When you first sign in we walk you through getting started, then show you around the platform. Both use the same style: the screen dims and a spotlight falls on one real control at a time — the actual button or switch, not a picture of it — with a short, plain-English note about what it does. You never have to touch anything you're not ready for.

What happens on your first sign-in

Your first visit is about getting you trading, in two screens:

1. Pick your market. Your plan includes one market, free — Options, Futures or Stocks. This is the one thing we ask before anything else, because it decides which brokers you can connect. You can add another market later from the Marketplace for $49/mo, and Paper Trading works for all three whichever you pick.
2. Set up your first strategy. Then you land on a hub with three ways to get going. Pick the one that fits how you want to trade:
   • Full Automation — set up our ready-made CS+ (Conservative Strategy Plus) so the platform trades hands-free. When it asks for your max capital per trade, it offers a link to Account Sizing, which works that number out from the real trades at your account size. It opens in a new tab, so nothing you've filled in is lost.
   • Marketplace Strategy — claim your free month of any strategy on the Marketplace, then copy the exact settings its publisher runs with one click.
   • Webhook Integration — trigger trades from your own alerts, for example from TradingView.

Each path is a short, step-by-step walkthrough. You can come back and try another one anytime.

Note

Choosing your market is the only part you can't skip — nothing else in the dashboard opens until it's answered. It's a one-time choice and it can't be changed afterwards, so pick the market you actually want to trade first. Everything after it can be closed and come back to.

Tip

Not ready to set up a strategy on day one? Close the setup screen and look around. We'll offer it again next time you sign in, and keep offering until you've finished one of the three paths — an account with no strategy can't place a trade, so it's the one thing we keep nudging you about.

The guided tour of the app

Once your first strategy is set up, the next time you sign in we give you the tour of the dashboard itself. It points out each area in turn — your Strategies, your open Live Trades, the P&L Calendar, the Marketplace, Dashboard Settings, your Billing, and the Phone App — so you know where everything lives. It also shows you the ? help button in the top-right (the one that opens this guide).

As it highlights each menu item it opens that page behind the spotlight, so you see the real thing while you read about it. Two stops don't open a page, because they don't have one: Sentiment opens in a new tab, and Phone App brings up a QR code.

Note

The tour is deliberately a separate visit rather than more steps tacked onto setup. Getting your first strategy running is enough for one sitting, and the tour is easier to take in when it has your full attention.

The Marketplace Strategy path

This path takes you from "I like the look of that strategy" to having it trade on your account:

1. Claim your free month. The tour opens the Marketplace and lights up every strategy you can pick. Only strategies that publish a setup code are lit up, because the last part of the path copies that code.
2. Check out. Your free month is already applied, so the checkout shows $0.00 due today. You approve it with PayPal, and you can cancel any time before the first charge without paying anything.
3. Copy the publisher's settings. On the strategy's page, click Save to My Strategies. A new strategy opens with the publisher's position size, exits and schedule already filled in.
4. Make it yours and switch it on. You set how much of your account it can use, create it, turn it on, and make sure Trading Enabled is on in your account settings.

Example

You like DOPE Spreads. The tour lights it up, you click Claim free month and approve a $0.00 checkout. On its page you click Save to My Strategies, set the allocation to 100%, click Create Strategy and flip the switch. From then on your account takes DOPE Spreads trades automatically, and you have a month to decide whether to keep it.

Note

You get one free month per person. If you've already used it, or you already subscribe to the strategy you want, the tour skips the checkout. Just click the strategy's name and carry on from Save to My Strategies.

Tip

Want to read about a strategy before you choose? Click its name to open its page, then go back to the Marketplace. The tour waits for you.

How to move through it

The tour stays in step with you. When it highlights a button or switch, you click that real control to continue — there's usually no separate "Next" to hunt for. On the explain-only steps a Next button moves you along, and Back steps you to the previous stop. The tour changes pages for you as it goes, so the page you're being told about is the one on screen.

Example

On the History stop, the tour lights up History in the left menu and loads your trade history behind it. You read the note, click Next, and it moves on to the Leaderboard — loading that page as it goes. Nothing you see is a picture or a mock-up; it's your own account.

Tip

Nothing happens without you. The tour guides and highlights — it never places a trade, changes a setting, or clicks anything on your behalf. You're always the one pressing the button.

Making it stop (or bringing it back)

Until you tell it otherwise, the tour reappears every time you log in — that's on purpose, so brand-new members don't miss it. Walk it all the way to the last stop and it retires itself. If you'd rather stop it sooner, click Don't show the welcome tour again at the bottom; from then on it stays gone, on every device you sign in on.

That button belongs to the tour only. It doesn't affect the two first-sign-in screens above — picking your market can't be waived at all, and the setup screen keeps offering itself until you've finished one of its three paths.

Note

The permanent Don't show the welcome tour again button appears when you're on a computer. On a phone you can close the tour for now, but you'll need to open the site on a computer to hide it for good.

Changed your mind, or want to walk a different path? You can bring the tour back anytime from Dashboard Settings → Appearance → ✨ Replay welcome tour.

Example

You start with Full Automation to get CS+ running. A week later you want to add a second strategy from the Marketplace. Open Dashboard Settings, click ✨ Replay welcome tour, choose Marketplace Strategy from the hub and follow the steps. The tour shows you which button to press at each stop.