Alpaca Account and Finding Your API Keys #

To request data from Alpaca you’ll need to include your API keys in your requests. This section outlines how one can create an account and generate the keys necessary to submit orders.

  1. Navigate to Alpaca’s Website

  2. Sign up for a free account using the sign up button

    Alpaca homepage

  3. After confirming your account and logging in, navigate to your paper trading dashboard

    Paper trading link

  4. On the dashboard, click the button to view your API keys

    view keys

  5. After expanding your API keys section, generate new keys

    generate keys

  6. After your keys have been generated, securely save them for future use

    copy keys

How to Place Orders Through the SDK #

In this section, we’ll run through an example of placing a market buy for Bitcoin and view our open positions through the SDK. To see more involved examples of placing orders, visit Understand Orders or Order Type ABCs with Alpaca Trade API.

Setup and Getting Account Information

The first step in using the SDK to place trades is to import the TradingClient class and instantiate it. In addition to the API keys obtained from the previous section, we’ll pass in paper=True to enable paper trading.

# Importing the API and instantiating the REST client according to our keys
from alpaca.trading.client import TradingClient

API_KEY = "<Your API Key>"
SECRET_KEY = "<Your Secret Key>"

trading_client = TradingClient(API_KEY, SECRET_KEY, paper=True)

The trading client is now ready to go. To start off, let’s make sure that we have sufficient buying power to place orders. Buying power can be found inside one’s account information. Use the get_account method on the trading client and print the result to show your account information.

# Getting account information and printing it
account = trading_client.get_account()
for property_name, value in account:
  print(f"\"{property_name}\": {value}")

"id": ee302827-4ced-4321-b5fb-71080392d828
"account_number": PA3717PJAYWN
"status": ACTIVE
"crypto_status": ACTIVE
"currency": USD
"buying_power": 1768290.404988
"regt_buying_power": 1768290.404988
"daytrading_buying_power": 0
"non_marginable_buying_power": 882145.2
"cash": 884145.202494
"accrued_fees": 0
"pending_transfer_out": None
"pending_transfer_in": 0
"portfolio_value": 910178.2209985875
"pattern_day_trader": False
"trading_blocked": False
"transfers_blocked": False
"account_blocked": False
"created_at": 2022-04-19 17:46:03.685850+00:00
"trade_suspended_by_user": False
"multiplier": 2
"shorting_enabled": True
"equity": 910178.2209985875
"last_equity": 907426.98
"long_market_value": 26033.0185045875
"short_market_value": 0
"initial_margin": 0
"maintenance_margin": 0
"last_maintenance_margin": 0
"sma": 868738.98
"daytrade_count": 0

The Trading Account docs outline the property descriptions of the TradeAccount entity. Now that we’re certain our buying power is sufficient to place trades, let’s send a market buy order.

Placing a Buy Order

Before placing an order, you need to import the corresponding request class. For a market order, the class is MarketOrderRequest. This class has four required parameters: symbol, quantity/notional, side, and time in force. Order side and time in force enums can be imported and used to instantiate your order request class easier.

from alpaca.trading.requests import MarketOrderRequest
from alpaca.trading.enums import OrderSide, TimeInForce

# Setting parameters for our buy order
market_order_data = MarketOrderRequest(
                      symbol="BTC/USD",
                      qty=1,
                      side=OrderSide.BUY,
                      time_in_force=TimeInForce.GTC
                  )

Use the trading client’s method, submit_order, to submit your order. This function call returns an Order object that shows all the details of your order. Pass the object from the previous step into submit_order and run your code to submit the order. Print the returning Order object to see the details of the order.

