Get started: broker setup & installation
CANADA · UNITED STATES · UPDATED 2026-09-16
Nexus Trader trades your own Interactive Brokers (IBKR) account from your own Windows PC. Setting up has two distinct phases, and only the second one costs money:
- The free paper trial — runs on IBKR's simulated “paper” account with no funding, no market-data fees, and no card. This page gets you there.
- Going live (later, optional) — needs a funded margin account, a real-time data subscription, the Live Trading Risk Acknowledgment, and Nexus's per-account approval. The software does not open live positions before all four exist — read the risk section first.
Want the long version? The How to install page walks through the whole thing step by step, with screenshots: opening the broker account, installing Trader Workstation, the five TWS settings the bot needs, and the setup wizard.
Step 0 — Get the software and a free key
Download Nexus Trader for Windows Request a free paper-trial key
- Windows 10 or 11. The installer is self-contained (about 55 MB); it does not need Python or anything else.
- Activation needs a licence key — e-mail us with the button above and we send one, free. Paper-trial keys are paper-only by design: the licence itself does not permit live trading until Nexus enables it for your account.
- The installer is not yet code-signed, so Windows SmartScreen may warn on first run — choose “More info → Run anyway”.
Step 1 — Open an IBKR account (individual, margin)
Opening the account is the slowest part (typically a few days to two weeks including approval) — start it first. Apply on the IBKR website for your country and choose:
| Question | Choose | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Account type | Individual | The software manages one account for one person. |
| Cash or margin | Margin (standard/Reg T; Portfolio Margin not needed) | The strategy uses up to 1.5× gross leverage; a cash account cannot run it. |
| Trading permissions | United States → Stocks | US-listed stocks only. Options, futures, forex, crypto, short selling — all unnecessary; leave them off. |
| Market-data status | Non-professional (if trading your own money) | Professional data rates are far higher. |
| Experience questions | Answer honestly | “No experience / preserve capital” answers can result in cash-only approval; if that happens, request the margin upgrade afterwards in Client Portal. |
Canadian clients
You open with IBKR's Canadian entity at interactivebrokers.ca — same application flow. Registered accounts (TFSA, RRSP, RESP) are not margin accounts and cannot be used; you need an ordinary non-registered margin account. Sign the W-8BEN tax form (part of the application) for US stock trading. A CAD base currency works — US stocks trade in USD and IBKR converts as needed.
US clients
You open with Interactive Brokers LLC at interactivebrokers.com and sign a W-9 during the application. The regulatory minimum equity for a margin account is US$2,000 (FINRA rule) — comfortably below Nexus Trader's own minimum of CAD 5,000 (≈US$3,650), so any account that meets our minimum qualifies for margin. The US$25,000 “pattern day trading” rule is about placing 3+ same-day round trips within 5 days; Nexus Trader enters near the close and holds positions overnight or longer, so normal operation does not trigger it.
Already an IBKR client? Do not run the software in an account holding other investments — it adopts and manages every position it finds. Add a second account under your existing login and dedicate it.
Every IBKR client automatically gets a free paper account (its id starts with DU/DF; live ids start with U). That paper account is what the free trial uses — no deposit required.
Step 2 — Install Trader Workstation (TWS)
- On the IBKR website go to Trading → Trading Platforms → Trader Workstation and download the Stable Windows installer (not the beta). Same download for Canada and the US.
- Install with default options (it bundles its own Java) and start it.
- On the login window switch to Paper Trading and log in with your paper username (shown in Client Portal under Settings → Paper Trading Account — it differs from your live username).
- Leave TWS running, minimised is fine. You can watch positions and the software's stop orders in TWS's own screens at any time.
Step 3 — Enable the API
In TWS: Edit → Global Configuration → API → Settings (File instead of Edit in the Mosaic layout). The connection is strictly local — your PC talking to itself (127.0.0.1); nothing is opened to the internet.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients | ON |
| Read-Only API | OFF (read-only would block the protective stop orders) |
| Socket port | 7497 for TWS paper (7496 is TWS live — see the note below) |
| Allow connections from localhost only | ON (the default — leave it ticked; TWS then accepts the software's connection from your own PC without a pop-up, and nothing needs adding to Trusted IPs) |
| Download open orders on connection | ON |
Why changing the port cannot take you live
Ports are not a safety mechanism and we do not treat them as one. On every connection the software checks the account id that IBKR itself reports: paper accounts start
DU/DF, live accounts U. A paper profile connected to a live account (or the reverse) is refused and disconnected before anything trades. Going live additionally requires an explicit live profile, a deliberate “allow live trading” confirmation, the per-account Live Trading Risk Acknowledgment, and a licence that Nexus has enabled for live — the paper-trial licence is paper-only until we change that after your paper phase.Also set Configure → Lock and Exit → Auto restart (not Auto logoff), scheduled outside 04:00–20:00 ET, so TWS re-logs itself daily. IBKR still forces one full re-authentication weekly (usually Sunday evening) — approve it on your phone with IB Key, or the software cannot connect Monday.
