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Updated 7 July 2026 · 5 min read

How to join a challenge

A step-by-step setup guide: connect your Alpaca paper account, verify it, and put the desk to work on a challenge lane. Everything here is simulated — no real money, ever.

📄 100% paper trading · no real funds at risk

🛡️ Start with at least one Conservative lane

If you only do one thing: join a Conservative lane first. It trades A/A+ setups only, prefers defined-risk spreads, and compounds steadily. Aggressive lanes take wider, lower-grade trades and historically bleed the most — treat them as the spicy add-on, not your foundation.

1

Create your Alpaca paper account(s)

On alpaca.markets · ~3 minutes
  1. Go to alpaca.markets → Sign up (free) and verify your email.
  2. In the trading dashboard, flip the mode toggle (top-left) from Live to 📄 Paper.
  3. You start with one paper account automatically. To add more, open the account switcher and choose ＋ New Account — Alpaca lets you keep up to 3 paper accounts.
  4. Give each a name you'll recognize (e.g. Conservative, Aggressive), and note each account's ID — they look like PA3•••••••.

✅ Options are already on — nothing to enable

Paper accounts come options-ready out of the box at Level 3 (Alpaca's top tier — long options + defined-risk spreads), which is exactly what the desk needs. You don't apply for anything. If a lane ever sits idle, confirming options are enabled is the one thing worth a quick glance — but on paper it's automatic. (Note: Alpaca has no Level 4 / naked options, and the desk never needs it.)

2

Connect Alpaca to Nakkatto

Secure OAuth — we never see your keys
  1. Sign in to nakkatto.com (Google) and open the Dashboard.
  2. Scroll to 🏆 Challenges → open Conservative or Aggressive, and pick a lane.
  3. Click the green 🔗 Connect Alpaca (paper) button. You'll be sent to Alpaca to authorize Nakkatto — review and click Allow.
  4. Alpaca authorizes one account per approval — whichever paper account is active in Alpaca at that moment. Switch to the account you want before authorizing.
  5. Back in Nakkatto, the button flips to connected and shows the account ID. To add another, use ＋ Connect another account, switch accounts in Alpaca, and repeat.

🔒 You never paste API keys

The connection is OAuth — you approve it inside Alpaca and Nakkatto never receives your secret keys. If any screen asks you to type an Alpaca secret key, stop: that isn't the real flow.

3

Verify the connection — check the account ID

Confirm before you rely on it

🚨 Cross-check the account ID and balance when linking

When you connect and when you bind a lane, confirm the PA3••••••• ID and its balance are the ones you intend — the account shown should match the Alpaca account you just authorized. If the ID or the equity looks off, disconnect and reconnect that account before trading, so every lane lands in the right place.

A healthy connection shows all of these:

  1. The Alpaca row reads connected (not "not connected") and shows the PA3••••••• ID.
  2. Live buying power / equity appears (pulled from Alpaca) — not $0 or an error.
  3. Options are active — Level 3 (this is automatic on paper accounts).
  4. Open any ticker and preview an order — if live strikes, expirations and a quote load, the link works.
4

Join a challenge lane

Pick a lane · bind it to an account · consent

There are four lanes. A lane is not locked to one account — you can run several lanes in one account, or dedicate an account per lane.

LaneStart → GoalStyle
Conservative $25k$25,000 → $100,000A/A+ only, defined-risk first
Conservative $10k$10,000 → $50,000Same rules, smaller stack
Aggressive $25k$25,000 → $100,000More size, wider grades
Aggressive $10k$10,000 → $50,000Same, smaller stack
  1. On a lane card, click 🔗 Connect Alpaca (paper) to connect and bind that account to the lane in one step. Already connected? Use Tap to switch account to pick which account runs it.
  2. Accept the consent (you understand it's paper and the desk trades on your behalf).
  3. Done — the lane goes active and the desk starts placing paper trades on its next cycle (market hours).
What an active lane looks like after a few trades — illustrative
Where your trades show up — 📋 Orders, grouped per account

Every order the desk places shows up under 📋 Orders on the desk page, grouped by account — each row is one option order with its fill status, price, and the lane that placed it. Open an account group to see all of its trades.

5

Recommended 3-account setup

3 accounts is Alpaca's max · 4 lanes exist — so map deliberately

Since Alpaca caps you at 3 paper accounts and there are 4 lanes, you can't isolate every lane. The cleanest split keeps risk styles apart — and remember the golden rule: always include a Conservative lane.

Paper accountRunsWhy
1 · "Conservative"Conservative $10k & $25kYour foundation — clean, defined-risk equity curve
2 · "Aggressive"Aggressive $10k & $25kThe spicy sleeve, kept fully separate
3 · "Isolated"One lane you want to watch aloneA clean, uncontaminated read on a single lane

Label each Alpaca account and set the matching label in Nakkatto. (Options are already on at Level 3 automatically — nothing to configure.) When two lanes share one account, the desk manages combined exposure there — per-name and per-direction caps still apply.

✓

Final checklist

  1. Up to 3 Alpaca paper accounts created and labeled.
  2. Each account connected in Nakkatto — account ID + balance cross-checked.
  3. At least one Conservative lane joined and bound to the intended account.
  4. Consent accepted per lane.
  5. First paper trades appear within a cycle or two during market hours.