Getting started

A 5-minute walkthrough to get from “signed out” to “running an AI-evaluated trade in practice mode.”

1. Create your account

Head to app.thesistrade.app and either:

• Continue with Google — the fastest path. We get your email + display name, nothing else.
• Email + password — same flow, you choose the password (10+ chars, mix of upper/lower + number).

You’ll land on the dashboard with no broker connected yet. That’s expected.

2. Connect an Alpaca paper account

You need API keys from Alpaca — a US-regulated broker that supports both equity and crypto trading. Sign up there if you don’t have an account yet. Use the Paper trading view for now; you’ll see a different set of keys for Paper vs. Live.

In Alpaca’s dashboard:

1. Switch to the Paper Trading environment (top-right toggle).
2. Click Generate New Key. You’ll get a Key ID and a Secret Key. Copy both immediately — the secret is only shown once.

Back in Thesis:

1. Open Settings → Connect Alpaca (or use the prompt on the dashboard).
2. Paste the Key ID and Secret Key.
3. Confirm Paper Mode is enabled.
4. Save.

Thesis validates the keys with Alpaca and confirms paper-mode status. If anything’s wrong it tells you immediately — the keys never leave the validation step until they’re confirmed valid.

Why BYOK? Thesis never custodies your money. Your keys are encrypted server-side with industry-standard envelope encryption and used only to place orders on your account. If you revoke them in Alpaca’s dashboard, Thesis loses access instantly.

3. Set your risk profile

Open Settings → Risk and pick one of:

• Conservative — smaller positions, tighter stops, higher AI confidence required to fire.
• Moderate (default) — balanced. What most users should start with.
• Aggressive — larger positions, looser stops, lower AI confidence threshold.

These map to specific numeric parameters (position sizing, stop multiples, AI confidence bands) — they’re not abstract.

4. Choose your trading mode

Three options on the dashboard:

• Autopilot — Thesis evaluates every detected pattern and auto-submits trades that pass all filters. You watch.
• Copilot — Thesis evaluates and surfaces a signal card; you tap Approve or Skip.
• Manual — patterns are detected but never auto-evaluated. You decide if/when to enter.

Start in Copilot — you’ll see exactly what Thesis would do without committing to it, and the signal cards include the AI’s reasoning so you can build intuition for when to trust them.

5. Wait for a pattern

Thesis monitors a fixed universe (equities + crypto pairs). Pattern detection runs on 1-hour candles for both classes. Detection rates vary, but expect a few signals per active session.

When something fires, you’ll see:

• A row in the Pattern Feed
• A Signal Ready card on the dashboard if you’re in Copilot mode
• A trade row in Open Positions if you’re in Autopilot mode

Tap any position to open the detail page. The AI decision context card shows the model’s reasoning — what indicators it weighed, what news it saw, why it picked this size.

6. Watch one all the way through

Let one trade run from open to close. The position detail page will narrate what happened:

• “Trail locked above entry — price moved past 1×R, system raised your stop, exit fired when price came back.”
• “Stop hit (positive slippage) — your stop at $X triggered, market sell filled at $Y, $Z better than the stop level.”

That narrative is the fastest way to internalize how the system thinks.

What’s next

• Read Paper vs. live mode before connecting a live key.
• Read How fees work to understand the gross vs. net P/L numbers.
• Browse the Pattern Feed to see what kinds of setups Thesis catches.