First-run setup, connecting each of the 7 supported brokers, picking a risk profile, wiring BYO-AI chat, troubleshooting, and answers to the questions we get most. If you're stuck or you don't have access yet, email [email protected] — a human replies within 24 hours on business days.
1. Quick start (five minutes)
You just downloaded and installed Qovaryx. Here's the shortest path from install to the app watching the market in paper mode.
Launch VFAi-X from your desktop shortcut. First launch takes 20–40 seconds while the backend and specialist cluster warm up.
Open Settings → Broker. Pick a supported broker and enter the credentials its adapter requests. Use a paper or simulator account where that broker provides one. Live selection remains an explicit human choice.
Open Settings → Risk. Default is Conservative. Leave it there for the first week. Aggressive and Extreme require typed acknowledgements — don't check those boxes on day one.
(Optional) Open Settings → BYO-AI. Paste an API key from any of 7 supported AI providers if you want chart analysis and position review inside the app. Skip if you just want autonomous trading.
Flip Auto-Trading ON in the top-right of the dashboard. The cluster starts scanning, sizing, and submitting orders to your broker within the risk envelope you set.
Sanity check: the top of the dashboard should show a green broker status dot. If it's yellow or red, jump to Troubleshooting.
2. Install & system requirements
Windows only for 3.0. macOS and Linux builds are not yet available. See the access page for current release status.
System requirements
OS: Windows 10 (build 19041+) or Windows 11, x64
RAM: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
CPU: Any x86-64 CPU from 2018 or newer (Intel 8th gen+ / AMD Ryzen 2000+)
Disk: ~1.5 GB after first launch (Electron app + Qovaryx model bundles)
Network: Internet needed for broker API calls, market data, and BYO-AI provider chat. Signal computation itself is fully local.
GPU: Not required. Qovaryx is CPU-only by design.
Install steps
Download the installer via the email-verification link at /download.html. Save the file (~300 MB).
Run the .exe. Windows SmartScreen may show a warning on first launch during the beta window — click "More info" → "Run anyway". Verify the SHA-256 published on the release notes if you want extra assurance.
Accept the license terms. Standard disclaimer: this is autonomous trading software, not financial advice; you are responsible for the risk limits you configure.
Choose install location. Default is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\vfai-x. A desktop shortcut is created.
Launch. First launch cold-start takes 20–40 seconds. The Qovaryx cluster loads its specialist models into RAM (~500 MB); subsequent launches are 3–6 seconds.
3. First-run configuration
After install, the app opens directly to the Dashboard. Before flipping Auto-Trading on, walk through Settings.
Settings tabs (left sidebar)
Broker — API keys, paper vs live, account ID discovery. See §4.
Risk — profile ladder, position cap, daily loss halt, correlation cap, drawdown ack. See §5.
BYO-AI — connect OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, OpenRouter, Ollama (local), or a custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint. See §6.
Watchlist — symbols the cluster is allowed to scan. Defaults to the S/A tier universe (blue chips + affordable options). You can add or remove tickers.
Notifications — email + desktop alerts for entry, exit, daily loss threshold, drawdown ack triggers.
Legal — terms, privacy, risk disclosure; regenerate a signed compliance ack if you need to reset acknowledgements.
Recommended first-run order: Broker → Risk (leave on Conservative) → Watchlist (accept default) → Notifications → toggle Auto-Trading ON in paper mode. Only after a week of paper-mode observation should you consider switching to live.
4. Connect a broker
Qovaryx ships adapters for 7 brokers. Capabilities are broker-specific: paper/simulator availability, stocks, options, and multi-leg support are checked separately. The app will not route an order type that the selected adapter does not declare.
Native
Tradier
Full options chain, multi-leg, paper + live, real-time quotes.
Native
Alpaca
Free IEX quotes on paper, native order_class:"mleg" multi-leg on live.
Requires the IBKR Client Portal Gateway running locally. Paper detected via DU account prefix.
