Get Started

Welcome to Clear Street’s Trading API. This guide walks you through everything you need to start trading — from setting up your account and placing your first order to understanding how to leverage our AI assistant, Omni and everything in between.

All API requests use the base URL https://api.clearstreet.com for your environment and require authentication via a Bearer token in the Authorization header Authorization: Bearer <api_key>.” . Responses follow a consistent format described in the API Fundamentals guide.

We also provide SDKs here in multiple programming languages to help you integrate quickly. Our SDKs simplify authentication, requests, responses, and error handling, so you can start building with less boilerplate.

Account Opening

Account opening is handled through the Clear Street web or mobile application, if you have not signed up go here to get started! Once you have signed up and your account is active you’ll receive an account ID that you’ll use in many API calls.

If your account is active when you call the accounts endpoint GET /v1/accounts and it will return a status of ACTIVE. If your account doesn’t have an account id assigned there will be nothing returned for data.

Account Funding

Funding is handled through the Clear Street web or mobile application. For web app go to Account icon in the left navigation, and from there select Funding. For mobile select Home icon on the top left and then select Funding.

On this page ****you will be able to:

• Manage and review ACH bank relationships
• Manage and review Wire Instructions
• Initiate deposits and withdrawals
• View available balance
• View transaction history and status

Timing

ACH/Wire deposits

• Deposit transfer requests submitted before 3:00 PM EST will be processed the same day.
• Requests submitted after 3:00 PM EST will be processed the next business day.

Withdrawals

• Withdrawal transfer requests submitted before 3:00 PM EST will be processed the same day.
• Requests submitted after 3:00 PM EST will be processed the next business day.
• There is always a 5 business day hold on ACH deposits to be withdrawn.

API Keys

The ability to manage and view API keys will be done from the Clear Street web application. In order to do so, go to Account icon in the left navigation, and from there select API keys. On this page ****you will be able to:

• Generate and name new API keys
• View the name, status, and expiration date of your API keys
• Revoke one or all of your active API keys

Note you will use these API keys to authenticate every request in the header with authorization type Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer <api_key>

Best practices for API keys:

• Treat your API key like a password. Never share it or commit it to source control.
• If a key is compromised, revoke it immediately through the web app.

Check Your Balance

Now that you have gotten your API keys and authenticated yourself. The first thing you should do is check if your funds have landed. This can be done through the balances endpoint GET /v1/accounts/{account_id}/balances

Below are some key fields that you should familiarize yourself with. A more detailed field reference is available in Balances.

Field	Description
trade_cash	Trade-date cash balance.
buying_power	Total amount available to open new positions
equity	Net account value (cash + longs - shorts)
long_market_value	Current market value of all long positions
short_market_value	Current market value of all short positions
open_buy_order_notional_value	Notional value of open buy orders
open_sell_order_notional_value	Notional value of open sell orders
maintenance_margin_requirement	Minimum equity required to maintain current positions
day_trade_buying_power	Buying power available for intraday round-trips
pattern_day_trader	Whether the account is classified as a PDT
day_trade_count	Number of day trades in the current rolling 5-day window

Check Instruments on Platform

You’re one step closer to trading but before you can do that you need to know what instruments can be traded. Below are the instrument endpoints you should familiarize yourself with. Additional details are available in Instruments.

Name	Method	Path	Description
Instruments by ID	GET	/v1/instruments/{instrument_id}	Retrieves detailed information for a specific instrument.
List Instruments	GET	/v1/instruments	Retrieve a list of instruments. Note this will not return options
Search Instruments	GET	/v1/instruments/search	Search through instruments
Option Contracts	GET	/v1/instruments/options/contracts	Lists options contracts. Returns options contracts for a given underlier with options-specific metadata. Exactly one underlier identifier must be provided.

Submit Your First Order

Currently, the Trading API supports long and short trading of stocks and options. Support for additional asset classes is planned for future releases. You can use the orders endpoint POST /v1/accounts/{account_id}/orders to submit orders along with the relevant parameters in the request body.

Here’s a simple market buy for 10 shares of AAPL:

[
  {
    "id": "my-first-order-001",
    "symbol": "AAPL",
    "instrument_type": "COMMON_STOCK",
    "side": "BUY",
    "quantity": "10",
    "order_type": "MARKET",
    "time_in_force": "DAY"
  }
]

Additional details about placing orders are available in Placing Orders.

Note in order to trade options you will need to go through options suitability questions on web or mobile. You will be prompted to fill this out the first time you try to trade an options contract.

See Positions and Portfolio History

After your order fills, check your positions using positions endpoint GET /v1/accounts/{account_id}/positions

You can filter positions by symbol, sort by various fields, and paginate through large portfolios.

For historical portfolio performance use the portfolio history endpoint GET /v1/accounts/{account_id}/portfolio-history This returns daily snapshots of your equity, including open/close values and daily P&L.

Additional information on your trading metrics is available in Your Trading Account Metrics.

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