With Aikido Finance, you can create a quantitative portfolio in minutes.  

In this article, we will look at how to build a ‘manual’ stock portfolio. This means that you pick a strategy, build a tracker portfolio and follow along in whichever broker you like. 

 Aikido users who use a broker that is not yet available for integration with Aikido (currently we support 

1: Find a trading strategy that you want to use

Log in or Launch App to go to your personal dashboard and browse the catalogue of stock strategies. 

You might search for a trading strategy that suits your risk tolerance, appetite for returns, or recent performance and can sort the strategies by 

There is also the option to filter by criteria such as 

Note: There may not always be a Basic strategy that fills the criteria of multiple filters.  

In this example, we want to find a strategy which contains the stocks of companies with a mid to large market cap, nice earnings and trade with a slight discount and choose Aikido's "Deep Quality" strategy. 

Click on your selected strategy or on 'create portfolio' to start 

. When offered the choice between manual and automated, 

Note: Automated portfolio creation is available to 

Name your new portfolio whatever you like, or use one of our pre-populated auto-generated names.

Select any optional add-ons that may be available at this time. 

Currently Aikido offers US-only stocks (global stocks coming soon), so the conversion value from your currency to USD($) is shown below the amount you input.

In front of you are the stocks which the algorithm has generated; depending on the strategy there will be between 10-25 stocks in the list. You will see the number of shares to purchase for each stock in the list. 

How to purchase the stocks in your broker

 and work your way through the list of stocks, purchasing each as shown.

You may use a market order or a limit order to buy the stock. A 

 should execute instantaneously (using the market’s best price), whereas a 

 could take some time to execute (you decide the price). Most people building an Aikido portfolio will choose to use a market order.

Whatever price you paid for the stock, enter that into the “Share Price” input in Aikido and 

when you’re building the portfolio, you may not know the exact price which you paid for the stock. If that is the case, take your best guess, or 

 – you can always edit the transaction price afterwards.

If you cannot find the stock in your broker or don’t want to purchase a stock for whatever reason, 

the algorithm will give you a brand new stock

 Aikido does not endorse or recommend any individual stock shown in the lists, the stocks are purely generated by the algorithm. 

Next comes the confirmation page which confirms your list of stocks. 

' the completed portfolio will be added to your Aikido profile. Take note of your rebalance date, then sit back and relax. 

Congratulations! You have successfully created your first portfolio. 

Setting up your first Aikido paper portfolio could not be any simpler. See this "how to" guide to do it quickly. 

1. How to create a manual stock portfolio

At Aikido Finance, we empower anyone to build and manage their own quantitative investment portfolio. With an automated portfolio simply pick a strategy, create a portfolio and the trades are sent straight to your broker.

In order to enjoy the benefits of an automated stock portfolio, you will need to hold a 

 Aikido Finance account and have an account with an online broker.

Aikido Finance offer seamless integration with 

 for now (with other brokers in the pipeline).  If you do not use one of these two brokers already, you can easily start now. Find out more on 

. Or choose to trade Manually with Aikido instead. 

Before you can create your first automated portfolio, you will need to 

If your brokerage account is connected successfully and the market is open, then you can create a fully-automated quantitative portfolio.

This guide will help you get a portfolio set up in less than 5 minutes. First go to our catalogue of strategies and choose the strategy that best suits your investment idea (learn 

 to go to your personal dashboard and browse the catalogue of stock strategies.


In this example, we want to find a strategy which contains companies that have mid to large market cap, nice earnings and trade with a slight discount. We will choose Aikido's "Deep Quality" strategy. 

Click on your selected strategy or 'create portfolio' to start 

In the first step of the flow you will see two buttons: ‘Manual’ and ‘Automated’. Click Automate.

you have successfully linked your Interactive Brokers or Alpaca account

Automated portfolios can only be created when the markets are open

NYSE/NASDAQ open 9.30AM to 4.00PM EST Mon-Fri

Choose a new name for your portfolio or stick with the auto generated name pre-populated for you.

. You can invest up to the amount you have available in your Interactive Brokers account.

, so the conversion value from your currency to USD($) is shown below the amount you input. 