Universal rule: generate broker API keys with trading permissions but no withdrawal permissions. Qovaryx never needs to move money in or out of your account. If a broker only offers a single-permission key, keep withdrawal MFA on your phone.
4.1 Tradier
Best for: options-first traders who want the cleanest API. Free paper access, live requires a funded account.
Create a Tradier Brokerage account at tradier.com. Paper trading is included for free.
Get your paper API token: open Tradier API settings, create or select the sandbox token, and copy the sandbox account ID returned by your Tradier profile. Do not infer the account ID from an example prefix.
In Qovaryx: Settings → Broker → Tradier. Paste token and account ID in the Paper section. Click Test Connection.
For live trading: copy the separate production token and live account ID from Tradier's API settings into the Live section. Sandbox tokens work only with the sandbox endpoint; production tokens work only with production.
Verify: the broker status dot at the top of the Qovaryx dashboard should turn green within 3 seconds.
4.2 Alpaca
Best for: newer options traders who want free IEX quotes. Paper is free forever; live requires a US brokerage account.
Sign up atalpaca.markets and complete identity verification.
Generate paper keys: dashboard → Paper Trading → "View" under API Keys → copy the Key ID and Secret Key.
Enable Options Trading: confirm your approved level. Alpaca Level 2 covers long calls and puts; Level 3 is required for call and put spreads. Paper accounts have options enabled by default, but live approval is separate.
In Qovaryx: Settings → Broker → Alpaca. Paste Key ID and Secret Key into the Paper section.
Live keys are separate: generate them under the Live Trading tab and paste into the Live section. Alpaca requires MFA on live-key generation.
4.3 Charles Schwab
Best for: Schwab / thinkorswim account holders using the official Trader API. The current Qovaryx adapter consumes an existing OAuth refresh token; it does not host the browser callback flow.
Enroll in the Schwab Developer Portal at developer.schwab.com. Approval takes 1–3 business days for the first app.
Create a Personal Use app and complete Schwab's documented OAuth authorization-code flow using a callback URL registered in your developer application. Qovaryx does not require or listen on a fixed callback port.
In Qovaryx: Settings → Broker → Schwab. Paste the App Key, App Secret, and refresh token. The account hash may be left blank for discovery.
Keep the refresh token current. Qovaryx refreshes short-lived access tokens while it is running. If Schwab invalidates or expires the refresh token, repeat the broker's authorization flow and replace it in Settings.
TDA / thinkorswim migration: Schwab has retired TDA-branded API endpoints. The Qovaryx Schwab adapter uses the unified Schwab Trader API — no separate config needed.
4.4 Robinhood
Best for: Robinhood users who want supported long-equity routing through Robinhood's Trading MCP integration.
Configure Robinhood's official Trading MCP server using Robinhood's setup instructions, then copy the MCP server URL and token (if required).
In Qovaryx: Settings → Broker → Robinhood. Leave the unofficial REST toggle off and enter the MCP URL/token.
Test Connection and verify the adapter reports the MCP route. The supported route is long-equities only; Qovaryx's broker capability gate blocks options and multi-leg strategies on Robinhood.
Robinhood has no Qovaryx-managed paper endpoint. Treat the supported MCP connection as live unless Robinhood explicitly reports otherwise. An advanced unofficial REST path exists behind an opt-in flag, but it is unsupported and may break; it is not the documented setup.
4.5 Tastytrade
Best for: options-heavy accounts with complex multi-leg strategies. The Tastytrade session flow is the cleanest of the 7 for spread trading.
Sign in to tastytrade.com and complete identity verification if you haven't.
In Qovaryx: Settings → Broker → Tastytrade. Enter your Tastytrade username and password. Qovaryx uses the standard Tastytrade session-token flow — no separate API key needed.
Session refresh: Qovaryx refreshes before its 24-hour session safety window and can use a remember token to re-authenticate. If credentials or the remember token are no longer valid, update them in Settings.
Account ID is auto-discovered from your session; if you have multiple accounts, a dropdown lets you pick which one Qovaryx trades in.