# Submitting the order and then printing the returned object
market_order = trading_client.submit_order(market_order_data)
for property_name, value in market_order:
  print(f"\"{property_name}\": {value}")

"id": 403d15c4-9fd5-4fdf-a4be-1459717248ea
"client_order_id": 671cc18b-ea6b-46d9-9f0b-22b5af67a794
"created_at": 2022-09-09 11:51:04.778044+00:00
"updated_at": 2022-09-09 11:51:04.778092+00:00
"submitted_at": 2022-09-09 11:51:04.776737+00:00
"filled_at": None
"expired_at": None
"canceled_at": None
"failed_at": None
"replaced_at": None
"replaced_by": None
"replaces": None
"asset_id": 276e2673-764b-4ab6-a611-caf665ca6340
"symbol": BTC/USD
"asset_class": crypto
"notional": None
"qty": 1
"filled_qty": 0
"filled_avg_price": None
"order_class": simple
"order_type": market
"type": market
"side": buy
"time_in_force": gtc
"limit_price": None
"stop_price": None
"status": pending_new
"extended_hours": False
"legs": None
"trail_percent": None
"trail_price": None
"hwm": None

The order has now been submitted and your trading dashboard will update accordingly. The parameters available for submit_order and the properties of its Order response can be found in the Trading API docs.

Viewing open positions

Viewing one’s open positions is key in understanding your current holdings. This can be done through the trading client quickly. The client implements a method, get_all_positions that returns a List[Position].

To view your open positions, call get_all_positions and print each element in the resulting list.

# Get all open positions and print each of them
positions = trading_client.get_all_positions()
for position in positions:
    for property_name, value in position:
        print(f"\"{property_name}\": {value}")

"asset_id": 64bbff51-59d6-4b3c-9351-13ad85e3c752
"symbol": BTCUSD
"exchange": FTXU
"asset_class": crypto
"avg_entry_price": 20983
"qty": 0.9975
"side": long
"market_value": 20928.5475
"cost_basis": 20930.5425
"unrealized_pl": -1.995
"unrealized_plpc": -0.0000953152552066
"unrealized_intraday_pl": -1.995
"unrealized_intraday_plpc": -0.0000953152552066
"current_price": 20981
"lastday_price": 19344
"change_today": 0.084625723738627

The output shows that we have a long position for 1 unit of Bitcoin. Visit the Positions docs to view the property descriptions of a Position entity.

You’re now equipped with the basics of placing trades with Alpaca’s SDK. Good luck coding and have fun with your new capabilities!

Setup and Getting Account Information

Now that the SDK is installed and you have your API keys, import the Alpaca module.

// Import the Alpaca module
const Alpaca = require("@alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api");

Instantiate the API with an object containing your account’s API credentials. This guide submits orders through paper trading instead of live trading, so in our object we’ll set paper to true.

// Instantiate the API with configuration options
const options = {
  keyId: "<Your API Key>",
  secretKey: "<Your Secret Key>",
  paper: true,
};
const alpaca = new Alpaca(options);

Now that an instance of the API is available, we can start using the methods that are implemented in the SDK. Firstly, check the details of your account to ensure that you have the buying power to send orders. The getAccount method returns a promise (Promise<Account>) containing your account’s information. Call this method and print the result to find the buying power of our account.

// Get account information and print it
alpaca.getAccount().then((account) => {
  console.log("Current Account:", account);
});

Current Account: {
  id: 'ee302827-4ced-4321-b5fb-71080392d828',
  account_number: 'PA3717PJAYWN',
  status: 'ACTIVE',
  crypto_status: 'ACTIVE',
  currency: 'USD',
  buying_power: '1727736.5973198506',
  regt_buying_power: '1727736.5973198506',
  daytrading_buying_power: '0',
  non_marginable_buying_power: '810684.72',
  cash: '810684.724',
  accrued_fees: '0',
  pending_transfer_in: '0',
  portfolio_value: '917051.8733198506',
  pattern_day_trader: false,
  trading_blocked: false,
  transfers_blocked: false,
  account_blocked: false,
  created_at: '2022-04-19T17:46:03.68585Z',
  trade_suspended_by_user: false,
  multiplier: '2',
  shorting_enabled: true,
  equity: '917051.8733198506',
  last_equity: '916328.80490268234',
  long_market_value: '106367.1493198506',
  short_market_value: '0',
  initial_margin: '53183.5746599253',
  maintenance_margin: '98556.65836595518',
  last_maintenance_margin: '3317.19',
  sma: '818449.81',
  daytrade_count: 1
}

The Trading Account docs outline the property descriptions of the Account object. Now that we’re certain our buying power is sufficient to place trades, let’s send a market buy order.

Placing a Buy Order

In the JavaScript SDK, orders can be sent with the createOrder method. The exact parameters allowed in this function are outlined on GitHub. This function returns a promise of an order object, Promise<Order>.

