Affiliate disclosure: This site contains affiliate links. If you sign up for a third-party tool through a link here, we may earn a commission at no cost to you.  • Not financial advice. Nothing here is investment advice, a trading signal, or a strategy recommendation.  • All tool demos are paper/sim mode only. No real funds. No returns claimed. No guarantee of any outcome.

Paper mode: test the wiring
without real funds

The mechanics of a webhook-to-fill are identical in paper mode and live mode. Test every part of your plumbing before you flip the switch. Nothing on this page involves real capital or implies any trading results.

Sim / paper only throughout this page. All examples use paper accounts. No performance claims. No returns implied or suggested. Paper fill prices do not reflect real execution.

What paper mode covers

A broker demo/testnet account connected through Autoview runs your webhook payload through the same parsing and routing logic as a live account. The difference is that the "broker API call" routes to a simulated order book, not a real exchange.

That means you can verify: the webhook URL receives the payload, the parser reads the action and symbol fields correctly, the order shape is valid, and the confirmation response is what your script expects. All without touching real money.

Paper mode does not model real market conditions. Simulated fills are not indicative of live fills. Slippage, liquidity, and execution timing in paper mode do not reflect what a live account would experience. This walkthrough is about testing plumbing, not trading results.

Step-by-step: your first paper webhook

1
Sign up for Autoview. Select the free tier. The free tier includes connecting broker demo/testnet (paper) accounts. Connect a broker demo/testnet account (e.g. OANDA Practice, Alpaca Paper) to get started without real capital.
2
Copy your webhook URL from the Autoview dashboard. Each hook has a personal URL in the form https://<WEBHOOK_URL>/hook/<hook-uuid>/?key=<optional-salt>. Paper vs. live is determined by which broker account (demo/testnet or live) is connected to the hook -- there is no ?paper=true parameter. Keep this URL private.
3
Send a test POST to the URL using curl, a script, or your chart platform's alert. Use the payload format below.
4
Check the Autoview dashboard for the received payload and simulated fill. The fill shows up in your paper account positions, not a real account.
5
Verify your script's response handling. Check that your listener logs the confirmation correctly. If it does, the plumbing is wired.

What to check after a paper fill

A successful paper-mode test proves that the JSON parsing is correct, the action routing worked, and your account identifier was resolved. It does not prove anything about live execution speed, slippage, or profitability.

If the payload is rejected, the error response tells you why: malformed JSON, unrecognized symbol, or missing required fields. Fix the payload and re-send. The paper account has no cost per test.

Affiliate disclosure: The links on this page to Autoview are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, Trade Agent Lab may earn a commission. The paper account described here is a broker demo/testnet account connected through Autoview, not an Autoview-native product. We have no ability to modify Autoview's product, pricing, or exchange support. Verify current features at their site.
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