Brokers (Connections)

TradersPost centers around connections with brokers, exchanges, and prop firms. Each connection represents an individual account with your broker or exchange. For instance, if you link two accounts with TradeStation, both would count under your live plan.

You can connect any of these to TradersPost and authorize our software to read your balances, open positions, open orders, order history, place trades and cancel orders.

Connect Your Broker

To connect your broker to TradersPost, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your dashboard in the application and click Connect Broker in the top right. If you are just getting started, we recommend using the already connected built in TradersPost paper broker to run your first tests against.
2. Next, choose the broker you want to connect and follow the prompts.
3. On the risk acknowledgment screen, confirm that you are authorized to trade the broker account — either as the legal owner, or because the account owner has formally granted you trading access through the broker's own authorization process (for example, a limited power of attorney, a trading authorization, or broker-issued credentials issued to you). The connection cannot continue until you check that box, and you must make the declaration again for each account you add.
4. You will be redirected to the chosen broker and asked to log in and authorize TradersPost to access your account.
5. After you agree, you will be redirected back to TradersPost and your broker account will be connected to TradersPost.

Broker Settings

Name

Assign a unique and descriptive name to each of your broker connections on TradersPost to easily differentiate between them, especially if you have multiple accounts with the same broker. Note that only one live and one paper account are allowed per connection, and the number of connections available depends on your payment plan. For example, you could name a futures account with TradeStation as "TradeStation Futures" and a margin account as "TradeStation Stocks," each set up as separate broker connections.

Choose Paper Account / Choose Live Account

Here you will decide which account to use for your live trading for this broker, and which account to use for paper trading. We sometimes see that customers choose their margin account here, when they meant to choose their futures account and they see errors indicating that futures aren't supported. Make sure you've selected the right live account for your broker connection.

Max strategy positions

Enter the max number of positions you want to allow with this broker when using it with automated strategy subscriptions. Any existing positions opened prior to using TradersPost will still count as a position, and crypto dust is often seen as a position if worth roughly more than $1.50 USD.

This should not be confused with a limit on the size of any one position. To cap the number of shares or contracts you hold in a single ticker, use Ticker Quantity Limits below.

Ticker Quantity Limits

Caps how much of a single ticker TradersPost will hold on this account.

Setup

• Add one row per ticker (up to 25 rows). An Applies to column shows the stocks/options choice when both are supported, or a read-only asset-class label otherwise.
• Enter the largest quantity you are willing to hold — whole shares/contracts, or a fractional crypto amount such as 0.05.
• Choose Reject order or Reduce to max when an order would go past that maximum.
• Use the row's x button to remove a limit.
• Every row needs a ticker, maximum, and over-max action — blank fields and overlapping rows will not save.
• Limits are stored separately for live and paper — set them on both if you trade both.

What to enter

Applies to

Always shown. For stock underlyings on accounts that trade both stocks and stock options it is a choice; otherwise (including stocks-only accounts like Robinhood) the same column shows a read-only asset-class label (e.g. Stocks, Futures) so you can verify which market the limit covers.

Shares and option contracts are always counted on separate ledgers. Use Applies to when you want different maximums for each:

You can add two rows for the same ticker (e.g. SPY stocks only at 100 and SPY options only at 5). A Stocks & options row cannot overlap a stocks-only or options-only row for the same ticker.

The maximum applies to the underlying: everything you hold on SPY options counts toward an options (or shared) SPY limit whatever the expiration or strike, and every NQ contract month counts toward NQ. Crypto limits are per pair (BTC-USD is separate from BTC-USDT). Long and short both count rather than cancelling out.

Reject order vs Reduce to max

Also worth knowing:

• Dollar-amount orders and multi-leg trade plans still reject on breach.
• An order that reduces what you already hold is allowed even when you are over the maximum.
• Resting broker orders are not counted — only current holdings, the order being placed, and other legs of the same trade plan.
• Dollar-amount orders are measured by their quote estimate; the filled quantity can differ.

Example

With a SPY maximum of 100 and 80 already open, an order for 50 is rejected when the row says reject, and reduced to 20 when the row says reduce.

Reducing stops at zero

An order large enough to close what you hold and open the other side is measured on that new position. With 120 held long against a maximum of 100, a sell of 230 is rejected because it would leave you short 110 — unless the row says reduce, in which case the sell is trimmed so the short lands at 100.