For our order, we’ll need to set symbol, qty, side, type, and time_in_force. Respectively, these variables determine what asset we order, how many units to exchange, whether the order is buy-side or sell-side, the type of order, and how long our order should be active for. Create an object with these parameters and call createOrder with this object to send your first order! In addition to sending the order, we’ll print the resulting order object associated with it.

// Defining our order parameters and sending the order
const buyParams = {
  symbol: "BTC/USD",
  qty: 1,
  side: "buy",
  type: "market",
  time_in_force: "gtc",
};

alpaca.createOrder(buyParams).then((order) => {
  console.log("Order details: ", order);
});

Order details:  {
  id: '8c3e8644-2b3b-41cb-a473-3c338328a14b',
  client_order_id: '78d6e6ad-0688-43c0-8985-e0f0c8abdffc',
  created_at: '2022-06-29T19:10:04.542145557Z',
  updated_at: '2022-06-29T19:10:04.542252617Z',
  submitted_at: '2022-06-29T19:10:04.540006118Z',
  filled_at: null,
  expired_at: null,
  canceled_at: null,
  failed_at: null,
  replaced_at: null,
  replaced_by: null,
  replaces: null,
  asset_id: '64bbff51-59d6-4b3c-9351-13ad85e3c752',
  symbol: 'BTC/USD',
  asset_class: 'crypto',
  notional: null,
  qty: '1',
  filled_qty: '0',
  filled_avg_price: null,
  order_class: '',
  order_type: 'market',
  type: 'market',
  side: 'buy',
  time_in_force: 'gtc',
  limit_price: null,
  stop_price: null,
  status: 'pending_new',
  extended_hours: false,
  legs: null,
  trail_percent: null,
  trail_price: null,
  hwm: null,
  commission: '60.183',
  subtag: null,
  source: null
}

The order has now been submitted and your trading dashboard will have updated accordingly. To understand the properties of this Order object better, visit the Trading API docs to read the property descriptions.

Viewing open positions

Viewing one’s open positions is key in understanding your current holdings. This can be done through the SDK very quickly. The client implements a method, getPositions that returns a Promise<Position[]>.

To view your open positions, call getPositions and print each element in the resulting promise.

// Request all open positions and print each of them
alpaca.getPositions().then((positions) => {
  positions.forEach((position) => console.log(position));
});

{
  asset_id: '64bbff51-59d6-4b3c-9351-13ad85e3c752',
  symbol: 'BTC/USD',
  exchange: 'FTXU',
  asset_class: 'crypto',
  asset_marginable: false,
  qty: '1',
  avg_entry_price: '20061',
  side: 'long',
  market_value: '20087',
  cost_basis: '20061',
  unrealized_pl: '26',
  unrealized_plpc: '0.0012960470564777',
  unrealized_intraday_pl: '26',
  unrealized_intraday_plpc: '0.0012960470564777',
  current_price: '20087',
  lastday_price: '20337',
  change_today: '-0.0122928652210257',
  qty_available: '1'
}

The output shows that we have a long position for 1 unit of Bitcoin. Visit the Positions docs to view the descriptions of a Position entity.

You’re now equipped with the basics of placing trades with Alpaca’s SDK. Good luck coding and have fun with your new capabilities!

Setup and Getting Account Information

Create a new .NET application to work with by running this command:

dotnet new console -o MyApp -f net6.0

Then, navigate to the new directory that you’ll be working inside:

cd MyApp

Open the Program.cs main file in your editor and set it up as follows:

using System;
using Alpaca.Markets;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace AlpacaExample
{
    internal sealed class Program
    {
        public static async Task Main()
        {

        }
    }
}

This setup adds the necessary namespaces used to code this example. Next, create constants for your API authentication information and use them to instantiate the Alpaca Trading Client. Instantiate the paper client using the special extension method of the IEnvironment interface, GetAlpacaTradingClient. If you’d like to use the live client, replace Paper with Live.

internal sealed class ExampleProgram
{
    private const String KEY_ID = "<Your API Key>";

    private const String SECRET_KEY = "<Your Secret Key>";

    public static async Task Main()
    {
        var client = Environments.Paper
            .GetAlpacaTradingClient(new SecretKey(KEY_ID, SECRET_KEY));
    }
}