Cert vs live: the paper toggle selects Tastytrade's separate certification endpoint. A certification account is registered separately through developer.tastytrade.com; the adapter does not infer the environment from an account-number prefix.
4.6 TradeStation
Best for: professional-tier traders who want streaming Level 2 quotes.
Obtain a TradeStation API key through TradeStation API and complete its official authorization-code or PKCE flow. Include offline_access so TradeStation issues a refresh token. Qovaryx does not use a made-up fixed callback port.
In Qovaryx: Settings → Broker → TradeStation. Paste Client ID, optional Client Secret, and the refresh token. Account ID may be left blank for discovery.
Paper mode: explicitly select paper in Qovaryx to route to sim-api.tradestation.com; live mode routes to the production API. Qovaryx does not guess the mode from the account.
4.7 Interactive Brokers (beta)
Best for: IBKR account holders comfortable running the Client Portal Gateway locally.
Start the Gateway: run bin/run.bat root/conf.yaml. A browser tab opens at https://localhost:5000 — log in with your IBKR credentials.
In Qovaryx: Settings → Broker → Interactive Brokers. Use the gateway API URL https://localhost:5000/v1/api. No API key is pasted into Qovaryx; the local Gateway holds the authenticated session.
Paper detection: Qovaryx auto-detects paper accounts via the DU account-number prefix (e.g., DU1234567). Live accounts start with U.
Pre-trade warnings: IBKR can return confirmation replies for some orders. The adapter handles the broker's reply flow, while Qovaryx's own risk and capability checks still run before submission.
IBKR gateway must stay running for Qovaryx to keep placing orders. If you stop the Gateway process, Qovaryx returns to observe-only mode until you restart it. This is intentional — IBKR requires a live session per exchange rules.
5. Pick a risk profile
Qovaryx 3.0 exposes four public risk profiles. All profiles share universal controls; they differ in position and concurrency limits and in the acknowledgement required for higher-risk operation.
Conservative (default): smallest position cap, tightest stops, most concurrent-position headroom. This is where every operator should start.
Standard: slightly larger positions, one more concurrent slot. Toggle-in from Settings → Risk.
Aggressive: larger positions, higher profit targets, mandatory milestone-based profit-pulling to protect gains against give-back. Requires a typed acknowledgement ("YES, I ACCEPT AGGRESSIVE RISK") before it activates.
Extreme: largest user-selectable tier. 90-day re-ack. Adds reality caps: a hard contract cap per signal, an account-size-aware scale-down when equity grows past a threshold, and slippage + spread haircuts in the sizing math so backtest numbers stay close to what live execution actually delivers.
Rule of thumb: paper-trade the tier for at least 30 sessions before switching to live at that tier. What looks fine at Conservative can bleed you at Extreme if you skip the discipline.
6. BYO-AI chat — connect any provider
Qovaryx 3.0 ships a chat surface for chart analysis, position reviews, and news catalyst summaries. You bring your own AI provider — we do not host inference for chat. Order execution stays with the verified specialist heads regardless of which chat provider you connect.
Supported providers
OpenAI — GPT-5, GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, etc. Requires an OpenAI API key from platform.openai.com.
Anthropic — Claude Sonnet 4.6, Opus 4.7, Haiku 4.5, etc. Requires an Anthropic API key from console.anthropic.com.
OpenRouter — proxy for 100+ models with a single key. From openrouter.ai.
Ollama — fully local, no cloud round-trip. Download from ollama.com, pull a model (e.g. ollama pull llama3.2), Qovaryx auto-detects the local endpoint.
Custom OpenAI-compatible endpoint — paste any base URL that speaks the OpenAI chat-completions spec (LM Studio, vLLM, self-hosted OpenAI shims, etc.).
Setup
Open Settings → BYO-AI. Pick a provider from the dropdown.
Paste your API key. Qovaryx protects BYO-AI provider secrets with Windows per-user DPAPI. The key is sent only to the provider you select when you submit a chat request; it is not sent to JE Horizon.
