Trading Accounts¶

Account configuration and setup for multi-broker trading.

Account Overview¶

Broker	Account Type	Balance	Purpose
Schwab	Live	~$2,700	Primary brokerage, manual trades
Alpaca Paper	Paper	~$101,000	Strategy testing, no real money
Alpaca Live	Live	~$970	Automated trading (proven strategies only)

Schwab¶

Authentication¶

Schwab uses OAuth 2.0 with refresh tokens.

# Initial setup (opens browser for OAuth)
uv run python3 tools/schwab_setup.py

# Check token status
uv run python3 tools/schwab_setup.py --check

# Token location
~/.schwab_tokens.json  # Expires every 7 days

Account Details¶

Account Number: ...6800
Type: Individual Brokerage
API: Schwab Developer API

Usage Rules¶

Manual trades only - No automated order placement
Conservative positions - Primary account, protect capital
Dividend focus - Long-term holdings

Alpaca¶

API Keys¶

Stored in /Users/bertfrichot/Development/bert-trading-personal/.env:

# Paper Trading
ALPACA_PAPER_API_KEY=PKMK...
ALPACA_PAPER_SECRET_KEY=Qj0B...
ALPACA_PAPER_BASE_URL=https://paper-api.alpaca.markets

# Live Trading
ALPACA_REAL_API_KEY=AKAG...
ALPACA_REAL_SECRET_KEY=BqTf...
ALPACA_LIVE_BASE_URL=https://api.alpaca.markets

Paper Account¶

Account ID: 99e71d3d-ed5a-4fcd-997f-f08188bb82d5
Balance: ~$101,000 (fake money)
Purpose: Test ALL strategies here first

Live Account¶

Purpose: Only proven strategies
Max Position: $500 (conservative)
Requirement: 1 week paper testing minimum

Account Selection Rules¶

Strategy Development:
1. Backtest on historical data
2. Paper trade for 1+ week
3. Analyze results (win rate, Sharpe, drawdown)
4. Get explicit approval
5. Deploy to Alpaca Live (start small)
6. Never touch Schwab with automation

API Rate Limits¶

Broker	Limit	Notes
Schwab	120/min	Rate limit applies to all endpoints
Alpaca	200/min	Per account (paper/live separate)

Troubleshooting¶

Schwab 401 Unauthorized¶

# Tokens expired - re-authenticate
uv run python3 tools/schwab_setup.py

Alpaca Connection Issues¶

# Test connection
uv run python3 -c "from alpaca.trading.client import TradingClient; print('OK')"

# Check API status
curl https://paper-api.alpaca.markets/v2/clock

Last Updated: January 2026