Step 4 — Install Nexus Trader and run the trial
- Run the installer, start Nexus Trader, and enter your free key when the setup wizard asks.
- The wizard's connection test shows the account id it found (paper ids start
DU/DF) and the account's value — or, if it cannot connect, what went wrong (see Common problems below). Nothing is ordered during the test. - Let it run its daily rhythm: stop checks from 04:00 ET, the one decision at 15:55 ET, the evening summary e-mail. Delayed quotes are fine on paper — the software's paper-trial mode is built for IBKR's free delayed feed, so you do not need a market-data subscription for the trial.
When you are ready for live (later)
- Fund the margin account: minimum CAD 5,000, recommended CAD 7,000+ (≈US$5,000). Below the minimum the strategy measurably degrades (positions round to 0–1 shares); IBKR's own margin minimum is lower, but it is not enough for the strategy. Only fund what you can afford to see drawn down.
- Subscribe to real-time US data (about US$5–15/month, non-professional): the US Securities Snapshot and Futures Value Bundle plus the three streaming network feeds — NYSE (Network A/CTA), NYSE American/BATS/ARCA/IEX (Network B), NASDAQ (Network C/UTP). Live trading never runs on delayed data — no setting can change that.
- Activate IB Key two-factor login in the IBKR Mobile app.
- Complete the Live Trading Risk Acknowledgment (read it now) and ask Nexus to enable live mode on your licence. We enable it per account, after your paper phase — this is deliberate, and the monthly fee only starts here (see Pricing).
Common problems
| Symptom | Usual cause & fix |
|---|---|
| “nothing accepted the connection” (once setup is finished, the main window shows “IBKR NOT reachable”) | TWS is not running or not logged in, TWS is logged in to your live account (which uses port 7496 by default, not 7497), the API switch is off, or the port is wrong. Start TWS, log in to your paper account, and check Step 3. |
| Everything stopped after TWS updated itself | Updating to TWS 10.45 or later can switch the API off once, for security. Tick Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients again and check the rest of Step 3. |
| “accepted the connection but did not answer the API handshake” | Check TWS for a pop-up asking to accept the connection (next row). If there is none, close TWS, start it again, log in, and test again. |
| TWS shows a pop-up asking to accept an incoming connection | Allow connections from localhost only has been unticked. Click No on any of these pop-ups, tick the box again (Step 3), click OK and test again — TWS then lets the software in without asking, and nothing needs adding to Trusted IPs. Clicking Yes is not a fix: it lets that one connection in, whatever sent it, and TWS asks again next time. |
| “did not finish starting the API session” or “closed the API connection before it was ready” | TWS may still be starting up or not be fully logged in, or someone may have clicked No on a TWS pop-up. Wait a minute and test again; if it keeps happening, restart TWS and log in. |
| “refused client id” | Another program on this PC is already connected to TWS with that client id (Nexus Trader itself runs only one copy). Close that program; if nothing else is connected, restart TWS, log in, and test again. |
| “PROFILE/ACCOUNT MISMATCH” | TWS is logged in to a different kind of account (paper or live) than the software expects. During setup and the paper trial that means TWS is logged in to your live account: log TWS in to your paper account (id starting DU/DF) — this refusal is the safety check working. Ignore any suggestion in the message to edit settings files: live trading is switched on only with Go Live…, once Nexus has enabled it. |
| Older versions: “did not provide nextValidId”, or the test stays on “Connecting to TWS …” | Before version 0.2.2 most connection problems showed that one message, and a waiting TWS pop-up could keep the test running indefinitely. Work through the rows above. If you are still in setup, download and run the current installer (Step 0); a copy that already runs the bot downloads updates by itself and installs them when you restart Nexus Trader outside 04:00–20:00 ET. |
| Everything stopped on a Monday | Sunday's weekly IB Key re-authentication was not approved. |
| IBKR approved a cash account | Request the margin upgrade in Client Portal before going live; the paper trial works either way. |
Where a row says “test again”: during setup, press Test connection again; once the bot is running, it retries by itself.
Account, login, data-billing and margin-approval questions belong to IBKR client services — Nexus cannot see or access your account. For anything the software reports: inquiries@nexustrader.app.