You will need US dollars in your broker account. The easiest way to do this is to execute an FX trade with your broker so the US dollar funds are ready (some brokers may allow you to buy US stocks using funds in a different currency).

5: Confirm portfolio and send orders to your broker

Review the list of stocks generated by the strategy. Once you click 

, the market orders are sent to your broker. They should normally execute within a few seconds. You will know when each trade has executed when it gets the status 

Next comes the confirmation page which confirms how many stocks were bought. 

Final confirmation page allows you to review the list of stocks for the last time, once you click 

 the process is complete and the orders will be executed. 

 you can view performance, check out key metrics and view your holdings.

 tab you can view transaction level data (every buy or sell you have ever made). If a stock in your portfolio goes through a 

stock split, delisting, name change, or any other even

 tab you can seeing any outstanding, unfilled orders that are yet to be executed.

Depending on which strategy you chose, you will need to keep the portfolio up to date every month, quarter or year. You will be notified via email when your rebalance is due (ensure you are subscribed to our mailing list to receive this).

When a rebalance is due, you will return to Aikido Finance, navigate to the relevant portfolio and click the 

 button. You will be taken through a wizard to buy and sell stocks and shares in your portfolio. It should take all of about 60 seconds.

You can read a full guide on how to rebalance an automated portfolio 

When creating and rebalancing your portfolio, 2% of the portfolio amount is held in cash within your broker. This small cash buffer is used to cover slippage, spreads, market volatility, commissions, transaction costs, and any other fees incurred by your broker. 

For example, if you are creating a portfolio with a total value of $5000, $100 will remain in your brokerage account to cover any costs associated with the transaction. 

Aikido do not apply any additional fees to the transactions.

Setting up your first Aikido portfolio could not be any simpler. See this "how to" guide to do it quickly. 

2. How to create an automated stock portfolio

 you will want to link to your online Broker.

Aikido Finance offers seamless integration with 

In this post we go through some of the key steps to opening an Interactive Broker account. It should not take long to fill in the form, provided you 

. Check the requirements for your domain 

You would want to factor in a few days to a week before you have a fully approved and funded IBKR Pro account (this is fast compared to most comparable brokers today). Once you are up and running it is straightforward to 

: Each Aikido Strategy must be held in isolation in a single IBKR account. If you have or plan to have any 

 positions or invest in multiple Aikido strategies, then you will need to 

. There needs to be one sub-account per Aikido strategy and any non-Aikido stocks should be held in their own separate account. 

How do I open an Interactive Brokers account ?

Go to the relevant Interactive Brokers website for your region and click on "Open Account" and then "Start Application".

Follow the on screen instructions to set up your username and password, as well as verifying your email address.

The next part is the Financial Questionnaire which may seem long, but we have some pointers for you below.

Once that part is complete, you will be asked to upload your documents for verification and need to wait a few days for the application to be reviewed.

The Interactive Brokers financial questionnaire

The questionnaire is well laid out and self explanatory for the most part. Here are a few pointers on the following questions.

Up front you will have the choice of Cash or Margin. 

 requires you to have the funds available for all transactions and generally there are less trading experience requirements. It would be a good choice for a 

Most users will likely choose an individual account, but you can also select a joint or retirement account. Note that a retirement account such as an IRA account, will require some 

You will be asked to provide a breakdown of your sources of income. It could be that you select 100% as “Income from Employment” but there are many other options to choose from, including inheritance, property or even unemployment allowance.

If you are new to trading this section may seem daunting, so while you may have 

 that has got you to this point is relevant.

When selecting various asset classes of your choosing, bear in mind that to integrate your IBKR account with Aikido Finance, you will need to have permission for ‘

’ so they are both worth requesting now at application.

Hopefully you checked the Interactive Brokers 

 before starting and you have all the documents to hand.

You will have the option to confirm your mobile number and it's useful to do it at this point. 

Interactive Brokers say they will prioritise the review of applications that already have been funded, so it’s worth transferring your first funds while you are waiting.

As you will likely be wiring funds from your bank account, speed things up by having your mobile banking app or other authentication device provided by your bank.

Factor in that depending on how much you are transferring, you may exceed your daily transfer allowance and may need to break it down over a few days.

