PAPER TRADING BOT — configured. Alpaca paper account, no real money.

CONNECTION
  Endpoint  https://paper-api.alpaca.markets
  Key + secret in env, not in the config file.
  Verify you're on paper before anything else — the live and paper
  endpoints take the same credentials shape and the only difference is
  the URL.

ENTRY
  BUY AAPL market, position size $2,000 (paper)

TRAILING STOP — up only, never down
  Trail 8% from high-water mark.
  Entry $224 → stop $206
  Price to $240 → stop moves to $220
  Price back to $228 → stop STAYS $220
  The stop is monotonic. That's the whole mechanic.

LADDER BUYS on drawdown from entry
  −15%  ($190) → add $500
  −20%  ($179) → add $500
  −30%  ($157) → add $1,000
  Each rung fires once. Trailing stop recalculates off the new blended
  cost basis after each fill.

SCHEDULE
  Every 5 minutes, 9:30–16:00 ET, Mon–Fri. No checks outside market
  hours — a gap-down opens below your stop and no polling interval
  changes that.

WHAT IT LOGS EACH TICK
  timestamp · last · high-water mark · current stop · rungs filled ·
  unrealized P/L

  14:35  228.10  high 240.00  stop 220.80  rungs 0/3  +1.8%

THE THING THAT WILL SURPRISE YOU
Ladder buys and a trailing stop pull against each other: laddering in on
the way down raises your basis exposure while the stop is trailing off a
high you're moving away from. Watch the first drawdown closely — that
interaction is where paper trading earns its keep.

Paper account. Illustrative configuration, not investment advice.