What you'll need to run WS Terminal.

An Interactive Brokers account with futures permissions

WS Terminal connects to Interactive Brokers (IBKR). You need an IBKR account that's been specifically permissioned to trade futures — the default account configuration does not include this. Don't have an account yet? Open one with IBKR here.

Walkthrough: enabling futures permissions on IBKR

1. Log in to Client Portal in your live account (not paper) at interactivebrokers.com
2. Click your user icon in the top-right corner and choose Settings
3. Under the Trading sub-header, open Trading Permissions
4. Click Futures and follow the prompts. You want "Futures (US)" for CME-listed contracts like /NQ, /MNQ, /ES, /MES.
5. Read and acknowledge the futures trading risk disclosure IBKR presents (a few pages of regulatory language about futures-specific risks)
6. Complete the experience & knowledge questionnaire honestly. IBKR scores this and uses it to decide approval — they routinely deny applications from accounts that show no trading experience or no relevant education. Don't lie, but do list anything that's true (paper-trading, courses, books read, prior brokerage experience)
7. Submit. The page will show "Pending review."
8. Wait 1–3 business days. IBKR will email when the permission is approved (or rejected with a reason).
9. Once approved, the bot can connect and place futures orders immediately — no further configuration on IBKR's side.

If you also want to trade futures options (we don't, but some users do), it's a separate permission ("Futures Options") and goes through the same flow.

Account type requirements

• IBKR Pro tier required. IBKR Lite does not support futures execution at the speed and order types this bot uses.
• Margin account required. Cash accounts cannot day-trade futures (the strategy holds positions for less than a day, then flattens).
• Account must be funded before you can enable futures permissions. IBKR may also require a minimum equity level before approving — check current requirements on IBKR's account types page.

If you're new to IBKR entirely: their account opening process takes a few days on its own (identity verification, funding deposit clearing). Plan for at least a week from "I want to start" to "I'm trading live" if you don't already have an account.

An IBKR market data subscription (a few dollars a month, often free)

WS Terminal needs real-time market data from IBKR to function correctly. Without the right subscription, IBKR sends delayed quotes (15–20 minutes behind) — the bot's FVG detection runs on stale candles, places limit orders at prices the market has already passed, and silently makes wrong decisions on a market it can no longer see.

What you need (cheapest path)

• CME Real-Time Level 1 — the cheapest subscription that covers the contracts the bot trades by default: /NQ, /MNQ, /MES, /ES. CME-listed contracts only, top-of-book quotes (which is all the bot uses).
• Roughly $1.55/month at Non-Professional rates — verify current pricing on IBKR's market data pricing page. Auto-waived when your monthly IBKR commissions reach a modest threshold — many active users effectively pay $0.
• Subscribe through Client Portal → Settings → User Settings → Market Data Subscriptions.

If you'll trade outside CME

If you plan to trade gold futures (/MGC, /GC — COMEX) or oil futures (/CL — NYMEX), CME Level 1 alone won't cover those exchanges. The US Securities Snapshot and Futures Value Bundle (a few dollars more per month) covers CME, CBOT, COMEX, and NYMEX together — the simpler choice if you want everything under one subscription. Pure CME traders don't need it.

Critical: set yourself to Non-Professional

IBKR defaults every new account to Professional subscriber status, which prices market data at roughly 10× the retail rate. Most retail traders qualify as Non-Professional and should set their status accordingly under Client Portal → Settings → User Settings → Market Data Subscriber Status.

Be honest about your status — if you're a registered advisor or trade for a firm, claim Professional. If you're a retail trader using your own money, you almost certainly qualify as Non-Professional. The questionnaire on IBKR's page lists the criteria.

Full subscription walkthrough is in the user docs.

Enough margin in your account to cover the contracts you trade

Margin requirements are set by IBKR, not by us. They vary by contract, by time of day (intraday vs overnight), and by current market volatility — and they change frequently. We won't quote specific dollar amounts here because anything we print would be out of date the day market conditions shift.