With an instance of the client ready to send orders, let’s first make sure that our account has sufficient buying power to place our orders. Buying power can be found inside one’s account information. Use the method GetAccountAsync that is implemented by the client to return this information and print it.

public static async Task Main()
{
    var client = Environments.Paper
        .GetAlpacaTradingClient(new SecretKey(KEY_ID, SECRET_KEY));

    var account = await client.GetAccountAsync();
    Console.WriteLine(account.ToString());
}

{
   "id":"ee302827-4ced-4321-b5fb-71080392d828",
   "account_number":"PA3717PJAYWN",
   "status":"ACTIVE",
   "currency":"USD",
   "cash":662724.752,
   "pattern_day_trader":false,
   "trading_blocked":false,
   "transfers_blocked":false,
   "account_blocked":false,
   "trade_suspended_by_user":false,
   "shorting_enabled":true,
   "multiplier":2,
   "buying_power":1586187.102115,
   "daytrading_buying_power":0.0,
   "regt_buying_power":1586187.102115,
   "long_market_value":260737.598115,
   "short_market_value":0.0,
   "equity":923462.350115,
   "last_equity":928918.75442,
   "initial_margin":130368.7990575,
   "maintenance_margin":260737.598115,
   "last_maintenance_margin":0.0,
   "daytrade_count":1,
   "sma":747651.12,
   "created_at":"2022-04-19T17:46:03.6858500Z"
}

The Trading Account docs outline the property descriptions of the above Account object. Now that we’re certain our buying power is sufficient to place trades, let’s send a market buy order.

Placing a Buy Order

Before placing your order, it’s good practice to define the paramters for it. For a market buy order, the necessary parameters to set are the ticker’s symbol and the number of units you’d like to buy.

public static async Task Main()
{
    var client = Environments.Paper
        .GetAlpacaTradingClient(new SecretKey(KEY_ID, SECRET_KEY));

    var account = await client.GetAccountAsync();
    Console.WriteLine(account.ToString());

    // Set order parameters
    String symbol = "BTC/USD";
    Int64 quantity = 1;
}

Finally, we can send the order using the method PostOrderAsync. In order to post orders using this method, we must create a NewOrderRequest with our order’s parameters and pass that object into PostOrderAsync. Market buy order requests can be created with the OrderSide.Buy.Market function, and market sell order requests can be created with OrderSide.Sell.Market.

Create an order request, pass it into PostOrderAsync, and store the result. This variable will contain an Order object. Print the order and run your code to submit the order.

public static async Task Main()
{
    var client = Environments.Paper
        .GetAlpacaTradingClient(new SecretKey(KEY_ID, SECRET_KEY));

    var account = await client.GetAccountAsync();
    Console.WriteLine(account.ToString());

    // Set order parameters
    String symbol = "BTC/USD";
    Int64 quantity = 1;

    // Placing buy order
    var buyOrder = await client.PostOrderAsync(OrderSide.Buy.Market(symbol, quantity));
    Console.WriteLine(buyOrder);
}

{
   "id":"55ad4add-b4b5-4fd8-821f-8495f0ba3ef0",
   "client_order_id":"ea42b23a-24b0-48d6-980d-57c55634e20b",
   "created_at":"2022-06-29T17:20:02.1396817Z",
   "updated_at":"2022-06-29T17:20:02.1397192Z",
   "submitted_at":"2022-06-29T17:20:02.1383039Z",
   "filled_at":null,
   "expired_at ":null,
   "canceled_at":null,
   "failed_at":null,
   "replaced_at":null,
   "asset_id":"64bbff51-59d6-4b3c-9351-13ad85e3c752",
   "symbol":"BTC/USD",
   "asset_class":"crypto",
   "notional":null,
   "qty":1.0,
   "filled_qty":0.0,
   "type":"market",
   "order_class":"simple",
   "side":"buy",
   "time_in_force":"gtc",
   "limit_price":null,
   "stop_price":null,
   "trail_price":null,
   "trail_percent":null,
   "hwm":null,
   "filled_avg_price":null,
   "status":"pending_new",
   "replaced_by":null,
   "replaces":null,
   "legs":null
}

The order has now been submitted and your trading dashboard will have updated accordingly. To understand the properties of this Order object better, visit the Trading API docs to read the property descriptions.

