Getting Started

Setting up SignalPipe takes about 10 minutes. Follow these steps to connect your Alpaca account and start receiving automated trades from TradingView.

Prerequisites

• An active vyn premium or SignalPipe subscription on Blockresearch
• An Alpaca brokerage account (free to create at alpaca.markets)
• A TradingView account with the vyn premium strategy added to your chart

Step 1: Create Your Alpaca Account

If you do not already have an Alpaca account:

1. Go to alpaca.markets and sign up
2. Complete the account verification process
3. You can start with paper trading (simulated money) -- no deposit required

Step 2: Generate Alpaca API Keys

1. Log into your Alpaca dashboard
2. Navigate to the API Keys section
3. Click Generate New Key under either Paper Trading or Live Trading
4. Copy both the API Key ID and the Secret Key -- the secret is only shown once

Recommendation: Start with paper trading keys. This lets you verify your entire setup is working correctly before risking real money.

Step 3: Connect Alpaca to Blockresearch

1. Log into the Blockresearch dashboard at app.blockresearch.ai
2. Navigate to SignalPipe from the sidebar
3. Switch to the Settings tab
4. Enter your API Key and API Secret
5. Select whether you are connecting a Paper or Live account
6. Click Connect

The system will validate your credentials by making a test request to the Alpaca API. Once verified, your keys are encrypted with AES-256-CBC and stored securely. The raw keys are never stored.

Tip: You can connect both a paper and a live Alpaca account at the same time. Use the Paper/Live toggle in the header to switch between them.

Step 4: Configure Your Trading Settings

After connecting, configure the following settings on the same page:

• Max Active Deals -- The maximum number of open positions at any time (default: 3)
• Take-Profit Percentage -- The profit target for automatic position closes (default: 5%)
• Quote Currency -- For crypto trading, choose "USD" to auto-convert ticker suffixes (e.g. BTCUSDT to BTCUSD) or "auto" to pass tickers unchanged
• Automation Enabled -- Must be toggled ON for orders to execute

Step 5: Copy Your Webhook URL and Pointer

The Settings page displays two critical values:

1. Webhook URL -- The full URL that TradingView will send alerts to
2. SignalPipe Secret -- Your unique authentication token

Copy both of these. You will need them in the next step.

Step 6: Configure TradingView Alerts

1. Open your TradingView chart with the vyn premium strategy
2. In the vyn premium settings, select "Blockresearch" from the "Execution Platform" dropdown
3. Paste your SignalPipe Secret into the "Pointer" field
4. Set your desired Base Order Size (in dollars), Safety Order Volume Scale, Max Safety Trade Count, and Take Profit percentage
5. Create an alert on the vyn premium strategy:

Step 7: Verify Your Setup

After creating the alert, watch the Log tab on your SignalPipe page. When the next signal fires, you should see:

1. A "Webhook signal received" entry
2. An "Order placed" entry
3. A "Deal opened" entry

You can also use the Test tab to send a manual test order without waiting for a real signal.

If you are using paper mode, you can also verify the order appeared in your Alpaca paper trading dashboard.

Tip: If you want to test immediately without waiting for a real signal, you can temporarily set the vyn premium start date to an earlier time to trigger historical signals. Remember to set it back to the current time afterward.