Get started: broker setup & installation

CANADA · UNITED STATES · UPDATED 2026-10-09

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:

Free paper mode — runs on IBKR's simulated “paper” account with no funding, no market-data fees, no card and no licence key: download it, install it, run it. 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 TWS settings the bot needs, and the setup wizard.

Step 0 — Get the software

Download Nexus Trader for Windows See the illustrated install guide

Windows 10 or 11. The installer is self-contained (about 55 MB); it does not need Python or anything else.
No licence key, no account with us, no card. Paper mode is free: install the software and the setup wizard takes you straight to the broker connection. A licence exists only for live trading, and Nexus issues one when your account is funded and approved (see When you are ready for live).
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). If IBKR asks for a second factor, approve it in the IBKR Mobile app (activate IB Key there first: Authenticate → IB Key → Activate).
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 — Set up TWS: API, order precautions, nightly restart

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.

Click Apply.

Let the software's orders through. Still in Global Configuration, open API → Precautions — a separate page under API in the left pane — and tick Bypass Order Precautions for API Orders (some versions: Bypass Order and Ticket Precautions for API Orders and Tickets). Also tick Bypass Redirect Order warning for Stock API Orders and Bypass price-based volatility risk warning for API Orders; leave any Suppress market cap box unticked, and click Apply. Without the bypass, TWS can hold an order behind an “are you sure?” warning that nobody is there to click. What it changes: TWS no longer asks before an order from a program connected to it goes to IBKR, even an unusually large one; IBKR's own checks still apply. Connect only Nexus Trader to this TWS login.

Make TWS restart itself every night. TWS reads the restart time on its own clock, not your PC's, so first put that clock on New York time: log out of TWS, open More Options on the login screen, set Time Zone to America/New_York and log in again. Then in Edit → Global Configuration → Lock and Exit (File in Mosaic): select Never lock, choose Auto restart (not Auto logoff), type 10:00, choose PM, and click Apply, then OK. If TWS offers to restart now, say Yes and log in again: Auto restart works from that login on. With Auto logoff, TWS closes every night and stays closed until someone logs in, and the software can do nothing until then. Leave the PC on day and night: TWS closes whenever the PC shuts down or restarts.

Once a week. Every Sunday at 01:00 ET IBKR cancels the saved login that Auto restart reuses, so TWS cannot log itself back in after that, even if it still looks logged in. Between Sunday 02:00 ET and Monday 04:00 ET, close TWS if it is open, start it again and log in (on Paper Trading while you are in paper mode). Sunday afternoon or evening is safe everywhere in Canada and the US; a Saturday-evening login is too early. Otherwise the software cannot connect on Monday; your stop orders already at IBKR stay in place.

Step 4 — Install Nexus Trader and run it in paper mode

Run the installer and start Nexus Trader. The setup wizard asks for the broker connection and an e-mail address — there is no key to enter and nothing to pay. Press Send confirmation e-mail: we e-mail you a link, and alerts and the daily summary start once you press Confirm on the page it opens — in free paper mode too. Leave the address empty to skip e-mail; you can turn it on later in the main window.
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, and the evening summary e-mail (once your address is confirmed; the window also shows each action as it happens). 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 for a licence — this is the point where one is issued, and you activate it in the app with “Activate 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. If this happens every morning, see “TWS is gone every morning” below.
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.
TWS is gone every morning: it closes at night and does not reopen (the main window shows “IBKR NOT reachable” while TWS is closed; a few minutes of it around 10:00 PM New York time is the nightly restart and is normal)	TWS is set to Auto logoff, the PC was off, asleep or restarting at the restart time, or TWS was closed another way. Start TWS and log in, set TWS's time zone to America/New_York and Lock and Exit to Auto restart at 10:00 PM with Never lock selected (Step 3), and leave the PC on day and night.
Orders are not placed, or TWS shows the software's order with a Transmit button or a warning pop-up	TWS is holding the order for a click, or Read-Only API is on. Tick Bypass Order Precautions for API Orders on the API → Precautions page and make sure Read-Only API is off (Step 3). Do not click Transmit on an order TWS is already holding — the software has already given up on it and sending it late can open or close a position it does not expect; cancel it in TWS.
Everything stopped on a Monday	Nobody logged TWS in again after IBKR's Sunday reset. Start TWS, log in and approve the phone prompt if asked.
IBKR approved a cash account	Request the margin upgrade in Client Portal before going live; paper mode works either way.
Something else went wrong, or support asks for your logs	In the Nexus Trader window, in the Controls panel, press Save logs for support (version 0.2.7 or later) and attach the saved zip file to your e-mail to support. The software sends nothing by itself. The file holds the last 14 days of the bot's logs and status files, which show what the bot did, your positions and your account values; your settings, passwords and licence key are not in it, and account numbers and e-mail addresses are masked. The bot keeps its daily logs on your PC for 30 days, so a problem from last week can still be looked at.

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.