Live trading
From the moment a live deployment starts, orders go to your broker and fills are real. There is no undo. Read Risk disclosure and Your responsibilities before proceeding.
What live means
Real orders, routed to your own connected broker or exchange, against your own capital.
Routing follows the strategy's venue. Not its asset class. An Indian and a US cash equity are the same asset class and reach different brokers. Your trading account is selected automatically from your connections based on the strategy's asset class and venue; you do not pick it per order.
| Market | Live status |
|---|---|
| Indian equity cash | Yes, requires a connected broker and per-strategy broker approval |
| Crypto spot | Yes, requires valid API keys. No approval gate |
| Futures & options | No, entry refused, why |
| Crypto perpetuals | No, Entry refused |
| US equity | Pending market activation |
| Retail OTC forex | Out of scope |
The two gating models
Indian equity: broker approval
Deploying live opens an approval request you submit to your broker. The request summarises how the strategy will trade so the broker can authorise it:
| In the request | Covers |
|---|---|
| Instruments | The symbols the strategy will trade |
| Order rate | How frequently it places orders |
| Capital | The capital you intend to allocate |
| Max drawdown | The worst-case loss the strategy is expected to tolerate |
| Risk score | An overall risk rating |
While pending, the strategy detail page shows an approval banner and the strategy keeps running in paper. Once approved it can trade live; if rejected, adjust the strategy or the allocation and request again.
Crypto: nothing
Valid API keys plus a live deploy means real orders on the next candle close. Nothing sits between you and the market. No review, no delay, no confirmation beyond the deploy button.
This is the moment to have already done the paper run.
The live deployment flow
Six steps: Save, Select mode, Broker, Allocate, Review, Deploy.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| Save | The strategy is persisted |
| Select mode | You choose Live |
| Broker | You select the connection. Pure selection, no balance fetch here |
| Allocate | Broker capital is read for the chosen broker only, and you allocate |
| Review | The required trading acknowledgements: the strategy is fully automated, the broker is execution-only, and the exchange tagging requirements |
| Deploy | The strategy begins on the next candle close |
The balance read is scoped to the Allocate step deliberately, a connection you are only browsing is not queried.
Before you deploy live
A checklist that is not decorative. Every item corresponds to a documented failure.
- Paper-traded long enough to see real trade count and at least one gate engage
- Risk limits configured and verified on the risk panel. Not from the chat transcript. Seven of nine gates are off until set, and the parser fails open. See Risk defaults
- Allocation sized to a drawdown I will hold through, in money
- Broker connection verified end to end with a successful balance read. See Connect a broker
- Trading permission enabled on the API key, and withdrawal not enabled
- Egress IP allowlisted, if the key is IP-restricted
- Sufficient funds at the broker
- I know how to stop it, and that stopping does not close positions
- I have read Risk disclosure
What runs on every order
The nine risk gates, plus the margin validator for margined instruments, evaluated before the order reaches the broker.
Identical to paper, which is why a paper run is a real test of your configuration. See Execution flow.
Controls while running
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| Pause | No new entries. Open positions run to their exit conditions |
| Resume | New entries re-open |
| Stop | No new entries. Open positions are NOT closed |
To be flat, close the position at your broker. Stretus does not force-flatten from a pause or a stop, and no risk gate closes a position either.
If you take one thing from this page, take this one.
Live-specific failure modes
Things that cannot happen in paper and will happen live:
| Failure | Consequence | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Broker token expires | Orders reject, including exits | Reconnect from Profile. Watch for auth errors |
| API key revoked or IP changed | Same | Keep the allowlist current |
| Insufficient broker balance | INSUFFICIENT_BROKER_BALANCE | Fund the account |
| Venue outage or maintenance | No orders place | Nothing to do but know it happens |
| Rate limits | Orders delayed or rejected | Reduce frequency |
| IBKR session taken | Intermittent failures on both sides | Use a dedicated API username |
| Circuit limit or halt | Position cannot be exited | The not_near_circuit entry filter |
| Overnight gap | Fill far worse than your stop | Size for it. A stop is not a floor |
Most of these are exit problems, not entry problems. A strategy that cannot place orders cannot place exit orders, and an exposure you cannot close is the worst state to be in.
That is why credential currency and connection health matter more than they appear to.
Switching between modes
A deployed strategy can be switched from paper to live, or from live to paper, from its detail page, with a confirmation.
- Capital is per mode. Switching to live prompts you to allocate real capital.
- Approval still applies for approval-gated asset classes.
- Open positions do not carry over. They run to their exit conditions in the mode that opened them.
Monitoring
Not optional. A deployed strategy is not unattended infrastructure.
| Surface | For |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | Portfolio-level P&L and exposure |
| Live terminal | Order flow and fills |
| Algo execution console | Operational detail |
| Notifications | Push alerts on fills, breaches and state changes |
| Broker risk exposure | Exposure as your broker sees it |
Reconcile against your broker. Your broker is the record of truth for your positions, your balance and your obligations.