Depending on your location, the transfer may be an International Bank transfer which could take a day or so longer also.

Step-by-step guide for opening an interactive brokers accounts.

3. How to open a broker account (IBKR)

This post is for Aikido Finance Premium Account holders who want to know more about how to link their online broker

 (with additional brokers in the pipeline). 

If you have not already set up a broker account with one of these providers, you can set one up easily.  Find out more on 

Begin on your Aikido dashboard. Click on Add Integration under Broker Integrations.

Broker integration will be a quick and straightforward process for most users. 

We have included some tips and common FAQ's further down.

Once you have integrated your broker, you can check your connections at any time on the dashboard.  If you click on the broker you can view all the accounts associated with the connection. 

With Alpaca you can connect one Alpaca account to one Aikido portfolio. To connect additional Aikido portfolios you will need to set up another Alpaca account. 

With IBKR you can have multiple sub accounts on one Master IBKR account. If you have multiple sub accounts, you can switch between them by choosing the appropriate Account ID from the dropdown on the left of the screen. 

 you can click the refresh button to load and sync the subaccount with Aikido.

If your brokerage account is connected successfully and the market is open, then you can 

create a fully-automated quantitative portfolio

Once you have have your Alpaca username and password to hand, you are ready to go. 

If you are seperately logged into Alpaca on your browser this will be even faster. 

From your Aikido Finance dashboard, click on 

Simply click Allow on the Alpaca authorization page.

You will immediately be returned to your Aikido dashboard where you will see Alpaca Markets listed as a Stock Broker Integration

The IBKR Mobile App downloaded and activated

For US customers, make sure you have an IBKR Pro account (not IBKR lite)

 username and password into the two fields available. 

You can switch between ‘Live Trading’ and ‘Paper Trading’ mode. 

Live Trading: uses your real IBKR account – ie. real cash or margin

Paper Trading: uses a simulated IBKR account – they normally give you $100,000 to play around with.

Note. You may have different Live and Paper Trading usernames, you can view this information within the settings page in IBKR.

IBKR Possible problems or error Messages 

Check that you entered your Interactive Broker credentials as opposed to Aikido account credentials.  

Ensure that you are using your current password. You can verify this by logging into your Interactive Brokers account through their website. 

If you have forgotten your username or password then this can be reset via the Interactive Brokers website.

2. You have the wrong type of IBKR account

 account to integrate with Aikido. This is the default in most regions, but in the US there is an option for IBKR Lite.  If that's you, then go ahead and set up a Pro account – it’s pretty quick (and free, of course).

The IBKR username and password that you use to log in to your overall IBKR account are not necessarily the same username and password specifically used for Paper Trading. It is quick to identify if this is the case. 

 look down the left hand column until you see Paper Trading Account and the account name listed.

Click to access the full details which will include your 

You can choose to share market data with your main account. 

Step-by-step guide for linking your broker account to your Aikido account. 

4. How to link your broker to Aikido Finance

In this article, we will look at how to rebalance stock portfolio with Aikido Finance in just a few minutes.

Rebalancing your portfolio is an important part of managing your investments. It means 

to get back to your original asset allocation


For stock-pickers, this can be a laborious process but as a quantitative investor using Aikido Finance to manage your portfolios you can enjoy automated rebalancing.


Have an in depth read about rebalancing 

 or continue on for the step by step guide to rebalancing your Aikido Finance portfolio. Both the 


Keeping a portfolio up-to-date is very important as it keeps the portfolio in line with the trading strategy. When a trading strategy is backtested, rebalancing can play a huge role in the variability of returns.


Depending on the Aikido Finance strategy your portfolio is based on, you will have a 

rebalance period each month, quarter or year

. However you can choose to rebalance at any time you like to keep your portfolio up to date. 


Navigate to the portfolio you want to rebalance and click the 

 button in the portfolio overview pane on the left.


This optional step allows you to add an additional contribution (cash) to your portfolio. If you don’t want to add any more cash, you can click 


This step show you the list of stocks and the number of shares which you will need to sell.

 The trading strategy algorithm compares your portfolio to the current strategy screen and runs an equal-weighting algorithm over the full portfolio.

 to execute the selling and buying of stocks using the list provided.