Viewing open positions

Viewing one’s open positions is key in understanding your current holdings. This can be done through the SDK very quickly. The trading client implements a method, ListPositionsAsync that returns a list of Position objects.

To view your open positions, call ListPositionsAsync and print each element in the resulting list.

public static async Task Main()
{
    var client = Environments.Paper
        .GetAlpacaTradingClient(new SecretKey(KEY_ID, SECRET_KEY));

    // Get account information and print
    var account = await client.GetAccountAsync();
    Console.WriteLine(account.ToString());

    // Set order parameters
    String symbol = "BTC/USD";
    Int64 quantity = 1;

    // Placing buy order
    var buyOrder = await client.PostOrderAsync(OrderSide.Buy.Market(symbol, quantity));
    Console.WriteLine(buyOrder);

    // Get open positions and print each one
    var positions = await client.ListPositionsAsync();
    foreach(var position in positions)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(position);
    }
}

{
   "asset_id":"64bbff51-59d6-4b3c-9351-13ad85e3c752",
   "symbol":"BTC/USD",
   "exchange":"UNKNOWN",
   "asset_class":"crypto",
   "avg_entry_price":20078.0,
   "qty":1.0,
   "side":"long",
   "market_value":20077.0,
   "cost_basis":20078.0,
   "unrealized_pl":-1.0,
   "unrealized_plpc":-0.0000498057575456,
   "unrealized_intraday_pl":-1.0,
   "unrealized_intraday_plpc":-0.0000498057575456,
   "current_price":20077.0,
   "lastday_price":20337.0,
   "change_today":-0.0127845798298667
}

The output shows that we have a long position for 1 unit of Bitcoin. Visit the Positions docs to view the descriptions of a Position entity.

You’re now equipped with the basics of placing trades with Alpaca’s SDK. Good luck coding and have fun with your new capabilities!

Setup and Getting Account Information

After installing the SDK, import it along with libraries for printing and data types.

package main

import (
	"fmt" // Used for Printf

	"github.com/alpacahq/alpaca-trade-api-go/v2/alpaca"
	"github.com/shopspring/decimal"	// Used for decimal type
)

func main() {

}

From now on, we’ll be writing all our code inside main. Instantiate the Alpaca trading client with your API keys using alpaca.NewClient. This example will be submitting paper trades instead of live trades, so we’ll also pass in a BaseURL to route our requests accordingly.

apiKey := "<Your API Key>"
apiSecret:= "<Your Secret Key>"
baseURL:= "https://paper-api.alpaca.markets"

// Instantiating new Alpaca paper trading client
client := alpaca.NewClient(alpaca.ClientOpts{
  // Alternatively, you can set your API key and secret using environment
  // variables named APCA_API_KEY_ID and APCA_API_SECRET_KEY respectively
  ApiKey:    apiKey,
  ApiSecret: apiSecret,
  BaseURL:   baseURL,		// Remove for live trading
})

The trading client is now ready to make requests. To start off, make sure that your account has sufficient buying power to place orders. Buying power can be found inside one’s account information. This can be queried by the client’s method, GetAccount. Call this function and print the result to view your account’s information.

// Get account information
acct, err := client.GetAccount()
if err != nil {
  // Print error
  fmt.Printf("Error getting account information: %v", err)
} else {
  // Print account information
  fmt.Printf("Account: %+v\n", *acct)
}

{ID:ee302827-4ced-4321-b5fb-71080392d828 AccountNumber:PA3717PJAYWN CreatedAt:2022-04-19 17:46:03.68585 +0000 UTC UpdatedAt:0001-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC DeletedAt:<nil> Status:ACTIVE Currency:USD Cash:645113.208 CashWithdrawable:0 TradingBlocked:false TransfersBlocked:false AccountBlocked:false ShortingEnabled:true BuyingPower:1290226.416 PatternDayTrader:false DaytradeCount:0 DaytradingBuyingPower:0 RegTBuyingPower:1290226.416 Equity:909637.208 LastEquity:906533.73 Multiplier:2 InitialMargin:0 MaintenanceMargin:0 LastMaintenanceMargin:0 LongMarketValue:264524 ShortMarketValue:0 PortfolioValue:909637.208}

The Trading Account docs outline the property descriptions of the above Account object. Now that we’re certain our buying power is sufficient to place trades, let’s send a market buy order.

