Confusing email about Alpaca Pro ($49/month)

Getting Started with Alpaca
1

The email I just received from Alpaca is confusing. There is no link to Alpaca Pro $49/month but there is a link to Polygon 's page where a “$49/mo” subscription is offered. Yes. Yes. YES! I understand the difference and the latter doesn’t even offer stocks for that price – only FOREX/Currencies.

But here’s the problem with that email guys:

The only link to an Alpaca page that might possibly provide a way to sign up for the $49/mo Alpaca service takes one, instead, to the documentaiton for the API for that service – no to a subscription page.

And again, Yes… Yes… YES!! I know that page does have a link purporting to take you to the Alpaca Pro subscription page. To quote it:

to sign up click here.

But you know where that “signup” page actually takes me?

To my live trading dashboard.

Please disentangle this so I can have continuity of service come Feb 27 (like in a few days from now)!

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2

I’m also confused about that email. It says " you will need to create an account on Polygon.io’s website" and it gives a link to Polygon pricing. There is no $49 account there. The cheapest account with real-time data is $199/mo. Also, the email says “After your free month, you will be charged the regular price for Polygon.io.” Finally, the email says:

Alpaca Data API v2
We are introducing two market data plans which you will be able to access after the transition: […] Pro. $49 per month.

My understanding is that, to get real-time data I’m getting now for free, I’ll need to pay $49/mo to Alpaca AND $199/mo more to Polygon. Is that so?

3

I agree it’s a bit confusing. But I think there’s a logical explanation.

But you know where that “signup” page actually takes me?

To my live trading dashboard.

It takes you to the dashboard because, starting on Feb 27, that’s where you’ll be able to sign up for the Pro plan:

You will be able to subscribe to the Pro plan from the Dashboard after Feb 27, 2021

The only reason they link to Polygon is to offer a free month of their $200 service. This gives a transition period of 1 month for people to switch to Alpaca Data API v2:

Please use coupon code ALPACA during checkout on Polygon.io to claim your free month. After you signup, you will need to replace your legacy Polygon API keys with those associated with your newly created Polygon account.

So all you need to do to maintain service for the next month is replace your Alpaca key with your new Polygon key. I’ve tested this myself.

4

So I just got screwed out of $99 by a combination of this email’s ambiguity and Polygon’s tricky subscription form. Here’s how:

The email didn’t specify which Polygon service would be an adequate bridge so I went for the least expensive one that seemed likely to work – the $99/month one. On the subscription form I entered ALPACA as the discount code and clicked submit but, then immediately realized I hadn’t clicked the additional button required to “Apply” the discount code and quickly clicked on it before the form disappeared. The form appeared to “Apply” the discount but now I see on my credit card, I was actually billed $99.

Moreover, the API Key Polygon provided does not correspond to the kind of API key I used in my call to:

ws = websocket.WebSocketApp(“wss://alpaca.socket.polygon.io/stocks”,
on_message = on_message,
on_error = on_error,
on_close = on_close)

Here’s what I get:

{“action”:“auth”,“params”:“secret key provided by polygon.io”}
{“action”: “subscribe”, “params”: “Q.*”}
[{“ev”:“status”,“status”:“connected”,“message”:“Connected Successfully”}]
[{“ev”:“status”,“status”:“auth_success”,“message”:“authenticated”}]
[{“ev”:“status”,“status”:“error”,“message”:“not authorized”}]

So, now I’m out the money AND no longer able to run my algorithm.

5

Polygon.io customer service managed to get me subscribed to the $199/mo service without an immediate charge.

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