# I want to help Noobs! **URL:** \ **Category:** Tutorials\ **Created:** [July 26, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55 "2019-07-26T18:54:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/1 "2019-07-26T18:54:24Z")
**I would like to offer help in any way I can.** Hello everybody, I’m Josh Cogburn & I’ve been working with Alpaca’s API & other projects since 2018. I’m no expert by any means, but I have been around for a while. About Me: I’m a software developer with over 7+ year’s of experience with many different languages & projects. At my current employer I work on a web based claim management system for an independent insurance adjustment company. Over the year’s I’ve had the opportunity of working with various technologies, programming languages, REST API’s, web services, & fun/challenging projects. When I was an amateur, I often felt extremely unsure of myself & my capabilities. Well I’m on the other side of that valley now & I can tell you that it is only a phase. You can accomplish anything that you are willing to do anything necessary to accomplish. The majority of my skills & knowledge were obtained from learning from trial & error, basically just diving into a topic, language, or technology & keep hacking at it one problem at a time until things aren’t as obscure & intimidating anymore. The point of this post is to announce to the forum, that I’ve got skills, knowledge, & experience and I would like to pass it on to others. I just started a youtube channel for this purpose and would like create content specifically tailored for using Alpaca, Machine Learning, & Algo Trading (Primarily in Python). Here’s my channel: [CodeLabs](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7JSm5pI-FURs6fNcHRcRyA) I’m open to suggestions on the topics and I look forward to helping other’s along their journey. Happy Hacking - Josh Cogburn ---
**Author:** ![qorrect](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/qorrect/32/28_2.png) [@qorrect](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/qorrect)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 7:29pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/2 "2019-07-26T19:29:53Z")
Exciting to see a Video Channel. Id love to see any ML strategies implemented and ideas / best practices around integrating into AlgoTrading, will be following you! ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 8:09pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/3 "2019-07-26T20:09:26Z")
@qorrect Thanks for the feedback! Those topics are definitely in my pipeline I’ll let you know as soon as I post some additional content. Thanks again & have a Great Day! ---
**Author:** ![Hogan\_Pope](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/hogan_pope/32/99_2.png) [@Hogan\_Pope](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Hogan_Pope)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2019, 2:03pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/4 "2019-08-13T14:03:13Z")
Hey, exciting to hear that you’re looking to help people, I’ve already poked around on your youtube some but and I had a thought about something that I think many people would find helpful, I know I certainly would. Would you be at all willing to make a template of sorts for people like me trying to get to the working phase? Something which would theoretically then be able to be taken and adapted to a wide range of types of algos? ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2019, 1:49pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/5 "2019-08-14T13:49:36Z")
@Hogan_Pope Hey hows it going! I know my channel is limited on content right now, I’ve been working on an web application to build and test Algo’s with Alpaca which I want to also use in conjunction with my channel. This will allow for rapid prototyping of various Algorithm’s, because in my experience it can be pretty tedious at times. You mentioned trying to get to a working phase, are you referring to live trading? As far as being able to make use of a wide range of algo’s that’s what I’m trying to accomplish with the web application I mentioned. Since I don’t have much content on the channel right now Is there anything specific problems that your running into or need clarification on? Happy Hacking, - Josh ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/kevin_muhlestein/32/123_2.png) [@Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Kevin_Muhlestein)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 12:28am UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/6 "2019-08-23T00:28:57Z")
I am new with Python and Alpaca. I am trying to create my first program and want to just do something simple. I would like to set it up to buy 1 share of a stock at say 10:30 in the morning everyday. Any direction on setting this up? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/7 "2019-08-23T16:08:33Z")
@Kevin_Muhlestein great question, do you have any code yet? You would first need to set up your environment variables, import necessary modules, and create a REST object instance. Have you gotten that far yet? If not no problem, I’d be glad to help. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/kevin_muhlestein/32/123_2.png) [@Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Kevin_Muhlestein)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 4:30pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/8 "2019-08-23T16:30:08Z")
Josh, thanks for the reply. I am at the very very beginning and have no idea how to get started. I’ve read through the info on alpacas site, but it seems like it is written for someone that already know what’s going on. Thanks for your help. ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/9 "2019-08-23T17:12:19Z")
@Kevin_Muhlestein Ok, no worries. I’m going to attach a short snippet that just sets up a REST object. You’ll need your API keys from Alpaca, make sure you never share any API keys! You do have your keys right? ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/10 "2019-08-23T17:24:22Z")
import alpaca\_trade\_api as tradeapi import os from pprint import pprint os.environ[“APCA\_API\_BASE\_URL”] = “REPLACE WITH ALPACA API ENDPOINT” os.environ[“APCA\_API\_KEY\_ID”] = “REPLACE WITH ALPACA API KEY ID” os.environ[“APCA\_API\_SECRET\_KEY”] = “REPLACE WITH ALPACA API SECRET KEY” api = tradeapi.REST( key\_id = os.environ[“APCA\_API\_KEY\_ID”]’, secret\_key = os.environ[“APCA\_API\_SECRET\_KEY”]’, base\_url = os.environ[“APCA\_API\_BASE\_URL”] ) pprint(api) ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 5:25pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/11 "2019-08-23T17:25:53Z")
Drop this in a script and try running it. Ex. save as test.py and in your terminal run “python test.py”. ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 5:28pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/12 "2019-08-23T17:28:28Z")
If your python version is fairly recent and you’ve pip installed the alpaca\_trade\_api module as a dependency, then it should run and output your REST object instance. ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/13 "2019-08-23T17:29:27Z")
If you need help getting to that point (setting up a virtual environment and installing dependencies) let me know. ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/14 "2019-08-23T17:32:48Z")
While your in development & testing, just use ‘[https://paper-api.alpaca.markets](https://paper-api.alpaca.markets)’ for the APCA\_API\_BASE\_URL environment variable. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/kevin_muhlestein/32/123_2.png) [@Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Kevin_Muhlestein)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 11:25pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/15 "2019-08-23T23:25:09Z")
Thanks, Josh! I will work on getting this going and get back to you with the result! ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/kevin_muhlestein/32/123_2.png) [@Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Kevin_Muhlestein)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 11:51pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/16 "2019-08-23T23:51:05Z")
Josh, do you mind providing direction on installing the alpaca\_trade\_api module as a dependency? I am assuming this is what allows me to use language unique to alpaca? ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 4:00pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/17 "2019-08-24T16:00:09Z")
Absolutely, I’m currently away from my computer right now, but I’ll send you some info later this evening. ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/18 "2019-08-25T18:51:42Z")
@Kevin_Muhlestein, I’m writing a Medium post to help you and other’s set up their development environments to get started using Alpaca. Here’s the link: [https://medium.com/@josh.cogburn.dev/alpaca-development-environment-e169f2abdf1e](https://medium.com/@josh.cogburn.dev/alpaca-development-environment-e169f2abdf1e) ---
**Author:** ![joshcogburn](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/joshcogburn/32/127_2.png) [@joshcogburn](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/joshcogburn)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 12:49pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/19 "2019-08-26T12:49:40Z")
Are you using Windows, Mac, or Linux? ---
**Author:** ![Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.alpaca.markets/kevin_muhlestein/32/123_2.png) [@Kevin\_Muhlestein](https://forum.alpaca.markets/u/Kevin_Muhlestein)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2019, 1:02pm UTC](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55/20 "2019-08-26T13:02:27Z")
I’m using windows. Python is installed. [Next page](https://forum.alpaca.markets/t/i-want-to-help-noobs/55.md?page=2)