Connecting Alpaca, Tradier or Webull to Tradetron: What Happens to Your Orders

Huzefa Kudrati Oct 24, 2026 7 min read

Connecting a broker is the moment an automated strategy stops being a simulation. It is also the step people worry about most, for good reasons: a password, a token, orders created by software. This guide explains what happens when you connect Alpaca, Tradier or Webull to Tradetron, where each order is born and dies, and exactly what Tradetron can and cannot do in your account.

The same path applies to the other brokers Tradetron connects to in the US: tastytrade, TradeStation, E*TRADE, TradeZero, Interactive Brokers and Robinhood, with the differences noted below.

Step 1: the connection

In Tradetron, open your profile menu, go to Broker & Exchanges, click Add Broker and choose the broker. For Alpaca, Tradier and Webull (and for tastytrade, TradeStation and E*TRADE) a hosted connection page opens. You sign in there with the broker, approve the connection, and come back to Tradetron with the account listed as connected. No credential fields on Tradetron, no daily token to refresh.

Two brokers differ:

Interactive Brokers connects through IBKR's own OAuth portal. You need an IBKR Pro account, you complete the consumer-key steps on IBKR's side, and activation can take up to 24 hours.
Robinhood connects through a hosted portal as well, via a connection partner, and is the newest of the nine.

Alpaca and Tradier also offer their own paper accounts; Tradetron lists those as separate broker entries, so you can connect a paper account first and a funded account later without changing the strategy.

Step 2: what Tradetron holds

After the sign-in, Tradetron stores an access token for your account, encrypted. The token is scoped by the broker to trading in that account. It is not your password, and it cannot be used to log in to the broker's website or app.

What the token lets Tradetron do:

read the account's positions, orders and buying power;
place, modify and cancel orders in that account.

What it does not let Tradetron do:

withdraw or transfer money;
change bank details, addresses or account settings;
move securities out of the account;
trade in any account you did not connect.

If you revoke the connection at the broker, the token dies and every strategy linked to that account stops sending orders at once.

Step 3: the life of an order

Say a strategy you built sells a SPY put spread at 10:00 am ET. This is the path:

Your rule becomes true. The strategy's entry condition is checked on live prices. At 10:00 am ET it passes.
Tradetron builds the order. Using your position settings (instrument, strike rule, quantity, order type) it resolves the exact contracts and creates the order in its own ledger, timestamped.
The order is sent to the broker's API. Tradetron calls the broker with the order details and your account's token. Nothing is routed through Tradetron's own brokerage, because Tradetron has none.
The broker decides. It checks buying power, options approval level and market rules, then accepts the order and sends it to an exchange, or rejects it with a reason.
Fills come back. The broker reports partial or full fills; Tradetron updates the position and P&L and logs each fill.
Exits follow the same path. Stops, targets and the time exit create their own orders when their conditions are met.

Every step writes a line in the strategy's notifications and broker log, with the broker's own order ID. When something is rejected, the broker's reason appears there, and "Exit on error" settings decide whether the strategy closes what it already has.

What can go wrong, and what you see

Rejection for options approval. Spreads need the matching approval level at the broker. The rejection shows up in the broker log with the broker's message; the fix is at the broker.
Insufficient buying power. Same path. Tradetron does not check your cash before sending; the broker does.
Market closed or contract not found. If a strike rule resolves to a contract the broker does not list, the order fails and the log says so. This is exactly what a Live Offline week is for.
Token expired or revoked. The strategy stops sending orders and raises an error alert. Reconnect the broker and redeploy.

Your money never moves

Tradetron is software. The account, the cash, the shares and the options contracts are at Alpaca, Tradier, Webull or whichever broker you chose, under that broker's protections and rules. Tradetron can create orders in that account because you authorised it to; it cannot touch anything else. You can see every order it created in the broker's own order history, and you can cancel any order or close any position from the broker's app at any time. The strategy will notice the position is gone and log it.

Disconnecting

At Tradetron: Broker & Exchanges, remove the broker. At the broker: revoke the connected application (Alpaca under Connected Apps, Tradier under Applications, Webull under API access). Either one stops every linked strategy from sending orders. Positions already open stay in your account; close them at the broker or redeploy later.

Frequently asked questions

Does Tradetron ever hold my funds?

No. Tradetron has no brokerage and no custody. Funds and securities are at your broker at all times.

Can one strategy trade two broker accounts?

A deployment is tied to one connected account. The same strategy can be deployed twice, once per account, each with its own quantity.

Which plan do I need to connect a broker?

Connecting a broker is possible on every plan. Running a strategy live in a broker account starts with the Starter plan at $15 a month; the free plan includes one Live Offline deployment, which needs no broker. See the pricing page and the US broker list.