What you need
Trade deploys a strategy's main version unless you pick another. A Rules or Program strategy with no main has no Version field and deploys the version its latest backtest tested.
Before you deploy, you need:
- An Alpaca paper account, connected in Settings → Plugins.
- No other deployment of the same strategy that is not stopped, on any account. A paused or stopping one counts too.
- A workspace owner or admin to press the button.
- For a Rules or Program strategy, a completed backtest of the version. It must watch a fixed list of up to 500 symbols, a symbol list or a watchlist rather than a screen. Its max entries per symbol must be 1.
- For an Agent strategy, one agent deciding its trades, with permission to make trading decisions.
A workspace holds at most 3 Rules or Program deployments that are not stopped, paused and stopping ones included.
Open the deploy review
Open Deployments
In Trade's header, click Deployments, then Deploy on the strategy's row under Ready to deploy. A Rules or Program strategy whose tested backtest fails the deploy checks is left out; open it under Strategies and click Deploy to see why.
Pick the version
Version opens on main. A Rules or Program version with no completed backtest reads Needs a completed backtest and cannot be picked. When main has no completed backtest, the field is empty and reads Backtest v2 first., naming main's version.
Choose the account
Pick it under Run it on; one that needs reconnecting says reconnect required. If order sending is off for it, you can save the deployment, but it places no orders until sending is enabled.
Set the limits
Budget and Max per trade are required, and Open positions and Daily loss pause may stay empty for no limit. See The four limits.
Choose the trading permission
A Rules or Program strategy is held on Always-approve. An Agent strategy opens on Ask, or on its agent's own permission when that is narrower, and a card wider than the agent's permission is locked. See The trading permission.
Check Before it starts, then deploy
Account is connected and This account supports how it trades turn amber when they fail. Click Deploy v1; the button names the version.
When the deploy lands, the panel reads Deployed to paper. and offers Manage deployment; see Manage a deployment. The deployment then appears under Running in Deployments, and the strategy's state reads Paper on the Strategies tab and in Backtesting's list.
Why a deploy is refused
A refusal names its reason, and nothing is deployed.
| What happened | What Trade says |
|---|---|
| The strategy already has a deployment that is not stopped | This strategy already has a deployment on this account. Open Deployments to manage it. |
| The backtest filled at a limit price | This strategy's backtest fills at a limit price, and a running strategy places market orders for now. Backtest it with market fills at the next bar's open, then deploy. |
| A daily strategy between 8:30 and 12:30 ET | Daily strategies deploy before 08:30 or after 12:30 ET on trading days, once the previous session's prices have settled. Try again then. |
| An intraday strategy in the closing minutes | The market is closing. Deploy again a few minutes after the close. |
A backtest that entered at the next session's close cannot be deployed either. An intraday strategy sizes its orders when it decides. A backtest run with Size at the fill or Limit entry allocations on must be run again with them off first.
When it decides
Checks, in Ready to deploy, shows how often a Rules or Program strategy decides. Every trading day means each morning, on the previous session's final prices. A shorter interval, such as Every 5 minutes, means on each completed bar. See Paper deployments.
Orders on Alpaca paper
A Rules or Program deployment sends market orders good for the day, sized in shares. It never sends a limit order, or an order for the opening or closing auction. Orbital refuses auction orders before they reach the broker, because Alpaca offers them only through its Elite routing. An agent may send a market or a limit order.
Alpaca's paper simulator fills the orders, so a fill can differ from the backtest's. Backtest, forward test and paper sets out how.
The first run
An intraday strategy deployed during a session starts at its next completed bar, and one deployed after the close at the next session's open. A daily strategy deployed before 8:30 ET first decides that morning, and one deployed after 12:30 ET the next trading morning.
The strategy's warm-up runs on settled history through the day before it starts. A deploy note Not enough history to decide on its first session, followed by symbols, means those names lack the bars the warm-up needs.
Editing a strategy after it is deployed
A deployment keeps the version it was deployed with, and editing the strategy changes nothing on paper. A new version is made when you click Save version… in the workflow editor, or when you backtest the edit. To run it, stop the deployment and deploy that version. Once a strategy has a main, main moves only with Make main; Trade then shows main is v3 beside Runs v1. Backtests and forward tests carry on as usual. See Versions.
Three rules follow:
- An agent cannot change a deployed strategy: it branches it into a new draft with branch added to the name, and the deployment is untouched.
- A deployed strategy cannot be deleted, and the refusal ends Stop it first to delete it.
- An Agent strategy's deployment is pinned to its agent's setup. Edit the agent's instructions, model or tools, or take away its permission to make trading decisions, and the deployment pauses itself. Its row reads New trades paused, followed by what it was deployed with no longer holds. Resume helps only once the agent is back as deployed or has its permission back. To trade the edited agent, stop the deployment and deploy again.