September 2021 Summaries

Outside of market hours, fractional trading customers were able to create unintentional short positions by selling more shares than they own, resulting in a breaking change to prevent this issue. The change will be implemented on October 27, 2021, for live environments and October 13, 2021, for paper trading and sandbox environments, with SDKs also being updated accordingly. This adjustment aims to improve the customer experience by preventing mixed notional and quantity sell sequences outside of market hours.

In the UK, Lightyear enables low-cost trading of over 1,000 US stocks with no trading fees, starting at £1 per trade, making global investing simple and accessible to European investors. The platform was founded by fintech veterans who sought to modernize investing in Europe by eliminating high fees and complicated systems. Lightyear partners with Alpaca Broker API to provide commission-free stock trading, market data, and more, empowering everyday investors to buy and trade US stocks. With its focus on simplicity, accessibility, and low costs, Lightyear aims to democratize global access to financial markets, starting with the UK and expanding throughout Europe in the coming year.

At Alpaca, a secure and trusted experience has been achieved through completion of the SOC 2 Type 2 compliance assessment, demonstrating protection against unauthorized access, disclosure of information, and system compromise. The Type II report details operational effectiveness and historical control management, providing independent validation of internal administrative, technical, and physical controls. This achievement aligns with industry standards developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for System and Organization Controls (SOC) examinations.

Alpaca has partnered with ErisX, a regulated futures exchange and clearinghouse, to offer liquidity, execution, and custody for its customers. The partnership provides direct market access, deep liquidity, reliable execution, and a complete clearing and custody solution, leveraging ErisX's comprehensive service and stable technology infrastructure. This integration enables Alpaca customers to trade with a wider range of assets, including cryptocurrencies, while maintaining the same API and seamless account management features. With this collaboration, Alpaca aims to provide its users with unparalleled access to rich liquidity sets in the market, while ErisX benefits from expanding its services to institutional and individual traders alike.