Broker guide
Supported broker: Alpaca, a US broker that is a member of FINRA and SIPC. The account is in your name: MFT never sees your money. Allow 10 minutes for a paper trading account with fictitious money, no ID needed. The live account also requires an identity check by the broker.
For the free 30-day trial: $100,000 of fictitious money to start, real decisions by the bot.
On the broker's sign-up page (button below), enter your email and a password, then click the confirmation link you receive by email. No ID is required for the trial.
Tip No confirmation email? Look for the broker's email in your spam folder and the Promotions tab. Still nothing after 30 minutes: start again with a Gmail address.
In the top-left corner, the account menu should say “Paper”: that is the paper trading account, with $100,000 of fictitious money to start.
Tip Your paper account already holds securities? Open a new one from the same menu: “Open New Paper Account”. The bot only starts on an account with no securities.
On the “Home” page, find the “API Keys” panel on the right and click “Generate New Keys”, or “Regenerate” if keys already exist.
The broker shows a “Key”, which starts with PK for a paper account, and a “Secret”. The Secret is shown only once: copy it now.
Tip Closed the window too quickly? Click “Regenerate” again: the old keys stop working, and you add the new ones.
Client area, “Keys and security” section: paste the Key and the Secret, then click “Encrypt and send”. The account type is recognised automatically. The bot checks your keys within 15 minutes and lets you know by email.
Simplified diagram. The broker's website is in English: buttons are written here exactly as you will see them; their position may change slightly.
For your money. The bot switches to live trading when you click “Start live trading” in your client area, once everything is ready.
In the account menu at the top left, choose “Live”: the broker offers to open your live account. Choose an individual account. The form is in English and takes about fifteen minutes: identity, address, employment, financial situation, the W-8BEN tax form, then an identity check.
Tip The traps in the form are explained just below.
The broker writes to tell you that your account is approved, within a few minutes to a few days. If a document is missing, your account shows “Action Required” and you receive an email.
At the broker, click “Deposit Funds” and follow the transfer instructions. The bot starts live trading from $10,000, on an account with no securities.
Account menu at the top left: choose “Live”. Then, as for the trial, the “API Keys” panel, “Generate New Keys”. These keys are different from the paper ones: the live account Key starts with AK.
Tip The Secret is shown only once: copy it straight away.
Same “Keys and security” section. The bot checks the live account at the broker (status, cash, no securities) and lets you know by email. You then launch real money with “Start live trading”.
Simplified diagram. The broker's website is in English: buttons are written here exactly as you will see them; their position may change slightly.
Four fields cause almost all the difficulties.
Your personal tax identification number in your country of residence. France: the 13-digit tax number at the top of your tax notice. Andorra: your NIA preceded by the letter F, without a hyphen (example: F123456X). Elsewhere: the tax number on your tax returns.
Letters, digits and spaces only: no hyphen and no accent. Write “Escaldes Engordany”, not “Escaldes-Engordany”. This field is optional: leave it empty if in doubt.
To the question “Is your country of citizenship the same as your country of tax residence?”, answer “Yes” only if it is. Otherwise “No”, then your citizenship: the identity check compares it with your passport.
The US tax form for non-US persons. If your country has a tax treaty with the United States (France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, Switzerland…), say so: the withholding on US dividends usually drops from 30% to 15%. Andorra: no treaty, 30% withholding.
You stay in control: one click on “Regenerate” at the broker cuts the bot's access. It simply stops placing orders; your positions stay in place.
Paste your keys only in your MFT client area, “Keys and security” section: they are encrypted there before they leave your browser.
Never by email, WhatsApp, text message or screenshot. MFT will never ask for your keys by message.
Keys shown by mistake? At the broker, “Regenerate”: the old ones stop working. Then add the new ones.
Look for the broker's email in all your folders: spam, Promotions, Updates. To check the address, request “Forgot password” on its sign-in page: if that message arrives, your account exists. Hotmail, Outlook and some internet providers filter hard: wait 30 minutes, otherwise use a Gmail address. Do not open a second account with the same address.
No problem: “Regenerate”, in the “API Keys” panel, creates a new pair of keys. The old pair stops working; add the new one to your client area.
A paper account Key starts with PK, a live account Key with AK. Your MFT client area recognises it automatically and warns you if something is wrong.
Your client area and your email give the reason. The most frequent: key copied only in part, paper key added as a live key (or the reverse), keys regenerated at the broker since, live account not yet approved. Create a new pair and add it.
Yes, if it holds no securities: the bot only starts on an all-cash account, so that every line in the account is its own. For the trial, the simplest is a new paper account (“Open New Paper Account”).
The paper account is open to everyone. For the live account, the broker decides country by country and no longer publishes a list: the application gives you the answer. Our first live accounts, in France and Andorra, were approved the same day.
No. They are used to read the account and place orders, never to withdraw or transfer money. Your money stays in your brokerage account, in your name: only you can withdraw it.
Add them to your client area: the bot takes care of the rest.