Paper trading

Paper accounts behave like live accounts in every way except that no orders reach a market and no money moves. They use live quotes, the same order types and the same pre-trade risk checks.

Create a paper account

Every user gets one paper account with a $100,000 balance on sign-up. Create more, with balances from $1,000 to $10,000,000:

curl https://api.consciouslab.xyz/v1/trading/accounts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CL_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"mode": "paper", "name": "momentum-test", "starting_balance": "250000.00"}'

How fills are simulated

Paper fills are simulated against the real order book at the time of the order:

• Market orders walk the book level by level, so large orders fill at progressively worse prices, just as they would live.
• Limit orders join the queue at their price. They fill only after the volume ahead of them at that price has traded, estimated from the book and the trade prints.
• Partial fills happen when the book cannot absorb the full quantity.
• Fees are charged at the live schedule so results are comparable.

This fill model is more conservative than one that fills every limit order the moment the price touches it, which tends to overstate strategy performance.

Reset

Reset an account to its starting balance from Trading, Accounts or with POST /v1/trading/accounts/{id}/reset. Positions are closed at the last price and history is archived, so you can compare runs.

Moving to live

Live trading needs a Pro or Enterprise plan, identity verification, and acceptance of the brokerage agreement. Strategies and API code work unchanged; switch the account parameter from your paper account ID to your live account ID.

Paper results do not guarantee live results. Slippage, latency and market impact in live markets can differ from simulation, especially for illiquid instruments.