Pick which context the AI can see. Per-query toggles: positions / decisions / VPA signals / regime state / portfolio equity / news catalysts / custom template. Every toggle is OFF by default — you opt in per query.
Test the connection. Click "Ping" — the app sends a tiny 20-token prompt to verify the key works.
Start using it. The chat surface appears in the top-right of every screen; there are also "Ask AI" buttons scattered throughout the app (chart panels, position rows, news catalyst cards).
Rate limits and cost: default rate limit is 30 requests/hour to prevent runaway usage on your own provider bill. Adjust in Settings → BYO-AI → Advanced. You pay your provider directly; JE Horizon collects nothing from your usage.
7. Day-to-day operation
Once you've configured broker + risk + (optional) BYO-AI, the app runs itself. Here's what to expect.
Dashboard layout
Top bar: broker status dot (green = connected, yellow = degraded, red = disconnected), Auto-Trading toggle, current risk tier chip.
Left column: live positions, cash balance, day P&L, total P&L, current drawdown.
Center: scanner — the S/A tier universe filtered by cheap volume/gap pre-filter, sorted by conviction score. Tap a symbol to open its chart panel.
Right column: recent decisions (BUY / SELL / HOLD / NO_TRADE) with the conviction score and the specialist heads that voted for each.
Bottom bar: engine status (specialist cluster ready / warming / error), background jobs (earnings calendar last refresh, outcome backfill last run), universal circuit breaker state.
What happens when you toggle Auto-Trading ON
The scanner starts a scheduled scan every 5 minutes (default; configurable in Settings → Scanner).
For each candidate the specialist cluster votes with a calibrated 0-1 conviction.
If the cluster conviction clears the tier threshold AND all circuit breakers are green, the order dispatch pipeline sizes the position per your risk profile and submits to the broker.
Every decision is written to the local decision ledger with a reproducibility signature. You can review any past decision in Settings → History.
Background jobs
Earnings calendar refresh: 09:30, 13:30, 17:00 ET on trading days.
Outcome backfill: 18:00 ET daily — closes out any trades that were filled/closed on the broker side but not yet reconciled in Qovaryx.
Training corpus export: Sunday 20:00 ET weekly — anonymized decision outcomes get written to a local training corpus for the next model iteration. Nothing leaves your machine.
8. Safety — what stops trading automatically
Circuit breakers fire regardless of risk tier. Here's what triggers each one and how to reset.
Universal circuit breakers
Daily loss halt: if the day's realized + unrealized loss exceeds the tier's daily loss cap, Auto-Trading toggles OFF for the rest of the session. Resets at 09:30 ET next trading day.
Correlation cap: if a new candidate would push a single sector above 40% of portfolio equity, the order is refused. No manual reset needed; the cap self-clears as positions rotate.
Drawdown acknowledgement: if the account equity drops 10% within a 7-day rolling window, the app blocks new entries until you type a drawdown acknowledgement. Prevents autopilot-into-oblivion.
Slippage governor: if fills consistently come back worse than the modeled slippage (per broker per symbol), the sizing shrinks proportionally on that pair. Auto-recovers when fills improve.
Non-tier gates (also always on)
Earnings blackout: ±1 day around earnings, non-PEAD strategies are refused entry on that symbol.
Event-impact blackout: HIGH / CRITICAL macro events (FOMC, CPI, NFP) block non-PEAD strategies for the pre-event window.
Options-flow disagreement gate: if put/call flow strongly contradicts the cluster's directional vote, the trade goes to shadow (logged, not dispatched).
Head-voted-no-trade veto: if any specialist head in the dispatch chain votes NO_TRADE, the order is refused.
Symbol tier exclusion: Tier B (ETFs) and Tier C (retired names) are excluded from default scan; manual override required.
Green means safe: the bottom-bar circuit breaker indicator shows the count of active breakers. Aim for all green before enabling live trading.
