About Broker API

This is the documentation about Broker API that helps you build trading apps and brokerage services for your end users. If you are looking to build your own trading bots and algos, read the Trading API documentation. With Alpaca Broker API, you can build the full brokerage experiences for your end users around account opening, funding and trading. This document describes all you need to know to build your trading app.

Broker API Use Cases

There are several different use cases for Broker API integration. Below are some common ones, but please do not hesitate to reach out to our sales team if you have a different case in mind. We want our platform to encourage a broad range of use cases.

Trading/investing app (non-financial institution)
Broker dealer (fully-disclosed, omnibus)
Registered Investment Advisor (RIA)

We support most use cases internationally.

Depending on the case, the API methods you want to use could vary. For example, the omnibus broker-dealer case never uses API to open a customer account since the trading accounts are created upfront and you will submit orders to them, and manage your end customer accounting on your end. More details on each use case are described in the following sections.