Stamp Alpaca Portfolio

This sample illustrates how to retrieve, save, and stamp an Alpaca portfolio.

The sample can be run from the command line interactively or as a script if your environment is set appropriately.

You can find the implementation in stamp_alpaca_portfolio.py.

• 1. Prerequisites

• 2. (Optional) Sign Up for an Alpaca Account

• 3. (Optional) Enable Paper Trading

• 4. Obtain Your API Keys

• 5. Switch to the Sample Directory

• 6. Install the Alpaca Python Package

• 7. Set Environment Variables

• 8. Run the Sample

1. Prerequisites

1. Alpaca Account: You must have an Alpaca account (live or paper trading).

2. Python: Ensure Python is installed on your Windows machine.

3. vBase: Follow the vBase Windows Guide to set up Windows environment to run vBase samples.

4. Alpaca Python SDK: Alpaca provides a Python SDK to simplify accessing their API. To install the SDK, open your terminal or command prompt and install the SDK:

   pip install alpaca-trade-api

2. (Optional) Sign Up for an Alpaca Account

1. Go to Alpaca Website:

   • Visit Alpaca Markets and click on Sign Up.

2. Create Your Account:

   • Fill in the required personal information (name, email, password) and click Create Account.

3. Verify Your Email:

   • After signing up, you will receive a verification email from Alpaca. Click on the link to verify your email address.

4. Complete Account Information:

   • Once you’ve verified your email, Alpaca will ask for additional information to complete your account setup. This is standard for brokerage accounts.

   • You may need to set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) with an Authenticator app or SMS.

   • You may need to provide your address, phone number, and identity verification information.

3. (Optional) Enable Paper Trading

1. Go to the Paper Trading Section:

   • Once your account is set up and verified, log in to your Alpaca account dashboard.

   • In the dashboard, locate and click on the Paper Trading section. Paper trading allows you to simulate trading with fake money without risking real funds.

2. Enable Paper Trading:

   • Toggle the Enable Paper Trading option if it’s not enabled by default.

   • You will receive a starting balance in your paper trading account.

4. Obtain Your API Keys

• In the dashboard, go to Your Account > API Keys.

• Generate API keys for paper trading. These include:

  • API Key ID: Used to identify your account.

  • API Secret Key: Used to authenticate your requests.

• Store your API Key ID and API Secret Key securely. You’ll use these in your environment variables that Python scripts will use to access your Alpaca account.

5. Switch to the Sample Directory

Open Command Prompt (or PowerShell) and navigate to your project folder:

cd C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Projects\validityBase\vbase-py-samples

6. Install the Alpaca Python Package

Install the alpaca_trade_api Python package:

pip install alpaca_trade_api

7. Set Environment Variables

Set the following environment variables for your IB and vBase configuration. - Alpaca Configuration:

• ALPACA_API_KEY - The Alpaca API Key.

• ALPACA_API_SECRET - The Alpaca API Secret.

• ALPACA_API_BASE_URL - Base URL for the Alpaca API:

• https://paper-api.alpaca.markets for paper trading.

• https://api.alpaca.markets for live trading.

• AWS S3 Configuration (Optional if you save the portfolio data elsewhere):

  • AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID - The Access Key used to connect to the S3 service.

  • AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY - The Secret Key used to connect to the S3 service.

  • AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME - The AWS S3 bucket name used to store the portfolio data.

• vBase Configuration:

  • VBASE_FORWARDER_URL - vBase Forwarder Service URL:

    • https://dev.api.vbase.com/forwarder/ for development/testnet.

    • https://api.vbase.com/forwarder/ for production.

  • VBASE_API_KEY - The vBase API Key used to access the Forwarder service.

  • VBASE_COMMITMENT_SERVICE_PRIVATE_KEY - The private key used to sign portfolio stamps.

  • VBASE_DATASET_NAME - The name of the vBase dataset that will hold the portfolio history.

You can define these variables in the .env file in your C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Projects\validityBase\vbase-py-samples folder. Your .env file should look as follows:

# Alpaca Config
ALPACA_API_KEY="ALPACA_API_KEY"
ALPACA_API_SECRET="ALPACA_API_SECRET"
ALPACA_API_BASE_URL="https://paper-api.alpaca.markets"

# AWS Config
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID"
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY"
AWS_S3_BUCKET_NAME="test-bucket"
AWS_S3_FOLDER_NAME="portfolio_history/alpaca_portfolio_stamping"

# vBase Config
VBASE_FORWARDER_URL="https://dev.api.vbase.com/forwarder/"
VBASE_API_KEY="VBASE_API_KEY"
VBASE_COMMITMENT_SERVICE_PRIVATE_KEY="VBASE_COMMITMENT_SERVICE_PRIVATE_KEY"

# User Dataset Config
VBASE_DATASET_NAME="alpaca_portfolio_stamping_test"

8. Run the Sample

Run the sample from the command line:

python samples\stamp_alpaca_portfolio.py

or walk through the sample in an interactive window.