# How to set up the Trader Skill in Claude, step by step > Install the free Trader Skill (11 Claude skills for stock research), set your budget and limits, copy an investor's 13F, and connect a paper-trading broker safely. Canonical: https://www.algrohack.com/guides/claude-trader-skill Author: The algrohack team Published: 2026-11-10 Last updated: 2026-11-10 The Trader Skill is a free, open-source pack of 11 Claude skills for stock research. Here's how to install it, set it up safely, and run your first research in about 15 minutes. ## The short answer Paste the GitHub link into Claude and ask it to install the skill, or add it as a plugin in Claude Code. Put your name and email in trader/config.json so the SEC's servers accept its requests, set your budget and limits, then start with /trader-copycat. It's free (MIT licence), needs no sign-up or API key, and reads public data: SEC filings, the US House's trade disclosures and news feeds. It never places an order without your yes, and paper trading is the default. ## What the Trader Skill is It's a pack of 11 skills for Claude, made by Jake Schincariol and published free on GitHub under the MIT licence. Each skill is a set of instructions plus a small Python tool that reads public data, so there's nothing to sign up for and no API key to buy. The skills hand work to each other through a trader/ folder in your project: one copies an investor's portfolio, the next sizes it to your budget, the next checks it against your limits, and the last turns an approved order into a ticket for your broker. > **What you need** Claude (Claude Code is the best fit, because the tools fetch SEC and news data from your computer), Python 3.8 or newer with nothing to pip install, and about 15 minutes. A broker account is optional, and only needed if you want orders, starting on paper. ## The 11 skills - /trader-copycat (Reverse Engineer): reads an investor's 13F filing on SEC EDGAR and rebuilds their portfolio as weights you can copy, with what they bought, added, trimmed and sold since last quarter. - /trader-news (News Monitor): watches headlines and SEC 8-K filings for every stock you hold and flags what touches them. - /trader-budget (Budget Manager): sizes every position to your budget, keeps a cash buffer and caps any one stock. - /trader-pelosi (Pelosi Tracker): reads the stock trades members of the US House disclose, as soon as the filings post, and alerts you once per new filing. - /trader-analyst (Earnings Analyst): pulls each company's reported revenue, net income, diluted EPS, margins and growth from SEC filings, plus its latest earnings release. - /trader-screener (Stock Screener): screens companies against your own rules and ranks what passes. - /trader-risk (Risk Manager): checks every proposed order against your limits and blocks anything over them. - /trader-broker (Order Executor): turns an approved order into the exact ticket your brokerage connector receives, and records your yes. It never places anything by itself. - /trader-tax (Tax Optimizer): tracks cost-basis lots, gains and losses, tax-loss harvesting candidates and wash sales. - /trader-alerts (Price Alerts): rings when a price target, a stop or the opening bell hits, using the real NYSE calendar. - /trader-rebalance (Rebalancer): brings the portfolio back to its target weights when it drifts past your band. ## Step 1: Install the skill The quickest way, from the repo's own instructions: paste this into Claude and send it. **Paste into Claude** ``` https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/trader-skill install skill ``` ## Or install it as a plugin in Claude Code In Claude Code, run these two commands. Installed this way the skills are namespaced, so they show up as /trader-skill:trader-copycat and so on. **Run in Claude Code** ``` /plugin marketplace add Jakeschincariol/trader-skill /plugin install trader-skill@trader-skill ``` > **Want the short names, like /trader-copycat?** Copy the folders into your skills folder instead: git clone the repo, then copy every trader-* folder into ~/.claude/skills/ (or into .claude/skills/ inside one project). The two commands are below. ## The copy-the-folders version **Run in a terminal** ``` git clone https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/trader-skill.git cp -r trader-skill/trader-* ~/.claude/skills/ ``` ## Step 2: Set your name, budget and limits SEC asks every script that reads its data to say who it is, so put your name and email in sec_user_agent (or in an SEC_USER_AGENT environment variable). Then set your budget and limits. This is the repo's example config: save it as trader/config.json in your project and change the numbers to yours. **trader/config.json** ``` { "budget": 5000, "cash_buffer_pct": 10, "max_position_pct": 25, "max_order_usd": 2000, "min_order_usd": 5, "max_orders_per_day": 10, "fractional": true, "broker": "alpaca", "paper": true, "blocked": [], "allow_options": false, "allow_margin": false, "allow_short": false, "sec_user_agent": "Your Name you@example.com" } ``` > **Leave these as they are** "paper": true keeps everything on a practice account. allow_options, allow_margin and allow_short stay false unless you deliberately turn them on. ## Step 3: Run your first research: copy an investor The repo's