How margin works for our use case

• Intraday margin applies when you open and close a position within the same trading session. WS Terminal's default config has end-of-day flatten enabled, so most trades live entirely under intraday margin.
• Overnight margin applies if you hold a position across the session close. Typically 5–10× higher than intraday — a critical multiplier to factor in if you disable EOD flatten.
• Margins go up during volatility. IBKR raises margin requirements ahead of major events (Fed announcements, CPI, NFP) and during high-VIX periods. An account that's comfortable in calm markets can become under-margined overnight.

Use IBKR's Margin Requirements Wizard for personalized numbers

IBKR's Margin Requirements Wizard lets you enter your account type and see what margin would apply to your specific trades — more accurate than any third-party summary, including this one.

Smaller account? Switch to the micro contract

WS Terminal ships configured for /NQ (E-mini Nasdaq) by default. If that's more margin than your account is ready for, switch the symbol to /MNQ (Micro Nasdaq) — 1/10th the contract size of /NQ with correspondingly lower margin. That makes the micro the right starting point for smaller accounts and a good way to validate the bot's behavior against your own broker setup before scaling up. Move up to /NQ once you're confident with the bot and your account size comfortably supports the larger margin requirements.

How much should be in your trading account?

We don't recommend specific account sizes — that's your decision, based on your risk tolerance, the contract you're trading, and your overall financial situation. We're not financial advisors and this is not advice.

General guidance to think about

• Margin is the broker's minimum, not your target account size. It's the absolute floor below which you can't open the position. Realistic account sizing is significantly above minimum margin — you need cushion for drawdowns, IBKR's volatility-driven margin increases, and the multiplier from pyramid mode.
• Build cushion above the broker's minimum. Sizing your account at exactly the intraday margin for one contract leaves no room for the things that happen in real trading: a losing streak that pulls equity down for a few days, IBKR raising margin requirements ahead of a Fed meeting or CPI print, or pyramid mode opening multiple contracts at once. How much cushion is your call — but it should be enough that a normal drawdown or a routine volatility-driven margin increase doesn't push you against the floor. Look up current margins for your contract on IBKR's margin page and decide from there.
• The strategy has multi-day underwater periods. Even when long-term profitable, the bot will go through stretches where the equity curve is below recent highs. An account that bounces off the margin floor on the first losing streak will get liquidated by the broker before the strategy has a chance to recover. The buffer matters.
• The Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule does not apply to futures — that's a stocks-and-options rule. Futures accounts have no $25,000 minimum-equity requirement for day trading. Good news for smaller accounts.

Consult a licensed financial advisor before committing capital to any automated trading system, including this one.

Computer + internet

Operating system

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. This is the only supported platform in v1.
• Mac and Linux are not supported yet. A Mac version is on the roadmap but not committed to a date.

Hardware (modest)

• RAM: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended for 24/7 operation
• Disk: ~500 MB for the bot install plus a few hundred MB for trade logs over time
• CPU: Anything from the last 5 years is fine — the bot is not CPU-bound

Internet

• Reliable broadband — the bot streams real-time market data from IBKR's gateway
• Brief network blips are tolerated; extended outages will cause IBKR to disconnect and require a manual restart
• If you'll run unattended (overnight, while away), a wired connection is more dependable than Wi-Fi

Your machine, or a VPS

WS Terminal runs entirely on your own computer. There's no cloud server doing the trading — every tick, every decision, every order originates from the .exe on your machine. Your broker credentials never leave your computer.

Two practical options

• Run on your own machine, sessions you're present for. Most appropriate if you trade only during market hours and shut the bot down when you step away.
• Run on a VPS (virtual private server) for unattended operation. Common providers include Vultr, Linode, DigitalOcean, and AWS Lightsail. A Windows VPS sized for this runs $20–40/month. Lets you keep the bot online overnight and across the trading day even when your home machine is off.

If you go the VPS route, install IB Gateway and WS Terminal together on the same VPS. The bot connects to IBKR via the local gateway running on the same machine.

You don't need to be a programmer

• No coding ability required. The bot is configured through a web dashboard, not by editing code.
• No prior bot experience required. First-run wizard walks through the full setup.
• No second monitor. Nice-to-have, not required.
• No prior FVG-strategy expertise required, but recommended. Understanding what an FVG is and how retracement entries work will make you a much better operator of this bot. See How It Works.