Hosted algorithmic trading.
You bring the Alpaca key. We run the bot. Crypto swing trades, smart DCA, daily basket rotation, and a hard-stop safety net — autonomously, around the clock.
Beta. Founding cohort opens June 2026 — first 10 customers only.
How it works
Three steps. Then the bot does its job.
Subscribe + connect Alpaca
Subscribe ($150 setup + $50/mo), open an Alpaca brokerage account, paste your API keys on the VRTUE settings page. Keys are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM and only decrypted inside the bot at trade-fire time. We never log them. Recommended to start with paper-account keys for 1-2 weeks before flipping to live.
The bot trades on your account
Validated grid, smart DCA, and hard-stop strategies run 24/7 on your Alpaca account. Every trade fills on your books at real market prices. Your dashboard shows daily P&L, every position, every signal that fired.
You hold custody
Your funds stay at Alpaca — an SEC-regulated brokerage. VRTUE has API access, not custody. Revoke our keys from your Alpaca dashboard at any time and the bot stops trading immediately.
Pricing
Honest. No hidden tiers.
- $5,000 minimum equity. Below that, fees and the monthly subscription eat too much of the alpha. We’d rather decline than charge you for net-negative returns.
- See the live forward test before you commit. Our paper accounts run the same strategy stack, publicly, with daily P&L updated in real time at vrtue.org/track-record. Scrutinize the actual data before you decide to subscribe.
- You stay in control. Your funds never leave Alpaca. Revoke VRTUE’s API access from your Alpaca dashboard anytime and the bot stops trading immediately. Cancel the monthly subscription whenever — it ends at the next billing cycle.
- Founding cohort (first 10 customers). Priority email support direct from the founder, early access to new strategies as they ship, and your name on the public track-record page once the forward-test results publish.
What the bot actually does
Three validated strategies. One safety net.
Grid trading on crypto
Places small buys at falling price levels and sells slightly higher at fixed bands across 8 major crypto pairs. Validated +1.28% above buy-and-hold over 90 out-of-sample days, fees included. Designed to harvest volatility, not predict direction.
Smart DCA on equities
Daily small purchases on a momentum-screened basket of mega-cap stocks. Reduces timing risk and biases toward names with positive trend. +2.85 percentage points per quarter vs passive DCA on the same names.
Hard-stop watcher
Runs every 60 seconds across all open positions. Closes any position that has fallen 5% from entry. No exceptions, no overrides — the safety net runs even when every other strategy is paused.
Forward-test status
Day 30 of 30 of a live paper forward test running the full strategy stack at $10,000 and $25,000 equity tiers. See live daily P&L →
Full methodology PDF + walk-forward design notes publish 2026-05-29. Want the PDF early to scrutinize before the data drops? Email founder@vrtue.org.
Who’s behind this
One person. Real name. Real day job.
I’m Karson — VRTUE’s founder and only engineer. Active duty military. I built VRTUE in off-hours over six months because I wanted a disciplined trading bot for myself and didn’t trust the alternatives — too many hidden fees, too many promises, no methodology, no track record.
Building openly. Every change ships through git. Every claim ties to a backtest with a logged out-of-sample window. The forward-test rig is public the day it concludes. If you have questions about the methodology, the test rig, or my engineering decisions, email me — I read and respond to every email.
Custody and risk
What you keep. What you risk.
Your funds
- Stay at Alpaca, an SEC-regulated brokerage
- Are never withdrawn or transferred by VRTUE
- Can be locked from VRTUE by revoking the API key
- Are protected by SIPC where applicable (Alpaca’s coverage)
The risks
- Algorithmic trading can lose money — past results don’t predict future returns
- Backtest and forward-test numbers are subject to model error and slippage
- Crypto markets are volatile; position sizing matters more than strategy
- This is software. It’s not financial advice.
FAQ
The questions skeptical buyers actually ask.
Do I have to commit $5,000 up front?
Yes — subscription starts when you sign up. Instead of an internal trial that asks you to trust an unproven bot, we publish our own paper-test data live at vrtue.org/track-record. The same strategies we’ll run on your account are running on our test rigs right now, with daily P&L updating in real time. Scrutinize the data before you commit; once you’re satisfied, you subscribe.
After subscribing we recommend starting on Alpaca paper for the first 1-2 weeks — same strategies, same logic, no real money — so you can confirm the bot behaves as expected on your specific basket before flipping to live.
How does the paper-then-live ramp-up work?
After subscribing: paste your Alpaca paper API keys in settings with paper mode checked. The bot runs the full strategy stack on your paper account — same logic, real-time data, no real money. Watch it for a week or two; verify it trades the way the public track-record showed.
When you’re ready to go live: log into your Alpaca live dashboard, generate live API keys, come back to settings, uncheck paper mode, paste your live keys, save. Bot picks them up on the next cycle (~10 min). You don’t lose the paper history; it stays in your records.
How do I know my money is safe?
Your funds stay at Alpaca, an SEC-regulated brokerage. VRTUE has API access for placing orders — not custody. You can revoke our keys at any time and the bot stops trading immediately. Your positions stay on your books regardless of VRTUE’s status.
What happens if VRTUE goes down?
Your positions stay where they are at Alpaca. They don’t disappear. Worst case, you log into Alpaca directly and manage them like any other brokerage account.
What’s your real edge?
Disciplined execution and a validated grid strategy that harvests crypto volatility. We don’t promise 10x. The validated edge is roughly +4 percentage points per year above a high-yield savings account at $5K-$20K equity. The methodology PDF (publishing 2026-05-29) shows the full out-of-sample test design.
Why $5,000 minimum?
Below that, the $50/mo subscription plus Alpaca fees eat too much of the alpha. We’d rather decline a customer than charge them for net-negative returns. If you want to test under the minimum, run the strategy yourself on Alpaca paper — the methodology will be public May 29.
Is this regulated?
Alpaca handles the regulated part — they’re an SEC-registered broker-dealer and FINRA member. VRTUE is software-only. We don’t custody funds, we don’t give financial advice, and we don’t hold securities licenses because we don’t need to: we’re a tool you point at your own brokerage account.
Why should I trust this?
Don’t — on faith. Trust verifiable data instead. The methodology PDF, walk-forward test design, and 30-day live forward-test results all publish 2026-05-29. Read those. If they don’t hold up, don’t buy.
How do I cancel?
Email founder@vrtue.org and the monthly subscription cancels at the next billing cycle. To stop the bot from trading immediately, revoke VRTUE’s API access from your Alpaca dashboard — that takes effect the second you click save. No phone calls, no retention pitches.
Ready when you are.
Founding cohort (first 10 customers) opens June 2026. Earlier access by invitation — email founder@vrtue.org.