Trader Guide — from zero to a running autopilot

1. Create your account {#signup}

1. Go to unisona.ai and open Sign in → Create account.
2. Enter your name, email, and a password, accept the terms, and submit.
3. Check your email for a 6-digit verification code and type it into the

boxes on the page. You cannot log in until the address is verified.

1. Log in with your email and password.

No code arrived? Check spam; the sender is [email protected]. The code entry stays on the same page — don't navigate away.

2. Connect your Alpaca account {#connect}

The trader runs on your own Alpaca paper account. We never see your Alpaca password, and pasted keys are stored encrypted on the server — they are never shown again, logged, or shared.

1. Create a free account at alpaca.markets if you don't have one.
2. In Alpaca, open Paper Trading → API Keys and generate a key pair.
3. In unisona.ai, open Settings → Connections → Alpaca → Connect.
4. Paste the API Key ID (PK…) and Secret Key, and connect.

The server validates the keys against Alpaca before storing them — a typo fails immediately, nothing broken is ever saved.

Paper only. The connect flow accepts paper keys and refuses live ones — live trading is a separate, deliberately gated step and is not enabled through this form.

3. Choose whose money and which strategy {#choose}

Two independent switches, both in the trader UI / Settings:

Account mode — whose money the trader acts on:

Trader (Settings → Connections → Autopilot on your account):

One account runs one strategy at a time. Switching is instant and takes effect on the next scan.

4. Turn it on, and what to expect {#running}

Flip the Trader switch from Off to Intraday (or Champion). That's the whole arming step on your side.

What the intraday autopilot does with your account:

• Scans about once a minute during market hours (slower when closed).
• Enters long positions only, on liquid ETFs from the curated watchlist,

when a symbol is washed out (trading at the bottom of its session range).

• Sizes positions as a percentage of your account equity, with a hard cap

on how many positions are open at once and a cash reserve that is never spent.

• Every position carries a protective stop at the broker from the moment

it's opened — the stop exists even if the app goes down.

• Exits on a ladder: it banks profit at the first resistance level, lets a

runner ride through the second, and trails it after that. Losses exit at the stop, full stop.

• Records everything in your trade journal: every entry, every exit with

its P&L, and every opportunity it declined with the reason.

You can place your own manual orders at any time; the autopilot manages only the positions it opened.

Plan note: paper trading needs the Pro plan; the autonomous AI trader is a Pilot-plan capability. The Settings page shows exactly what your plan includes.

5. Turn it off {#stopping}

• Pause the autopilot: Settings → Connections → Trader → ⏸ Off.

Takes effect on the next scan (within ~1 minute). Off is fully hands-off: the autopilot will not open or close anything — positions it had open are now yours to manage, along with their broker-side protective stops, which stay in place.

• Disconnect Alpaca: Settings → Connections → Alpaca → Disconnect.

Your stored keys are deleted from the server. Open positions and stops remain in your Alpaca account (we never had custody — it was always your account).

• Delete your account: Settings → Account → Delete. Broker credentials

are removed with it.

6. Where to look when something seems off {#troubleshooting}

The algorithm itself — what the signals are, why the stops are wide, what was measured and rejected — is documented separately in the trader algorithm paper (ask in chat or see the docs index).