Every TradersPost Broker Compared

Choosing the right broker for an automated strategy is not just about commissions. It comes down to which asset classes a broker supports, which order types it will accept, whether it offers paper trading, and how it connects. This traderspost broker comparison covers every live connection the platform supports, built directly from the platform's own settings files rather than broker marketing pages.

The gap between what a broker advertises and what its API actually accepts matters the most when a webhook fires at 9:31 AM. If the order type you sent is not supported, TradersPost falls back to the default configured in your strategy subscription settings. Knowing those gaps before you go live is the whole point of this article.

What follows covers asset classes, order types, bracket and OCO availability, paper trading, connection method, and fees for every broker in the lineup.

The Full Broker Lineup

Sixteen live connections

TradersPost supports sixteen live broker and exchange connections: Alpaca, Bybit, Interactive Brokers, Kraken, ProjectX, tastytrade, TradeStation, Tradier, Tradovate, and Webull, plus a set of prop firm accounts powered by the Tradovate and ProjectX connections. NinjaTrader is reached through the Tradovate connection, not as a standalone integration. TradersPost Paper is a built-in simulated account separate from any third-party broker.

How the comparison is organized

The comparison covers five dimensions: supported asset classes, supported order types, bracket order availability, paper trading availability, and authentication method. Each broker's capabilities come directly from TradersPost's settings files, not from broker marketing pages, so they reflect what the platform can actually send to each broker at order time.

Brokers by Asset Class

Stocks and options

Alpaca supports stocks, crypto, and options. Tradier supports stocks, options, index, and index options. TradeStation supports stocks, options, index, index options, and futures. tastytrade supports stocks, futures, crypto, options, index, and index options. The Webull connection supports stocks only. Interactive Brokers supports stocks only through TradersPost, despite IBKR offering many more asset classes natively.

For cash-settled index options on SPX, NDX, RUT, XSP, and VIX, Alpaca is not an option. TradeStation, Tradier, or tastytrade cover those. TradersPost normalizes option symbol formats internally and converts them to each broker's required format at order time, so you do not need to format symbols differently per broker.

Futures

Futures automation runs through Tradovate, NinjaTrader (via the Tradovate connection), or ProjectX for prop firm accounts. TradeStation also supports futures as an asset class. tastytrade supports futures trading with market, limit, stop, and stop-limit order types. Bybit, Kraken, Alpaca, Webull, Tradier, and Interactive Brokers do not support futures through TradersPost.

Crypto

The crypto connections compared here are Alpaca, Bybit, Kraken, and tastytrade. Alpaca does not allow shorting crypto; their documentation states cryptocurrencies are not shortable. The tastytrade connection does not allow net short crypto positions. The Kraken connection does not offer paper trading; the Alpaca and Bybit connections do.

Quote currency support differs across crypto brokers. Kraken supports USD, USDT, USDC, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, CHF, DAI, AUD, AED, and PYUSD. Bybit supports USDT, USDC, DAI, EUR, and BRZ. Alpaca and tastytrade do not expose a configurable quote currency setting.

Order Types by Broker

Market, limit, stop, stop-limit

All brokers support market and limit orders. The gaps appear at stop and stop-limit. The Bybit connection supports market, limit, and stop-limit only; it does not accept a plain stop order. The Kraken connection sends market, limit, stop, stop-limit and trailing-stop orders, all within the simple order class. The tastytrade connection supports only market and limit for the crypto asset class; stop and stop-limit are not available for crypto through it. Alpaca supports market, limit, and stop-limit for crypto but not a plain stop order for that asset class.

Trailing stops

Trailing stop orders are supported on Alpaca (stocks only), Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, Tradovate, Webull, and ProjectX. The Tradier, tastytrade, Bybit, and Kraken connections do not accept trailing stop orders at all.

Two edge cases worth noting: Alpaca returns an API error if a trailing stop is submitted for options, even though Alpaca's own dashboard appears to offer the option type. The API does not accept it. Interactive Brokers and TradeStation both support trailing stop as a bracket leg in addition to a standalone order.

Time-in-force options

TradeStation and Alpaca (stocks) offer the widest time-in-force set: DAY, GTC, OPG, CLS, IOC, and FOK. Tradovate supports DAY, GTC, FOK, and IOC. The ProjectX connection supports DAY only. The Bybit connection supports GTC, IOC, and FOK; it does not accept DAY orders. The Tradier connection supports DAY and GTC only.