Whatever price you sold the stock for, enter that into the 

 button – this signifies you have sold the stock in your broker.

If you do not want to sell a stock or cannot sell a stock for whatever reason, click the 

 button – this signifies you did not sell the stock and will remove it from the rebalance.

when you’re building the portfolio, you may not know the exact price which you sold the stock for. If that is the case, take your best guess, or 

 Aikido Finance does not endorse or recommend any individual stock shown in this list; the stocks are purely generated by the algorithm.


This step show you the list of stocks and the number of shares which you will need to buy.

It is identical to the previous step, but for buying securities rather than selling them.

 and work your way through the list of stocks, buying each stock shown.

When you have taken action on each stock, click the button 

 to finish the rebalancing process and go the portfolio.

 tab you can view transaction level data (every buy or sell you have ever made). You can click a transaction row to edit it (eg. change the purchase price or the number of shares purchased). You can also click 

 to buy/sell a stock in the portfolio – you can add any publicly-traded company in the USA to the portfolio.


You will be notified when your next rebalance is due via email.


Automated portfolios are set up by Aikido Finance 


First, make sure you have established a live connection with your broker account, check your Dashboard for your live connections. Aikido offers integration with 

 The stock market must be open for you to be able to rebalance your portfolio live (9:30am – 4pm EST).

This optional step allows you to add an additional contribution (cash) to your portfolio. If you don’t want to add any more cash, you can click 


This step show you the list of stocks and the number of shares which you will sell.

 The trading strategy algorithm compares your portfolio to the current strategy screen and runs an equal-weighting algorithm over the full portfolio. The list shown are all the stocks and shares that have left the screen.

 Aikido does not endorse or recommend any individual stock shown in this list; the stocks are purely generated by the algorithm.


Buying stocks is identical to the previous step, but for buying securities rather than selling them.


If a stock in your portfolio goes through a stock split, delisting, name change, or any other event, it will be handled automatically. These are summarised as 


You will be reminded when your next rebalance is due via email.

Here are some of the common reasons for an error message: 

You tried to rebalance a portfolio on the 

, and you are trying to rebalance a Premium strategy

If you encounter any additional problems, see if it helps to log out and log back in again.  Otherwise please 

Portfolio rebalancing is a crucial part of any long-term investment strategy. This post provides a detailed overview of Aikido rebalances.

5. How to rebalance an Aikido Finance portfolio

Dollar Cost Averaging is an excellent technique to decrease volatility and invest for the long term. A DCA is an investment approach that divides the total investment amount into periodic purchases. This reduces the impact of volatility of a particular asset on your overall investment. 

Let's assume we want to invest $2,000 in Bitcoin. We could do this with a 

t amount into smaller sums so that we get an average cost over a period of time. 

Rather than investing the $2,000 at once, we could invest $50 a week for 40 weeks.

How to set up an automated DCA with Aikido Finance

You willl need an account set up with a cryptocurrency broker before you get started. Aikido Finance offers seamless integration with 

Once you have that in place the process is easy. Simply connect your broker, choose your cryptocurrency, investment amount, and the period you want to place purchases. 

Log in or Launch App on Aikido Finance and navigate via Strategies to the 

After you have selected your broker or exchange, you will need to enter your credentials (API Key and Secret Key) to set up the integration. Details on how to find this information are shown for each broker.

 and away you go! Your DCA is all set up.

with the fiat or stablecoin that you wish to create the DCA with. Your DCA will fail until you have enough funds to cover the cost of your transaction. You can create DCAs with any fiat or stable coin the exchange supports, these include USD, EUR, GBP, USDC, USDT etc.

From the confirmation screen, you have two options, either 

 which will take you to view your new crypto DCA portfolio.

Creating a dollar-cost averaging crypto strategy is very easy. Check out this how-to guide.

6. How to create a crypto DCA

There are a few events which will trigger Aikido to automatically add a transaction to your Aikido portfolio. These can be summarised as 

The impact of delisting, stock split, mergers and other corporate actions on your Aikido Finance portfolio

7. How to handle corporate actions

Step-by-step guides to getting started with Aikido Finance.

1. How to guides for Aikido Finance