Alpaca Trading API
Financial Data & Markets
Commission-free stock & crypto brokerage API with paper trading sandbox and fractional shares
Alpaca Trading API Highlights
Alpaca Trading API is best for fintech founders, algorithmic traders, and software developers building automated stock trading and investing apps
Nigeria
Ghana
KenyaAlpaca is the developer-first, API-driven brokerage platform that enables developers and fintechs to build commission-free stock and crypto trading applications. Through Alpaca's REST, WebSocket, and FIX interfaces, applications can programmatically buy and sell US equities (with fractional share support), execute crypto orders, query account balances, and stream live portfolio updates.
Alpaca offers an unrestricted Paper Trading sandbox environment with $100,000 in virtual funds, allowing developers to test algorithmic trading bots and strategy signals safely. For African fintech startups launching US stock investment features, Alpaca Broker API provides the regulatory licensing, custodial accounts, and clearing rails necessary to launch within weeks.
Alpaca Trading API Core Features & Capabilities
| Feature | Status | Description & Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time Price & Market Data | ✓ Supported | Live ticker prices, order book depths, and volume feeds for digital assets and forex pairs. |
| Historical OHLCV Data | ✓ Supported | Comprehensive historical open, high, low, close, and volume candlestick series for market analysis. |
| Token / Wallet Balance Queries | ✓ Supported | Inspect on-chain wallet token holdings, transaction histories, and smart contract balances. |
| Trading & Order Execution | ✓ Supported | Submit market, limit, and algorithmic buy/sell orders directly to crypto exchange order books. |
| DeFi / Smart Contract Integration | ✗ Not Supported | Interact directly with decentralized finance protocols, liquidity pools, and smart contracts. (Not supported by Alpaca Trading API). |
| NFT Data & Management | ✗ Not Supported | Query NFT metadata, token ownership, collection stats, and trigger minting workflows. (Not supported by Alpaca Trading API). |
| Staking & Yield Products | ✗ Not Supported | Stake digital assets and query real-time annualized percentage yields (APY). (Not supported by Alpaca Trading API). |
| NGN / Fiat On-Off Ramp | ✗ Not Supported | Seamlessly convert between Nigerian Naira and cryptocurrencies via bank transfer or card. (Not supported by Alpaca Trading API). |
- Commission-free stock trading API
- Free paper trading sandbox for testing with unlimited virtual funds
- Broker API available for fintechs launching branded fractional investing apps
Required Access Documents for Alpaca Trading API
- Alpaca Developer AccountRequiredRegister at app.alpaca.markets to generate paper and live API keys
Different Alpaca Trading API use cases
- Automated Trading & Rebalancing Bots:Execute automated trading strategies based on technical indicators or sentiment signals.
- Retail Micro-Investing Applications:Enable Nigerian users to build dollar wealth by investing small amounts into US fractional shares.
- Portfolio Risk & Backtesting Engines:Simulate and test investment portfolio allocation strategies against paper accounts.