# Trade on paper

> What the Trade app shows, how paper trading on Alpaca works, what a deployment is, and what the account menu can pause, cancel and close.

Source: https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/overview

> [!IMPORTANT] Disclaimer
> Backtest results are hypothetical and do not predict future performance. Nothing here is investment advice: Orbital computes the rules you supplied and recommends nothing. Orbital is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer. Costs are as modelled by the chosen cost profile and may differ from live trading.

## What Trade is

Trade is the app in Orbital that runs your strategies on an Alpaca paper account. It shows what each strategy holds, what it has ordered and what it has done. Open it from **Trade** in the sidebar, or go to [https://app.orbitalaip.com/apps/trade](https://app.orbitalaip.com/apps/trade).

Only a workspace owner or admin can use Trade; anyone else sees **Only a workspace owner or admin can see trading.**

Orbital installs Trade in the workspace it creates when you sign up. If it is missing, a workspace owner or admin can install it from **Settings** → **Apps**. See [Apps](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/workspace-and-account/apps).

A strategy is built in Workflows or Backtesting; Trade is where it runs. [Deploy a strategy](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/deploy-a-strategy) walks through the first deployment.

## Paper accounts only

Trade places orders on an Alpaca paper account. A workspace owner or admin connects it in **Settings** → **Plugins**, where the Alpaca card reads **Paper trading for the Trade app. Live accounts are never connected.** See [Connect Alpaca](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/connect-alpaca).

Live trading is not offered, and a deployment that targets a live account is refused.

An account can have order sending switched off, and Trade then places no orders on it. The deploy review warns **Order sending is turned off for this account.** In **Activity**, an order refused this way shows **Sends disabled**.

[Paper trading](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#paper-trading) tests execution as well as the rules. Alpaca's paper simulator fills the orders, so a fill can land away from the price a backtest modelled. [Backtest, forward test and paper](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/backtesting/backtest-vs-forward-test-vs-paper) compares the three.

The account is a tab in Trade's header: the broker's name, a masked account number and a **Paper** chip. The **+** button beside it lists every connected account under **Show as a tab**. Its **Connect a broker** row is inactive: you connect a broker in **Settings** → **Plugins**, not in Trade.

## The five views

Trade has five tabs: **Overview**, **Strategies**, **Positions**, **Orders** and **Activity**. All but **Strategies** are for the account tab you have selected, and [P&L, orders and activity](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/pnl-orders-and-activity) explains them.

**Strategies** lists every strategy in the project, with its results on the selected account: **Every strategy, its evidence and how it is doing.** Filter it by **All**, **Live**, **Paper**, **Tested**, **Untested** or **Retired**. **Live** is empty, because live trading is not offered. Each row shows the version, **State**, **Evidence** (a [Sharpe ratio](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#sharpe-ratio) and a trade count from Backtesting), **Realized gain** and **Trend**. **Trials**, **Allocation** and **Live since** show a dash on a paper account. **Add a strategy** opens the create gallery in Workflows.

Each position belongs to the strategy that opened it; positions from **New order** or from outside Trade show as **Manual**, and no strategy trades them. See [Positions](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/pnl-orders-and-activity#positions).

A trade held for your approval is answered in **Activity**. See [Approvals and permissions](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/approvals-and-permissions).

## What a deployment is

In Trade, a [deployment](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/glossary#deployment) is one strategy version running on one paper account. **Deployments** in the header lists them under **Running**, and **Ready to deploy** lists **Strategies that are not running anywhere**.

A deployment keeps the version it was deployed with; to run another version, stop it and deploy that one. See [Editing a strategy after it is deployed](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/deploy-a-strategy#editing-a-strategy-after-it-is-deployed).

Its four limits, **Budget**, **Max per trade**, **Open positions** and **Daily loss pause**, cap entries only; selling to exit is never capped. See [The four limits](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/capital-sleeves#the-four-limits).

Each deployment acts under a trading permission: **Deny**, **Ask**, **Auto** or **Always-approve**. A Rules or Program strategy deploys under **Always-approve**. See [The trading permission](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/approvals-and-permissions#the-trading-permission).

A strategy has one paper deployment at a time. Deploying it again, or another of its versions, is refused until that deployment has finished stopping, which happens once it holds nothing. A workspace can have up to 3 Rules or Program deployments at once, paused and stopping ones included.

**Pause** stops new trades while exits keep working, and **Stop** is final and sells nothing. See [Pause and resume](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/manage-a-deployment#pause-and-resume).

## The account menu

The **⋯** button at the right of the header opens the account menu. It offers **Pause all strategies**, **Cancel all open orders**, **Close all positions** and **Stop everything…**, which does all three in a safe order. See [The account menu](https://orbitalaip.com/docs/trade/manage-a-deployment#the-account-menu).

**New order**, to the left of **Deployments**, opens a ticket for a manual order on the account.