9. Troubleshooting
If any of these don't resolve your issue, email [email protected] with a screenshot and your log bundle (Help → Export logs).
The broker status dot is yellow, not green.
Yellow means the broker API returned 200 but your positions and account both came back empty or zero. Two most common causes:
You entered paper keys but the app is set to live mode (or vice versa). Fix in Settings → Broker → toggle at the top of the panel.
The broker is having an outage. Check the broker's status page directly.
The broker status dot is red.
Red means the API returned an error. Check Help → View broker error log for the exact status code. Common fixes:
401 / 403: API key is invalid, expired, or missing permissions. Regenerate at the broker.
429: rate-limited. Wait 60 seconds and Qovaryx auto-retries.
500-series: broker outage. Not your problem to fix.
Auto-Trading is on but no orders are firing.
Check the bottom bar for the circuit breaker state. Any red breaker means the gate is closed. Also check:
Market hours — Qovaryx only dispatches during regular US equity hours (09:30-16:00 ET).
Recent decisions column — if the cluster is emitting all NO_TRADE, that's the answer. Either the setups aren't there or the conviction threshold is too tight for your current risk tier.
Watchlist — make sure your watchlist has symbols the scanner is allowed to trade.
The app is slow to launch or feels sluggish.
First launch is 20-40 seconds while the specialist cluster loads models into RAM. Subsequent launches are 3-6 seconds. If ongoing performance is slow:
Check Task Manager — are you under 8 GB free RAM? Qovaryx needs ~500 MB for the cluster plus Electron overhead.
Restart the app once a day — the scanner runs continuously and can accumulate cache.
Turn off "verbose logging" in Settings → Advanced if you had it on.
BYO-AI chat says "Rate limit exceeded."
Two rate limits apply: Qovaryx's local rate limit (default 30/hour, adjustable in Settings → BYO-AI → Advanced) and the provider's own rate limit. If you're hitting the provider's limit, either upgrade your provider tier or throttle Qovaryx's local rate below the provider's.
Windows SmartScreen blocks the installer.
Beta builds during the launch window are watermarked but not Authenticode-signed. Click "More info" → "Run anyway" if the SHA-256 you see matches what's published on the release notes. Post-launch releases will be signed.
How do I export logs for support?
Help menu → Export logs. The app writes a zip to your Desktop containing app logs, backend logs, and (optionally) recent broker request/response bodies with API keys redacted. Attach it to a support email.
Where is my data stored?
Everything stays local. Specifically:
App state + settings: the current Windows user's application-data directory
BYO-AI secrets: protected by Windows DPAPI for the current user
Decision ledger + logs: per-user runtime data outside the installed program folder
Outbound traffic includes broker API calls, configured market-data requests, optional BYO-AI requests to the provider you select, and license/update checks. BYO-AI is opt-in and does not receive data unless you submit a chat request with the applicable context enabled.
10. Frequently asked questions
The questions we get most often, grouped by topic.
About Qovaryx
What is Qovaryx, exactly?
A local-first stock and options automation platform. It evaluates configured strategy setups, applies specialist context and deterministic gates, sizes eligible orders within your risk profile, and routes supported orders to the selected broker. Hosted chat AI is optional and cannot submit orders.
Is Qovaryx financial advice?
No. Qovaryx is autonomous trading software. Trading options involves substantial risk of loss. You are responsible for the risk limits you configure and for monitoring the account. Not FDIC-insured, not SIPC-insured beyond your broker's standard coverage. Not a substitute for a licensed advisor.
Why CPU-only? Everyone else uses cloud GPU.
Three reasons. (1) Sovereignty — your trade data never leaves your machine. (2) Latency — sub-millisecond decisions with no cloud round-trip. (3) Cost — no per-token API charge means we can price the app at $29.99/month instead of $199+ like the cloud-first tools. The trade-off is we built our own decoder from scratch to fit on a CPU; the constraint is the point, not a compromise.
How is this different from ChatGPT/Claude trading agents?
