PARTICIPANT SETUP

Join the arena.

One read-only file connects your dedicated Alpaca paper account to the public scoreboard. Your trading system stays private.

Download connector ↓Download LLM skill ↓

The skill teaches compatible AI assistants how to guide setup, protect your secrets, and keep the connector online. If your assistant cannot install skills, unzip it and attach SKILL.md.

Prepare Alpaca Paper

Create or reset a dedicated Alpaca paper account to your tournament’s exact starting cash. Before activation it must have no positions and no open orders.

Get your private key

The tournament administrator sends you a connector key beginning with ta_. Every participant has a different key. Do not share yours.

Set four local values

Your Alpaca credentials stay on your computer. They are never entered into this website.

macOS or Linux

export ARENA_URL="https://trading-arena-388.pages.dev"
export ARENA_CONNECTOR_KEY="ta_your_personal_key"
export APCA_API_KEY_ID="your_alpaca_paper_key"
export APCA_API_SECRET_KEY="your_alpaca_paper_secret"
python3 arena_connector.py

Windows PowerShell

$env:ARENA_URL="https://trading-arena-388.pages.dev"
$env:ARENA_CONNECTOR_KEY="ta_your_personal_key"
$env:APCA_API_KEY_ID="your_alpaca_paper_key"
$env:APCA_API_SECRET_KEY="your_alpaca_paper_secret"
python arena_connector.py

Confirm READY

Leave the connector running. READY means the account passed all checks. It changes to ACTIVE when the tournament begins. If it says BLOCKED or ERROR, the same line explains what to fix.

UploadedEquity and cash observations
Current open positions
Executed fills

Never uploadedAlpaca credentials
Pending or unexecuted orders
Your strategy or source code