Placing a Buy Order

Before placing an order, you should define the parameters for it. For a market buy order, the variables necessary to set are AssetKey, Qty, Side, Type, and TimeInForce. Respectively, these variables determine what asset the order is for, how many units to exchange, whether the order is buy-side or sell-side, the type of the order, and how long the order should stay active. This example will set parameters to send a market buy order for 1 unit of Bitcoin (BTC/USD) expiring at the end of the day.

// Parameters for placing a market buy order for 1 unit of Bitcoin
symbol := "BTC/USD"
qty := decimal.NewFromInt(1)
side := alpaca.Side("buy")
orderType := alpaca.OrderType("market")
timeInForce := alpaca.TimeInForce("day")

To place an order, use the client’s method PlaceOrder. This function takes a PlaceOrderRequest as the only parameter and returns an Order object. Pass your order parameters into the PlaceOrderRequest constructor and pass the resulting value into PlaceOrder to send the order. In addition to sending the order, print the returned Order object associated with it.

// Placing an order with the parameters set previously
order, err := client.PlaceOrder(alpaca.PlaceOrderRequest{
  AssetKey: 		&symbol,
  Qty: 			    &qty,
  Side: 			  side,
  Type: 			  orderType,
  TimeInForce: 	timeInForce,
})
if err != nil {
  // Print error
  fmt.Printf("Failed to place order: %v\n", err)
} else {
  // Print resulting order object
  fmt.Printf("Order succesfully sent:\n%+v\n", *order)
}

Order succesfully sent:
{ID:cacccb64-16f0-4062-a603-f5bbed03dea1 ClientOrderID:811cf9a1-f21a-4b73-9792-54ddb947e817 CreatedAt:2022-07-07 04:34:16.826358392 +0000 UTC UpdatedAt:2022-07-07 04:34:16.826418592 +0000 UTC SubmittedAt:2022-07-07 04:34:16.824913502 +0000 UTC FilledAt:<nil> ExpiredAt:<nil> CanceledAt:<nil> FailedAt:<nil> ReplacedAt:<nil> Replaces:<nil> ReplacedBy:<nil> AssetID:64bbff51-59d6-4b3c-9351-13ad85e3c752 Symbol:BTC/USD Exchange: Class:crypto Qty:1 Notional:<nil> FilledQty:0 Type:market Side:buy TimeInForce:day LimitPrice:<nil> FilledAvgPrice:<nil> StopPrice:<nil> TrailPrice:<nil> TrailPercent:<nil> Hwm:<nil> Status:pending_new ExtendedHours:false Legs:<nil>}

The order has now been submitted and your trading dashboard will have updated accordingly. To understand the properties of this Order object better, visit the Trading API docs to read the property descriptions.

Viewing open positions

Viewing one’s open positions is key in understanding your current holdings. This can be done through the SDK very quickly. The client implements a method, ListPositions that returns a []Position.

To view your open positions, call ListPositions and print each element in the resulting list.

// Get open positions
positions, err := client.ListPositions()
if err != nil {
  // Print error
  fmt.Printf("Failed to get open positions: %v\n", err)
} else {
  // Print every position with its index
  for idx, position := range positions {
    fmt.Printf("Position %v: %+v\n", idx, position)
  }
}

Position 0: {AssetID:64bbff51-59d6-4b3c-9351-13ad85e3c752 Symbol:BTC/USD Exchange:FTXU Class:crypto AccountID: EntryPrice:20429 Qty:1 Side:long MarketValue:20423 CostBasis:20429 UnrealizedPL:-6 UnrealizedPLPC:-0.0002937001321651 CurrentPrice:20423 LastdayPrice:20516 ChangeToday:-0.0045330473776565}

The output shows that we have a long position for 1 unit of Bitcoin. Visit the Positions docs to view the descriptions of a Position entity.

You’re now equipped with the basics of placing trades with Alpaca’s SDK. Good luck coding and have fun with your new capabilities!

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