alpaca data not streaming

Question

I am trying to stream data by using an Alpaca paper trading account on a Windows 10 terminal, but instead of streaming data it returns empty. Does anybody know what I am doing wrong?

note: I have installed wscat by typing npm install -g wscat and i have also downloaded node.js

First I type:

wscat -c wss://paper-api.alpaca.markets/stream

The terminal respondes with:

Connected (press CTRL+C to quit)

I then follow up with:

{"action": "authenticate","data": {"key_id": "my_key_id", "secret_key": "my_secret_key"}}

The terminal responds with:

{"stream":"authorization","data":{"action":"authenticate","status":"authorized"}}

Finally I type:

{"action": "listen", "data": {"streams": ["T.SPY"]}}

The terminal responds with:

{"stream":"listening","data":{"streams":[]}}

I want it to reply with streaming data.

Answer 1

The reason it didn't work for me was because I was using a paper trading account instead of a live trading account. If you want to stream on a paper trading account follow these steps:

Firstly download node.js on the internet.

After you have downloaded node.js open up your terminal and type:

npm install -g wscat

When wscat has been installed type:

wscat -c wss://stream.data.alpaca.markets/v2/iex

The terminal will respond with:

[{"T":"success","msg":"connected"}]

Then you type:

{"action": "auth", "key": "your_key", "secret": "your_secret_key"}

The terminal will respond with:

[{"T":"success","msg":"authenticated"}]

Lastly you type:

{"action":"subscribe","quotes":["SPY"]}

Now you should be getting streamed data from a paper trading account on your terminal.