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Automated stock trading with AI: integrating Alpaca and Google Sheets

Raz HadasRaz Hadas
22531 views
2/3/2026
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Description

Transform your investment strategy with a fully automated, AI-driven trading bot. This workflow bridges the gap between AI-powered market insights and real-world trading by executing buy and sell orders directly through the Alpaca paper trading API.

Designed to work in tandem with the Automated Stock Sentiment Analysis workflow, this solution takes the top-performing stocks based on daily news sentiment and automatically rebalances your portfolio. It's perfect for algorithmic traders, data-driven investors, and n8n enthusiasts who want to see their AI analysis translate into tangible actions, all while maintaining a comprehensive log of every transaction in Google Sheets.

Key Features & Benefits

  • Automated Trading Execution: Automatically places buy and sell orders on the Alpaca paper trading platform without manual intervention.
  • Sentiment-Driven Decisions: Leverages the output from the sentiment analysis workflow to make informed decisions, selling positions with waning sentiment and buying into those with high positive sentiment.
  • Dynamic Portfolio Rebalancing: Intelligently calculates which positions to close and how to allocate the resulting funds into new, high-potential stocks.
  • Paper Trading Ready: Safely test and refine your trading strategies in a risk-free environment using Alpaca's paper trading API.
  • Daily Performance Tracking: Automatically logs your account equity and daily percentage change to a Google Sheet, giving you a clear view of your portfolio's performance.
  • Detailed Trade Logging: Every buy and sell order is meticulously recorded in a Google Sheet for easy review and historical analysis.
  • Scheduled and Autonomous: The entire process runs on a daily schedule, making it a "set and forget" solution for systematic trading.

How It Works

This workflow executes a sophisticated, automated trading strategy in a few key stages:

  1. Daily Kick-off & Snapshot: The workflow triggers on a daily schedule, first fetching your current Alpaca account balance and logging it to a Google Sheet to track daily performance.
  2. Strategy Formulation: It then reads the daily sentiment scores produced by the accompanying "Stock Sentiment Analysis" workflow. A Code node filters these results to identify the top four stocks with the highest positive sentiment.
  3. The Decision Engine: The core of the workflow is a custom Code node that acts as the trading brain. It:
    • Retrieves your currently open positions from Alpaca.
    • Compares your holdings against the day's top four sentiment stocks.
    • Generates a "sell list" of positions you hold that are no longer in the top four.
    • Generates a "buy list" of top-sentiment stocks that you don't yet own.
    • Calculates the total cash value from the "sell list" and determines the exact notional value to invest in each stock on the "buy list."
  4. Trade Execution:
    • The workflow first iterates through the "sell list" and executes a DELETE request to Alpaca for each, closing the positions.
    • A Wait node pauses the workflow for two minutes to ensure the sell orders are filled and the account balance is updated.
    • It then iterates through the "buy list," executing POST requests to Alpaca to purchase the new assets with the calculated funds.
  5. Record Keeping: All executed orders (both buys and sells) are merged and logged in a dedicated Google Sheet, giving you a permanent and detailed transaction history.

Nodes Used

  • Schedule Trigger
  • HttpRequest (Alpaca API)
  • Google Sheets
  • Code (JavaScript)
  • SplitOut
  • Wait
  • Merge

This workflow is the perfect next step for anyone looking to take their AI analysis to the next level. Take the emotion out of your trading and let this bot systematically execute your data-driven strategy.

Automated Stock Trading with AI: Integrating Alpaca and Google Sheets

This n8n workflow automates the process of executing stock trades based on signals from a Google Sheet, integrating with the Alpaca trading API. It allows users to define trading parameters in a spreadsheet and have the workflow automatically place buy or sell orders.

What it does

This workflow streamlines your trading strategy by:

  1. Triggering on a Schedule: The workflow is designed to run at regular intervals (e.g., daily, hourly) to check for new trading signals.
  2. Reading Trading Signals from Google Sheets: It connects to a specified Google Sheet to read rows containing trading instructions (e.g., stock symbol, action, quantity).
  3. Processing Each Trading Signal: For each row read from Google Sheets, the workflow processes it individually.
  4. Executing Trades via Alpaca API: It makes an HTTP request to the Alpaca API to place buy or sell orders based on the data from Google Sheets.
  5. Introducing a Delay Between Trades: A short pause is introduced between each trade execution to prevent overwhelming the API or hitting rate limits.

Prerequisites/Requirements

To use this workflow, you will need:

  • n8n Instance: A running instance of n8n.
  • Google Account: Access to Google Sheets with a spreadsheet containing your trading signals.
  • Alpaca Account: An Alpaca trading account with API keys (Paper or Live).
  • n8n Credentials:
    • Google Sheets API Credential: Configured in n8n to allow access to your Google Sheets.
    • Alpaca API Credential: Configured in n8n to authenticate with the Alpaca trading platform.

Setup/Usage

  1. Import the Workflow:
    • Download the provided JSON file.
    • In your n8n instance, go to "Workflows" and click "New".
    • Click the "Import from JSON" button and paste the workflow JSON or upload the file.
  2. Configure Credentials:
    • Locate the "Google Sheets" node (ID: 18) and configure your Google Sheets API credential. Ensure it has access to the spreadsheet you intend to use.
    • Locate the "HTTP Request" node (ID: 19) which interacts with Alpaca. You will need to set up an HTTP Basic Auth or API Key credential for Alpaca, using your Alpaca API Key ID and Secret Key.
  3. Specify Google Sheet Details:
    • In the "Google Sheets" node (ID: 18), specify the "Spreadsheet ID" and "Sheet Name" where your trading signals are located.
  4. Customize Alpaca API Call:
    • In the "HTTP Request" node (ID: 19), review the URL, HTTP Method (likely POST), and Body content. This is where you'll map the data from your Google Sheet to the Alpaca API's order placement parameters (e.g., symbol, qty, side, type, time_in_force).
  5. Set Schedule:
    • Configure the "Schedule Trigger" node (ID: 839) to your desired frequency (e.g., every 5 minutes, once a day).
  6. Activate the Workflow:
    • Save the workflow and toggle it "Active" to start automated trading.

Important Note: Trading involves significant risk. Always test with a paper trading account (Alpaca offers this) before using live funds. Review the "Code" node (ID: 834) and "Sticky Note" (ID: 565) for any specific instructions or logic embedded by the original author, as they often contain critical details or custom transformations. The "Wait" node (ID: 514) is crucial for rate limiting and should be configured appropriately for the Alpaca API.

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