Paper Trading

Paper trading runs your strategies with simulated orders. It’s how you should test every idea before considering live trading.

How it works

TigerTradeBot has a built-in simulator. When a bot instance runs in Paper mode, its orders are simulated, and nothing is sent to a broker. Every broker can run against the built-in simulator; Alpaca’s paper keys are also supported if you want to rehearse against an Alpaca paper account.

A free paper-trading license (or any paper-only license) keeps every instance in Paper mode: it can never place, modify or cancel a real order at any broker.

Choose Paper mode

1. Open Settings → Instance Configuration, tab Trading, section Mode.
2. Set Bot Mode to Paper. (The other modes are Live, Backtest and Idle.) New instances start in Paper.
3. The Dashboard shows PAPER MODE, and the top bar has a PAPER/LIVE switch. Switching to Live always asks you to confirm, and needs a license that allows live trading.

Set your paper balance

In the same tab, turn on Use Paper Balance and set Paper Balance Amount ($). The default is $10,000. Paper trades draw on this simulated balance, kept separate from any real account.

Where prices come from

Simulated orders fill against live market data, so the simulator still needs a data source:

• Stocks and ETFs: your Schwab, Alpaca or Webull connection, or a TAAPI.io key. An Alpaca account with Alpaca’s free IEX data feed is the simplest way to start.
• Options: Schwab or Webull.
• Crypto: your Alpaca or Webull connection, or public exchange data that needs no key.

See Broker connections to add credentials.

How simulated fills differ from real ones

• Stock and option orders fill at the current quote, with no slippage model. Crypto fills add 5 basis points of adverse slippage by default.
• A simulated order doesn’t compete for liquidity, doesn’t get partial fills and doesn’t wait in a queue.

Note: Simulated fills are optimistic by nature. Live results will differ, usually for the worse, because of slippage, partial fills and latency. Treat paper results as an upper bound, not a forecast.

How long should you paper trade?

Longer than feels necessary. A strategy needs enough trades across enough market conditions to show you its real character. The free license gives you 12 months to find out. Trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for every investor; paper trading is how you find out what you’re dealing with before that risk is real.