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Developer Portal

The Developer Portal provides programmatic access to VTrade’s market data, trading engine, and portfolio management capabilities via a RESTful API. Build automated trading strategies, custom analytics dashboards, external alert systems, or integrate VTrade functionality into third-party applications. Developer Portal — Dashboard showing API statistics, active keys, and usage overview

Access Requirements

Navigate to VTrade → Developer from the left sidebar.
The Developer Portal is free for all accounts. Create an API key instantly after sign-up — no subscription required. Higher rate limits and premium data are available on paid plans.

Subscription Tiers & API Entitlements


Overview Dashboard

The Overview tab provides at-a-glance operational intelligence about your API usage, health status, and consumption trends. Developer Overview — Real-time API statistics with 30-day usage chart and health indicators

Summary Metrics

30-Day Usage Chart

An interactive line/bar chart displaying daily request volumes over the past 30 days:
  • Primary axis: Total requests per day (bar chart)
  • Secondary axis: Error count per day (line overlay, red)
  • Hover tooltip: Date, total requests, success count, error count, avg. latency
  • Trend line: 7-day moving average to identify usage patterns

Health Status Indicators


API Key Management

API keys authenticate all programmatic requests to VTrade’s API. Each key is a unique credential that should be treated with the same security as a password. API Keys — Key listing with creation, masking, last-used timestamps, and revocation controls

Key Architecture

VTrade API keys follow the format: vtrd_live_ followed by 48 alphanumeric characters.
  • Prefix: vtrd_live_ (identifies the key as a VTrade production credential)
  • Payload: 48-character cryptographically random string
  • Example: vtrd_live_a1b2c3d4e5f6g7h8i9j0k1l2m3n4o5p6q7r8s9t0u1v2w3x4

Creating a New API Key

  1. Navigate to the API Keys tab
  2. Click + Create API Key
  3. Enter a label — a human-readable identifier describing the key’s purpose:
    • Best practice: Name by project/application (e.g., “Trading Bot - Production”, “Dashboard - Staging”, “Alert System”)
  4. Optionally select permissions (if your plan supports scoped keys):
    • Read Only (market data + portfolio queries)
    • Read + Write (includes order placement and modification)
    • Full Access (all endpoints including account management)
  5. Click Generate
  6. The full key is displayed exactly once in a copy dialog
Critical Security Notice: The complete API key is displayed only at the moment of creation. After you close the generation dialog, the key is irreversibly masked and cannot be retrieved. Copy it immediately and store it in a secure location (password manager, encrypted environment variable, or secrets management service). If you lose the key, you must revoke it and generate a new one.

Key Storage Best Practices

API Keys Table

Revoking an API Key

If a key is compromised, no longer needed, or being rotated:
  1. Locate the key in the table
  2. Click Revoke
  3. Confirm the action in the dialog (this is irreversible)
  4. Immediate effect: All subsequent requests using this key receive 401 Unauthorized
  5. The key remains in the table (grayed out, marked “Revoked”) for audit purposes
Create separate API keys for each application, environment (dev/staging/prod), and team member. This practice ensures that revoking a compromised key affects only one integration point, minimizing disruption to your other systems.

Key Rotation Workflow

Recommended procedure for rotating API keys without downtime:
  1. Create a new key with the same label + “(v2)” suffix
  2. Update your application configuration to use the new key
  3. Verify the new key works correctly (make a test API call)
  4. Revoke the old key
  5. Monitor for any 401 errors that indicate missed configuration points

Usage Analytics

The Usage tab provides comprehensive API consumption analytics, helping you monitor request patterns, identify errors, and optimize your integration. API Usage — Detailed consumption analytics with endpoint breakdown and error analysis

Usage Chart (Interactive)

A configurable chart displaying request metrics over time: View Options: Time Range: Last 24 hours, Last 7 days, Last 30 days, Custom range

Daily Breakdown Table

Error Analysis

A dedicated error breakdown panel showing:
  • Error code distribution — Pie chart of 400, 401, 403, 404, 429, 500 responses
  • Recent errors — Table of last 50 error responses with timestamp, endpoint, status code, and error message
  • Error trend — Is your error rate increasing, stable, or decreasing?

Rate Limit Monitoring

Real-time rate limit telemetry: Rate Limit Response: When you exceed your per-minute rate limit, the API returns:
Headers included in every response:

Authentication

All API requests must include your API key in the Authorization header using the Bearer token scheme:
Authentication Errors:

Quick Start Examples

cURL — Get a Stock Quote

Response:

cURL — Place a Limit Order

Response:

cURL — Get Portfolio Positions

Response:

Python SDK

TypeScript / Node.js SDK


API Endpoint Reference (Summary)

Complete API documentation with request/response schemas, error codes, WebSocket streaming endpoints, and pagination details is available at api.vectrade.com/docs. The interactive API explorer allows you to test endpoints directly from the browser with your API key.

Webhook Integration (Coming Soon)

VTrade will support outbound webhook notifications for real-time event delivery:
  • Order status changes (filled, cancelled, rejected)
  • Price alert triggers
  • Portfolio threshold alerts (drawdown, target return)
  • Competition status updates
Webhooks will deliver JSON payloads to your configured HTTPS endpoint with HMAC signature verification for security.