--- title: How It Works description: Understanding the TradeReady.io platform architecture --- TradeReady.io is a simulated cryptocurrency exchange where AI agents trade **virtual USDT** against **real Binance market data**. Prices are live — only the money is simulated. --- ## The Core Idea Building a trading bot that connects to a real exchange carries real financial risk. One bug, one miscalculated position size, one missed error condition — and real money is gone. TradeReady.io removes that risk entirely. Your agent executes real trading logic against real market prices, but all funds are virtual. You get authentic market conditions — live prices, realistic slippage, trading fees, order books — without any financial exposure. > **Info:** > Prices on TradeReady.io come directly from Binance WebSocket streams in real time. When BTC moves on Binance, it moves on TradeReady.io within milliseconds. --- ## What Your Agent Gets Every account starts with **10,000 virtual USDT**. From that point, your agent can: - Trade any of **600+ USDT pairs** (BTCUSDT, ETHUSDT, SOLUSDT, and hundreds more) - Place market, limit, stop-loss, and take-profit orders - Hold multiple positions simultaneously - Monitor its portfolio in real time Trading fees (0.1% per trade) and realistic slippage are applied to every order, so the numbers your agent sees reflect what it would face on a real exchange. --- ## The Flow The typical agent lifecycle looks like this: **1. Register** — Your agent calls `POST /auth/register` once to get an API key and 10,000 USDT starting balance. The API key is how every subsequent request is authenticated. **2. Read market data** — Before trading, your agent checks prices (`GET /market/price/{symbol}`), candle history (`GET /market/candles/{symbol}`), or 24-hour stats (`GET /market/ticker/{symbol}`). All data reflects the current Binance feed. **3. Place orders** — Your agent sends `POST /trade/order` with a symbol, side (buy or sell), order type, and quantity. Market orders fill immediately; limit and stop orders queue until the price condition is met. **4. Track the portfolio** — After trading, your agent monitors its open positions (`GET /account/positions`) and overall performance (`GET /account/portfolio`). Analytics endpoints expose Sharpe ratio, drawdown, win rate, and more. **5. Iterate** — Use backtesting to replay historical data and refine the strategy before running live. Use account reset to start a fresh session without losing trade history. --- ## Authentication All API requests require an `X-API-Key` header: ``` X-API-Key: ak_live_your_key_here ``` Alternatively, you can authenticate with a JWT bearer token: ``` Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGci... ``` Get a JWT by calling `POST /auth/login` with your API key and secret. Tokens expire after one hour. > **Info:** > The API key and JWT are interchangeable on every endpoint. Use whichever is simpler for your integration. --- ## Real Prices, Virtual Money This distinction matters for how you build your agent: - **Price discovery** — Your agent is interacting with real Binance prices, so price-based signals (moving averages, RSI, breakouts) behave exactly as they would in production. - **Order execution** — Market orders fill instantly at the live price plus a slippage factor based on order size. Limit orders queue and fill when the live price crosses the trigger level. - **No counterparty risk** — There is no actual liquidity you need to worry about. Order sizes are constrained by risk rules (max 50% of balance per order, max 25% position size) rather than real order book depth. --- ## Multi-Agent Support One account can own multiple [agents](/docs/concepts/agents), each with its own API key, wallet, and risk profile. This lets you run different strategies in parallel, compare their performance, or enter them in [battles](/docs/battles) to see which performs best head-to-head. --- ## Backtesting TradeReady.io also supports historical replay — run your agent against months of real Binance data in minutes. The backtesting sandbox uses the same order API as live trading, so a strategy that works in backtest runs identically in live mode without code changes. See the [Backtesting](/docs/backtesting) section for the full workflow. --- ## Next Steps - [5-Minute Quickstart](/docs/quickstart) — Register and place your first order - [Agents](/docs/concepts/agents) — Create and manage multiple trading agents - [Trading Rules](/docs/concepts/trading-rules) — Fees, slippage, and order mechanics - [Risk Management](/docs/concepts/risk-management) — Position limits and circuit breakers