Hi,
I have 3 paper accounts(nicknamed Strategy_data, Strategy_live_test and Strategy_margin_test) and 1 live account in Alpaca. However when I open Alpaca, I see the following:
-
The top left corner, when clicked shows only 2 paper accounts, specifically Strategy_margin_test and Strategy_live_test
(that is Strategy_data is missing) (screenshot has been attached)
-
When I click on account settings , I see only 2 paper accounts, but this time, I see Strategy_margin_test and Strategy_data (Strategy_live_test is missing) (screenshot has been attached).
In addition to these, when I click on Strategy_live_test, I see a different key than what was present yesterday and is not reflective of the trades which I made yesterday(and has no positions).
What exactly is wrong here?
Thanks
@sarahvignale You currently have 3 paper accounts and the one live account.
- Strategy_margin_test - PA3OTZGZAALB
- Strategy_data - PA3EO6BM11GX
- Strategy_live_test - PA3ZLBASIARH
Not sure why the last account Strategy_live_test doesn’t appear in your list. Perhaps refresh the page?
You stated “when I click on Strategy_live_test, I see a different key than what was present yesterday and is not reflective of the trades which I made yesterday(and has no positions).”
I maybe do not understand. Where did you click on Strategy_live_test? Wasn’t the issue that account didn’t show in the list?
However it may help to understand what’s going on in the background. You can create new paper accounts by clicking “Open New Paper Account”. That will create a new account with new API keys and no transactions, positions, or orders. It’s a fresh account. You can name it whatever you wish, even re-use an old name, but it will be a new account. You can then delete accounts. However you must always have at least one paper account so you cannot delete it if it’s the only one. Deleted accounts aren’t physically deleted immediately. They are inactive. They don’t show in the dashboard list, but if you still have the keys you can access them. You won’t be able to submit orders or change anything but you can view the account details.
This last fact can create confusion at times if one somehow inadvertently uses keys from a deleted account. It can sort of look like it’s there but one will get errors if attempting to place trades or delete positions.
This last fact may be part of the confusion here. Looking at the logs it appears you have created 4 accounts in the past several days, deleted 3 of them and named them all Strategy_live_test. See below
| Name |
Created At |
Deleted At |
| Strategy_live_test |
Mar 14, 2025, 7:54 AM |
Mar 20, 2025, 6:54 AM |
| Strategy_live_test |
Mar 20, 2025, 6:55 AM |
Mar 21, 2025, 4:49 AM |
| Strategy_live_test |
Mar 21, 2025, 4:48 AM |
Mar 24, 2025, 6:45 AM |
| Strategy_live_test |
Mar 24, 2025, 6:45 AM |
|
Could you simply be deleting the account which is why the new account “is not reflective of the trades which I made yesterday(and has no positions)”
Thank a lot @Dan_Whitnable_Alpaca for this valuable input. I was not aware of the fact that deleting an account does not really delete it immediately, and that we can still connect to the same using API keys.
I was not really quite sure what happened, but this looks to have happened last Friday. Anyways, let us hold this off for now. I will keep a keen eye and see if this recurs.
Thanks
