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Installation

Install Spectral, prepare the local environment, and connect the app to Interactive Brokers.

Setup in minutes

Install Spectral in four simple steps.

If you already have an Interactive Brokers account and TWS or IB Gateway installed, getting started is straightforward.

00
Before you begin

What you need

01

An IBKR account

Use either your paper trading account or your live account. We recommend starting with paper trading so you can get used to Spectral first.

02

TWS or IB Gateway

Install one of Interactive Brokers’ desktop connection tools.

Download TWS Download IB Gateway
  1. 01
    Step one

    Download and install Spectral

    Download the current Spectral build for macOS or Windows from the beta page. On macOS, choose the Apple Silicon or Intel build, open the downloaded file, then drag Spectral into your /Applications folder. On Windows, run the downloaded installer and follow the setup prompts.

    Get Spectral
  2. 02
    Step two

    Start TWS or IB Gateway

    Run the IBKR tool you installed and log in to the paper or live account you want to use.

    Keep TWS or IB Gateway running while you use Spectral.
  3. 03
    Step three

    Enable the IBKR API

    In TWS or IB Gateway, open File → Global Configuration, then choose API → Settings. Check Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients, make sure Read-Only API is unchecked, click Apply, and then click OK.

    This API setup only needs to be completed once.
    TWS File menu with Global Configuration highlighted
    Open Global Configuration.
    IBKR API Settings with Enable ActiveX and Socket Clients enabled
    Enable the API, then apply the change.
  4. 04
    Step four

    Run Spectral

    Open Spectral. It uses the TWS or IB Gateway session already running on your computer, so you are ready to work.