• TradeStation and Alpaca stocks: DAY, GTC, OPG, CLS, IOC, FOK
• Tradovate: DAY, GTC, FOK, IOC
• Tradier and Webull: DAY, GTC
• Bybit: GTC, IOC, FOK
• ProjectX: DAY only

Bracket Order Support

Which brokers support brackets

Bracket orders are available on TradeStation, Tradier, Tradovate, Interactive Brokers, Webull, Alpaca (stocks only), and tastytrade (all asset classes except crypto). The Alpaca connection does not accept complex orders for crypto or options; submitting a bracket for those asset classes returns an API error. The tastytrade connection's crypto asset class supports only simple orders, because a bracket exit requires a stop order and the crypto order types available through it are market and limit. The Bybit, Kraken, and ProjectX connections support simple orders only.

OCO and OTO availability

OCO orders are supported on Webull, Alpaca (stocks), and tastytrade for non-crypto asset classes; the Tradier connection declares simple, OTO and bracket only. OTO orders are supported on Tradier, Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, Tradovate, and Webull. The Alpaca connection supports OTO for stocks only. No crypto-only broker (Bybit or Kraken) supports OCO or OTO.

Paper Trading Availability

Broker-side paper accounts

Broker-provided paper trading is available on Alpaca, TradeStation, Tradier, Tradovate, Interactive Brokers, Bybit, and ProjectX. The tastytrade, Webull, and Kraken connections do not offer a paper trading environment.

Fill quality and data vary significantly across those that do support paper trading. Alpaca paper provides real-time fills and real-time market data. TradeStation paper has delayed fills and market data sometimes. Tradier paper is 15 minutes delayed. Tradovate paper has real-time fills but no market data. Interactive Brokers paper has real-time fills and market data. Bybit paper has real-time fills and market data.

TradersPost Paper built-in account

TradersPost provides its own built-in paper account that supports stocks, options, index, index options, futures, and crypto. Market hours are not respected; orders fill 24/7. Limit orders fill at the specified price. Market orders fill at the bid-ask midpoint. The built-in paper account is available to every user regardless of which live broker is connected, making it a practical first stop for verifying webhook payloads before risking real capital.

It is not a substitute for a broker-side simulation. The TradersPost paper account is useful for confirming strategy configuration is correct, but it should not be used to measure strategy performance. For futures data in the TradersPost paper account, a connected broker such as TradeStation must be set as the market data source.

How You Connect Each Broker

OAuth brokers

Alpaca, tastytrade, Tradier, TradeStation, Tradovate, Interactive Brokers, and Webull authenticate via OAuth. Most OAuth connections support token refreshing, and TradersPost renews those automatically; the Alpaca connection does not, so it is reconnected by hand. Tradier requires a mode choice between live and paper at connection time; most other OAuth brokers do not require that choice upfront.

API key brokers

Bybit and Kraken connect with a manually entered API key and secret pair rather than OAuth. ProjectX connects with a manually entered token and also requires a mode choice between live and paper at connection time. API key connections do not support OAuth token refreshing; the key is set once and remains until manually updated.

Interactive Brokers specifics

Interactive Brokers requires an HTTP proxy to be running locally and supports sessions management that other brokers do not. Through TradersPost, Interactive Brokers currently supports stocks only, despite IBKR offering many more asset classes natively. IBKR also does not support retrying failed orders, which is a gap shared with the TradersPost Paper built-in account. Every other broker, including Tradier, Alpaca, TradeStation, tastytrade, Tradovate, Webull, Bybit, ProjectX, and Kraken, supports order retrying.

A Note on Fees

TradersPost charges nothing per trade

TradersPost charges a platform subscription fee but adds no per-trade commission on top of whatever your broker charges. Switching brokers changes your execution costs; it does not change your automation costs. Fee schedules at brokers change, so always verify current rates on the broker's own pricing page before trading.

Kraken fee structure as an example

Kraken uses a maker-taker fee tier system for spot crypto. At the entry tier (Tier 1, zero prior volume), the maker fee is 0.40% and the taker fee is 0.80%.¹ Kraken's fee tier is based on the best of 30-day spot trading volume or assets on platform (AoP); holding more assets on Kraken can qualify a trader for lower fees.¹

At Tier 12, requiring $10M in volume or $10M AoP, the maker fee reaches 0.0% and the taker fee is 0.10%.¹ Separately, Kraken charges a 1% trading fee on instant and recurring trades and 1.5% on custom orders through its consumer Instant Buy product; these are distinct from Kraken Pro spot fees.¹ Check kraken.com/features/fee-schedule for current rates, as fee schedules change.

