Alpaca Trading Skill

Trade stocks and crypto programmatically via Alpaca's API.

Setup

Requires API credentials stored in environment or config:

```bash

Set environment variables

export ALPACA_API_KEY="your-api-key"

export ALPACA_SECRET_KEY="your-secret-key"

export ALPACA_PAPER="true" # "true" for paper, "false" for live

```

Or store in `~/.openclaw/credentials/alpaca.json`:

```json

{

"apiKey": "your-api-key",

"secretKey": "your-secret-key",

"paper": true

}

```

Quick Reference

Get Quote

```bash

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py quote AAPL

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py quote AAPL,TSLA,NVDA

```

Get Bars (Historical Data)

```bash

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py bars AAPL --timeframe 1Day --limit 10

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py bars AAPL --timeframe 1Hour --start 2026-02-01

```

Check Account

```bash

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py account

```

List Positions

```bash

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py positions

```

Place Orders

```bash

Market order

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py order buy AAPL 10

Limit order

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py order buy AAPL 10 --limit 150.00

Stop order

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py order sell TSLA 5 --stop 200.00

Stop-limit order

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py order sell TSLA 5 --stop 200.00 --limit 195.00

Skip price validation (use with caution)

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py order buy AAPL 10 --limit 999.00 --force

```

**Order Guardrails:**

1. **Symbol validation** — Rejects invalid/unknown tickers

2. **Buying power check** — Blocks orders exceeding available funds, shows max shares

3. **Duplicate detection** — Warns if you have open orders for same symbol/side

4. **Price validation** — Warns if limit price is worse than market

5. **Market hours check** — Detects pre-market, after-hours, and closed sessions

- Pre-market (4:00 AM - 9:30 AM ET): Option to place pre-market order

- After-hours (4:00 PM - 8:00 PM ET): Option to place after-hours order

- Closed: Warns order will queue until market open

6. **Cost confirmation** — Shows total cost and requires confirmation

Use `--force` to skip all confirmation prompts (use with caution).

List Orders

```bash

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py orders

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py orders --status open

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py orders --status closed --limit 20

```

Cancel Order

```bash

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py cancel ORDER_ID

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py cancel all # Cancel all open orders

```

Get News

```bash

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py news AAPL

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py news AAPL,TSLA --limit 5

```

Watchlist

```bash

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py watchlist list

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py watchlist create "Tech Stocks" AAPL,MSFT,GOOGL

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py watchlist add WATCHLIST_ID NVDA

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py watchlist delete WATCHLIST_ID

```

Stream Live Data (Websocket)

```bash

Stream trades (default)

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py stream AAPL

Stream quotes

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py stream AAPL,TSLA --type quotes

Stream bars (1-min)

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py stream NVDA --type bars

Stream all data types

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py stream AAPL --type all

```

Press Ctrl+C to stop streaming.

Price Alerts

```bash

Add alert - notify when INTU drops below $399

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py alert add --symbol INTU --price 399 --condition below

Add alert - notify when AAPL goes above $300

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py alert add --symbol AAPL --price 300 --condition above

List active alerts

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py alert list

Check alerts (used by cron)

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py alert check

Remove an alert

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py alert remove --alert_id ABC123

Clear all alerts

python3 scripts/alpaca_cli.py alert clear

```

Alerts are stored in `~/.openclaw/data/alpaca-alerts.json`.

Script Location

All commands use: `scripts/alpaca_cli.py` (relative to this skill directory)

API Reference

See `references/api.md` for detailed API documentation and response formats.

Safety Notes