General-purpose LLMs can be useful for user-requested analysis, but Qovaryx does not treat fluent chat output as an execution policy. BYO-AI is a chat surface; order dispatch remains in deterministic strategy code with bounded specialist inputs and universal risk controls. See features.html §BYO-AI.
Do you make trades on my behalf, or does the app on my machine make them?
The app on your machine, using the broker API keys you provided. JE Horizon has no visibility into your positions, trades, or P&L. We collect only license heartbeat metadata (install ID, app version, timestamp) — enough to know that the app is running so we can ship security fixes to reachable installs.
Pricing & access
How much does Qovaryx cost?
$29.99 per month at general availability. Public checkout is temporarily closed during the 3.0 launch window — join the waitlist to be notified when subscriptions reopen.
How do I get access before launch?
Email [email protected] with a short note about your trading background and why you'd like early access. We're issuing invites to a limited pool of testers ahead of general availability.
Is there a free trial?
Yes — a 30-day free trial at general availability. Card required to start, no charge for 30 days, reminders sent 7 days and 3 days before the first charge. Cancel any time from the in-app account panel.
How many machines can I run it on with one license?
Two active machines per license. You can rotate between them (deactivate one, activate another) as often as you like — the two-machine limit is a soft cap to prevent unlimited sharing, not a hardware-fingerprint lock.
Brokers & execution
Which brokers do you support?
Seven adapters: Tradier, Alpaca, Charles Schwab, Robinhood, Tastytrade, TradeStation, and Interactive Brokers. Asset, order-type, and paper/simulator capabilities vary by broker; see §4 above.
Can I trade equities as well as options?
Yes. The production book contains equity, single-leg option, and multi-leg option configurations. Actual eligibility depends on the strategy's own gates, the selected risk profile, and the broker adapter's declared capabilities.
What about futures / forex / crypto?
Not supported in 3.0. Options and equities only. Crypto options via a partner broker are on the roadmap for a later release.
Can I customize the trade signals?
No — the signal logic itself is sealed. You control the risk envelope (broker, tier, watchlist, notifications, on/off) but not the model weights or thresholds. This is deliberate: an auditable, reproducible edge cannot be the thing the user tweaks.
Privacy & sovereignty
Does Qovaryx send my trade data anywhere?
No. The entire specialist cluster runs locally on your laptop. License and update checks use install/version metadata only. Broker API traffic goes broker ↔ app ↔ broker — JE Horizon is never in the middle.
Does BYO-AI chat leak my data to the AI provider?
Only the data you explicitly opt in to share via the per-context toggles. Default is that no trading context is shared. If you toggle "positions" on, then your positions are included in the prompt to the AI provider. Every provider has its own retention policy — consult theirs. Local providers (Ollama) never leave your machine.
What if you go out of business?
The app keeps running. License heartbeat gracefully degrades to a local-only mode; you retain full functionality on the current model bundles that shipped with your build. What you lose is future updates and support. Broker connections don't depend on us.
Is my API key safe?
BYO-AI provider secrets use the app's per-user protected secret store. Broker adapters currently persist the fields required by their Settings cards in the current user's application-data directory, so protect the Windows account and never share that directory. Credentials are not bundled in release packages and should be redacted from any support material.
Compliance & regulation
Do I need to be a Pattern Day Trader?
No. Qovaryx has a PDT governor that tracks same-day closes separately and refuses to submit a fifth same-day round-trip in a rolling 5-business-day window if your account is under $25k. You can override this in Settings → Risk → Advanced if your broker permits it.
US only?
Currently yes — all 7 supported brokers are US brokerages. International broker adapters are on the long-term roadmap. If you're outside the US and have a US brokerage account (some brokers accept international clients), the app works.
11. Get support & request access
Human replies within 24 hours on business days.
Qovaryx 3.0 is invite-only during launch
Email [email protected] to request access, ask a question, or report a bug. Include your trading background if you're requesting an invite; include a log export if you're reporting a bug.