own walk-through copies Berkshire Hathaway with $5,000. Copycat finds the fund, reads its latest 13F and writes trader/targets.json. Budget turns that into dollar amounts with your buffer and cap, and writes the orders as proposals. Risk then checks each one and answers PASS or BLOCK, with the reason. **Paste into Claude, one at a time** ``` /trader-copycat copy Berkshire Hathaway's top 5 holdings /trader-budget size them to a $5,000 budget with a 10% cash buffer and a 25% cap /trader-risk check these orders against my limits ``` > **13F data is old and partial** Funds file 45 days after each quarter ends, and a 13F lists only long positions in US-listed stocks: no shorts, no cash, no foreign shares. You see what they held, not what they hold today, and copying an investor doesn't copy their results. ## Step 4: Watch the news, Congress and your prices These three are made to run on a schedule: news on what you hold, new congressional disclosures, and your price levels. Try them by hand first. **Paste into Claude** ``` /trader-news what's in the news for the stocks I hold, last 24 hours /trader-pelosi any new congressional stock disclosures since yesterday? /trader-alerts alert me if AAPL drops below 200 ``` ## Step 5: Optional: connect a broker, on paper first Only /trader-broker can lead to an order, and only after /trader-risk passes that exact order and you type yes for it. The repo's setup uses Alpaca's official MCP server in Claude Desktop, on a paper (practice) account by default. 1. Make an Alpaca account and create paper trading API keys in the Alpaca dashboard. Paper keys are separate from live keys. 2. Install uv (it provides uvx) from docs.astral.sh/uv. 3. In Claude Desktop, open Settings, then Developer, then Edit Config, and add the block below with your own paper keys typed into the file. 4. Restart Claude Desktop. 5. In Claude, set the brokerage tools to "Needs approval" (Customize, Connectors, tool permissions), never "Always allow", so Claude asks you once more before any order. **claude_desktop_config.json** ``` { "mcpServers": { "alpaca": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["alpaca-mcp-server"], "env": { "ALPACA_API_KEY": "your PAPER key, typed here, never in the chat", "ALPACA_SECRET_KEY": "your PAPER secret, typed here, never in the chat", "ALPACA_PAPER_TRADE": "true", "ALPACA_TOOLSETS": "account,trading,stock-data" } } } } ``` > **Never paste a key into the chat** Keys go only in the config file. If you paste one into a conversation by mistake, delete that message and make new keys in the Alpaca dashboard. ## Before you trust it with money - It's not financial advice. In its author's words, it's software that reads public data and does arithmetic: it doesn't know your situation and can't see the future. You can lose money. - Stay on paper until you've watched it work for a while. Paper trading is the default in both the config and Alpaca's server. - Check anything that matters against your broker. Some data comes from free sources, including Yahoo Finance's chart endpoint, which is unofficial and can change. - Congress's trades are public disclosures, filed up to 45 days after the trade, not inside information. - /trader-tax does the arithmetic on lots and wash sales. It isn't tax advice. ## Sources - [The Trader Skill on GitHub (README)](https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/trader-skill) (install steps, the 11 skills, config and fine print, read 10 November 2026) - [trader-broker/SKILL.md](https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/trader-skill/blob/main/trader-broker/SKILL.md) (the Alpaca paper-trading setup and the three approval gates) - [Alpaca's MCP server](https://github.com/alpacahq/alpaca-mcp-server) - [SEC: accessing EDGAR data](https://www.sec.gov/search-filings/edgar-search-assistance/accessing-edgar-data) (why scripts must identify themselves) ## Questions ### Is the Trader Skill free? Yes. It's open source under the MIT licence, with no sign-up and no API key. The data it reads (SEC EDGAR, the US House's disclosures, news feeds) is public. You need your own Claude account to run it. ### Can it place trades by itself? No. Nothing in the pack can place an order on its own. An order needs a PASS from /trader-risk for that exact order, your typed yes in the chat, and a click on Claude's own Allow once card, and paper trading is the default. ### Does it work outside the US stock market? It's built around US data: SEC filings, the US House's trade disclosures, the NYSE calendar, and Alpaca or Interactive Brokers as the broker. For other markets you could adapt the method, but the tools won't fetch that data for you. ### Do I need Claude Code? It's the best fit, because the skills run small Python tools that fetch data from your computer. You can also paste a single SKILL.md at the top of an ordinary Claude chat and it runs as a mode, but without the Python tools. ### Will it make me money? Nobody can promise that, and the skill doesn't. It does research and arithmetic on public data. 13F filings are up to 45 days old, and copying an investor doesn't copy their results. Decide for yourself, and talk to a licensed professional if you need advice. ## Related - [Use algrohack in Claude](https://www.algrohack.com/claude)