Documentation / Connecting Your Broker

Connecting Your Broker

Setup guides for Tradier and Interactive Brokers

Connecting Tradier

Tradier provides real-time streaming options chain data, and supports order submission and management directly from the platform.

Tradier offers two environments:

  • Sandbox: Paper trading with simulated money — good for testing without real risk
  • Production: Live trading with your real Tradier brokerage account

To connect, go to Settings → Tradier and enter your API key for the environment you want to use. You can configure both sandbox and production keys simultaneously and switch between them using the active environment selector. The Preferred Broker setting in Settings controls which broker's order flow appears by default on the Broker Sync page.

A Note on Tradier's Index Prices

Instead of displaying spot prices, Tradier uses derived values for SPX, RUT, VIX, and NDX. If you use Tradier for market data but execute trades through a different broker, you may see a difference between the profit shown in Stratsigma and your broker.

Connecting Interactive Brokers

Stratsigma connects to Interactive Brokers' Trader Workstation (TWS) through a lightweight Connector app that you download and run on your computer. When connected, Stratsigma provides three capabilities:

  • Live underlying data: Real-time streaming prices for the underlying stock/ETF/index
  • Historical underlying data: 10 years of intraday 5-minute bars for stocks, ETFs and indices
  • Order execution: Submit and manage orders through any of your Interactive Brokers accounts

Setup:

  1. In Trader Workstation, open Global Configuration → API → Settings and check Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients.
  2. In Stratsigma, go to Settings → Interactive Brokers and click Install Connector. A single file will be downloaded to your Downloads folder.
  3. Run the downloaded file. The Connector installs itself and pairs with your Stratsigma account automatically — no configuration required.

The Settings page shows a green status indicator once the Connector is connected to Trader Workstation. After the first setup, the Connector starts automatically with your computer and reconnects on its own.

IB as Historical Underlying Provider

When you select Interactive Brokers as your underlying historical provider in Settings, Stratsigma fetches intraday 5-minute data directly from Trader Workstation. This means that if you are backtesting using historical data from an external data provider, you only need to subscribe for options data, but not stock or index data.

Extended hours: Enable or disable extended-hours data for IB underlying bars in Settings. When enabled, pre-market and after-hours bars are included.

IB Order Execution

When connected to IB, you can submit orders directly through the platform:

  • Orders are routed to your connected IB account
  • Fill notifications are received in real-time via the bridge
  • Order status and fill details are tracked in the IB Orders section on the Broker Sync page

Configure which IB account and port to use in Settings under the Interactive Brokers section.