Four places, in order.

1. 1

   Sign in

   On your account page, with Google or an emailed link. No account yet? That creates one.

   You'll know it worked your account page opens.

2. 2

   Subscribe

   From the same page, after you sign in. Payment is on Stripe's own page; no card details reach this site. It renews monthly; cancel any time from Billing.

   Not useful? Ask within thirty days of a payment and it is refunded. No form, no explanation.

   You'll know it worked Start here says Subscribed.

1. 1

   Download the Mac build

   From Your machines on your account page, after you subscribe; the link is not there before. Signed with our Developer ID and notarised by Apple. The download page says the current version.

   You'll know it worked the .dmg has finished downloading.

2. 2

   Install it

   Open the disk image and drag Degen Pro onto the Applications folder beside it.

   First open: macOS says it was downloaded from the internet and that Apple checked it. Normal for an app from outside the App Store. Click Open; it does not ask again.

   You'll know it worked its icon appears in your menu bar.

3. 3

   Sign the Mac in

   Press Sign in on degenpro.com. Your browser asks Is this your Mac? with the code your Mac shows. Press Yes, sign it in.

   Nothing to type; the app never sees a password. Filling the Mac in brings your journal down onto it.

   Closed that screen? The journal window's first row says Sign this Mac in to your account, and Settings → Broker has Sign in under Your account. Use the tab it opens; an older degenpro.com tab cannot reach the app.

   You'll know it worked the account card in the app shows your email, and this Mac is under Your machines.

The journal is on your Mac and, once signed in, in your account: a second Mac shows the same record, and a replaced one is a sign-in, not a loss. Your broker login and the part that can place an order never leave your Mac.

A small helper on your Mac talks to Trader Workstation or IB Gateway on your own Mac, never over the internet. It holds your stop, runs the exit keys, shuts the broker when your limit is spent, and can enter a trade from the floating keys.

Paper and real alike, one account at a time, and it says which. It follows Trader Workstation between paper and real by itself, once nothing is open in the account it left.

1. 1

   Install the helper

   Sign the Mac in first: the helper installs only on a signed-in Mac. After the agreement, the Connect and allow screen installs it when you press Install the helper; the enforcement card in Settings → Broker does the same later.

   No Terminal, no password: the app carries its own Python.

   The card says which part it is on. The helper finds Trader Workstation or IB Gateway on their usual ports, paper or live: 7497 and 7496 for Trader Workstation, 4002 and 4001 for IB Gateway. Nothing to type.

   If it stops, the card says Setup did not finish and nothing about your broker or your journal changed. Try again; if it stops in the same place, send a support message: it carries what happened.

   You'll know it worked the enforcement card says installed.

1. 2

   Set Trader Workstation's API boxes

   In Trader Workstation, open File → Global Configuration → API → Settings (Edit, not File, in the classic layout).

   • Tick Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients.
   • Untick Read-Only API. It ships ticked, and while it is ticked every order the helper sends is refused.
   • Tick Allow connections from localhost only.

   If Trader Workstation asks whether to accept an incoming connection, say yes: that is the helper.

   Upgrading to 10.45 clears Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients, and IBKR shows a pop-up saying so. Choose to view the settings, and tick the box again.

   If a box is wrong and the app can read Trader Workstation's settings file, the app sets both boxes itself while Trader Workstation is closed, keeps a copy, and says what it set in Trader Workstation API. Settings kept on IBKR's servers: set the boxes by hand.

   Every other setting that can stop the connection (the port, Trusted IPs, the precautions, the restart that logs you out) is in the TWS API guide, in the order to check them.

   You'll know it worked the Interactive Brokers row on Settings → Broker shows your account, paper or live.

2. 3

   The morning gate, if you want it

   The morning gate is off unless you turn it on: Settings → Broker, Locks and lockout times, Morning gate.

   With it on, Trader Workstation, IB Gateway and IBKR Desktop stay shut on this Mac each morning until you have sat for the sit you set, five minutes unless you change it (Sit and breathe… in the menu bar). A skip is written down.

   At 16:30 New York time they shut again until the next morning's sit. It never shuts them while a position is open.

   An illustration, not a screenshot: one made-up day on New York time, with the morning gate on.

   The morning gate, if you turn it on

   Trader Workstation, one daySit and breathe… 5 min

   Shutuntil you sit

   Open

   Shutuntil the next morning

   Position open

   00:0006:0012:0016:3024:00

   A day the loss limit is hit

   Shut

   Open

   Shutfor the rest of the day

   Position open

   Loss limit hit. Everything open is closed at market. Open again after tomorrow's sit.

   1. With the morning gate on, Trader Workstation is shut on this Mac each morning until you sit.
   2. Sit and breathe… in the menu bar, 5 minutes unless you changed it, and it opens. Skipping the sit opens it too; the skip is written down.
   3. The gate never shuts it while a position is open.
   4. At 16:30 New York time it shuts until the next morning.
   5. If the account's loss limit is hit, everything open in the account is closed at market and the lock holds for the rest of the day. It opens after tomorrow's sit.

   • IB Gateway and IBKR Desktop on this Mac shut with it. IBKR's phone app and website still trade.
   • The gate is off unless you turn it on.

   You'll know it worked with the gate on, Trader Workstation opens after the sit, and the helper connects once you have logged in.

3. 4

   Paper only, if you want it

   The installer writes ALLOW_LIVE = True: the helper holds your stops and flattens on a live account (a number starting with U) as on paper. To stay on paper, open ~/DegenPro/config_local.py and set that line to False. No restart needed.

   While it is off, every order the helper would place on a live account is refused, and the enforcement card and the status pill say why. A Stream Deck is turned off and told: a lit key that does nothing is the one thing this app must never show.

   You'll know it worked the enforcement card reads real orders allowed, or real-money orders refused — ALLOW_LIVE is False if you switched it off.

4. 5

   A Stream Deck, if you have one

   Settings → Broker, under Elgato Stream Deck: Show the token reveals three addresses, PROTECT, RUNNER and FLATTEN. In the Stream Deck app, give each key a Website action and paste one in.

   The token can place orders: never put it in a screenshot. It works from this Mac only, and an address without it is refused before the press reaches your broker.

   You'll know it worked pressing PROTECT with a position open moves your stop, and the journal writes the press down.

Float the keys, on the exit keys card, puts the keys over your chart with a ladder to enter at the ask: SPX or SPY, up to ten strikes either side of the money, one position at a time, filled within a couple of seconds or cancelled.

The helper holds the stop on one long call or put at a time; shares, spreads and short options are not covered. Run a paper session first.

A stop you place yourself in Trader Workstation, on anything the helper does not cover: the guide to a stop loss on IBKR that fires.

None of this reaches us. The helper listens on your Mac only, and the journal carries your trades, never your broker login.

1. 1

   App Management

   System Settings → Privacy & Security → App Management: allow Degen Pro. Without it a lock can keep closing your broker, but not disable it.

   You'll know it worked the enforcement card stops mentioning App Management.

2. 2

   Automation, and Screen Recording if you record

   macOS asks for Automation the first time a lock closes Trader Workstation; allow it and it holds. If it was refused once, the ? on the Connect and allow screen has Open Automation settings, which takes you to the switch in System Settings, and you turn it on there.

   If you record sessions, macOS asks for Screen Recording the first time one starts. Each is asked once.

   You'll know it worked a lock closes Trader Workstation without macOS stopping to ask.