How to Choose a Broker

Choose by asset class first

Asset class is the hardest constraint. If you trade futures, your options are Tradovate, NinjaTrader via Tradovate, ProjectX, or TradeStation. If you trade crypto, the connections compared here are Alpaca, Bybit, Kraken, and tastytrade, each with different order type restrictions that matter for automated exits. If you trade stocks and options together including index options, TradeStation, tastytrade, or Tradier cover the most ground.

Factor in bracket and paper needs

If automated bracket orders are required, Bybit, Kraken, and ProjectX are ruled out immediately. If paper trading is required before going live, tastytrade, Webull, and Kraken are also ruled out. Prop firm traders using futures should look at Tradovate-powered connections (such as Apex Trader Funding and Topstep via Tradovate) or ProjectX-powered connections such as Topstep and The Futures Desk.

Check order type gaps before committing

If trailing stop orders are part of the strategy, confirm the broker and asset class combination supports it before connecting. Trailing stops are unavailable through the Tradier, tastytrade, Bybit, and Kraken connections. If the strategy sends stop orders for crypto, the Alpaca connection supports stop-limit but not plain stop for that asset class; the tastytrade connection supports neither stop nor stop-limit for crypto; the Bybit connection supports stop-limit only. When an unsupported order type is sent, TradersPost falls back to the default order type configured in the strategy subscription settings, so a mismatch will not cause an outright failure, but it may not execute the way you intended.

The decision tree is short: start with asset class, eliminate brokers that cannot paper trade if you need that, eliminate brokers that cannot bracket if your strategy depends on it, then check the specific order types your exit logic requires. That narrows the list quickly for most strategies.

Ready to connect a broker? Log in to TradersPost, navigate to Brokers, and add a connection. The strategy subscription settings let you configure your default order type and fallback behavior before your first live signal arrives.

Bottom Line

• Futures automation requires Tradovate, TradeStation, or ProjectX; no crypto or stock-only broker covers this asset class.
• Bracket orders are unavailable on Bybit, Kraken, and ProjectX; for crypto with brackets, use Alpaca (stocks) or tastytrade (non-crypto asset classes).
• Paper trading is absent from tastytrade, Webull, and Kraken; the TradersPost built-in paper account covers all asset classes as a configuration check but is not a performance benchmark.
• Trailing stops work on Alpaca (stocks), Interactive Brokers, TradeStation, Tradovate, Webull, and ProjectX only; plan your exit logic around this before choosing a broker.
• TradersPost adds no per-trade commission; execution costs are entirely determined by the broker you choose.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which brokers support bracket orders?

Bracket orders work on TradeStation, Tradier, Tradovate, Interactive Brokers, Webull, Alpaca (stocks only), and tastytrade (all asset classes except crypto). The Bybit, Kraken, and ProjectX connections support simple orders only and cannot send brackets. Alpaca returns an API error if a bracket is sent for crypto or options.

Which brokers offer paper trading?

Broker-side paper is available on Alpaca, TradeStation, Tradier, Tradovate, Interactive Brokers, Bybit, and ProjectX. The tastytrade, Webull, and Kraken connections do not offer paper trading environments. TradersPost also provides a built-in paper account that supports all asset classes and is available regardless of which live broker is connected.

Does TradersPost charge per-trade commissions?

TradersPost does not charge per-trade commissions. Your execution costs come entirely from the broker. Broker fee schedules change frequently; verify current rates directly on each broker's pricing page.

Can I trade futures without a prop firm account?

Yes. Tradovate supports live futures trading through a standard retail Tradovate account. TradeStation also supports futures as an asset class for retail accounts. NinjaTrader is accessible through the Tradovate connection rather than as a standalone integration.

What happens if I send an unsupported order type?

TradersPost falls back to the default order type configured in the strategy subscription settings when the broker does not support the requested type. For example, sending a trailing stop to tastytrade for a crypto position will trigger the fallback because the tastytrade connection does not accept trailing stops for any asset class. Checking the trade signal logs in TradersPost will show whether a fallback occurred and what order was actually sent.

References

¹ Kraken Fee Schedule