Paper vs live

Paper-trading is the default. The toggle to live is intentionally high-friction.

How paper differs from live

The simulation engine and live engine share the same code path. The differences are explicit:

• Fills: paper uses the live order book at the time of submission for realistic fills, including partial fills and queue position. Live routes to the broker.
• Slippage: identical model on paper and live; configurable in basis points per symbol.
• Commission: identical fee schedule by broker connection.
• Margin: paper enforces broker-equivalent margin; positions can be rejected for insufficient buying power even in paper.

Backtests share the same engine, with one difference: order book replay uses the historical L2 snapshot rather than the live one.

Flipping to live

Per account:

1. Profile → Trading → toggle live.
2. Type the literal phrase "go live" to confirm.
3. Re-enter your broker API credentials.
4. Acknowledge the daily-loss cap (mandatory; default is account-equity × 2%).

Auto-orders (webhook → broker) need an additional 2FA acknowledgement per webhook secret before the cloud worker will execute.

Reverting

Flip back to paper at any time from the same toggle. No phrase needed for the reverse direction.