Paper trading¶
Paper trading lets you test a strategy in live market conditions without risking real money. Orders match against live Kite quotes on a 5-minute cadence (sufficient for daily and swing strategies; intraday paper trading is on the roadmap).
Trial accounts fill at end-of-day prices
On the trial plan, paper orders fill against the latest end-of-day close, not live ticks. Upgrade to a paid plan and connect your own Kite broker for real-time fills.
Once you've selected an account, the page has five tabs:
| Tab | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Overview | KPIs (Cash, Total value, Total P&L, open positions, pending orders, Initial capital) and an equity-curve chart. |
| Place order | Submit a new paper order. |
| Holdings | Your open positions with live MTM — the "Positions" view. |
| Orders | The full order log (open + finished), with a status filter. |
| Trade history | The immutable record of fills, with charges. |
Creating a paper account¶
- Open Paper Trading in the sidebar.
- Click the account selector → New account.
- Pick a name and starting capital (default ₹10,00,000).
You can have multiple paper accounts — useful for keeping different strategies' performance separate.
Placing manual orders¶
From the Place order tab:
- Symbol — typeahead search
- Side — BUY or SELL
- Quantity — must be a multiple of the instrument's lot size
- Order type — MARKET / LIMIT / SL / SL-M
- Price / Trigger price — required depending on order type
- Product — CNC / MIS / NRML
The form previews estimated brokerage + slippage live as you type. Hit Place order.
How orders match¶
Every 5 minutes during NSE hours (9:15–15:30 IST, weekdays minus published holidays), the matcher checks every pending order against the latest LTP and fills the ones whose conditions are met:
- MARKET — fills at the next LTP
- LIMIT BUY — fills when LTP ≤ your price (you get the better price)
- LIMIT SELL — fills when LTP ≥ your price
- SL_M BUY — triggers when LTP ≥ trigger; fills at LTP
- SL BUY — triggers like SL_M, then acts as a LIMIT order at your price
Charges (brokerage + slippage) apply on fill and reduce your cash balance immediately.
Positions¶
Open positions live on the Holdings tab (this is the "Positions" view). It shows every open position with live MTM (mark-to-market). The matcher refreshes LTPs every 5 minutes; the Unrealized P&L column is recomputed each tick.
Columns: Symbol, Exchange, Qty (shorts shown in amber), Avg price, LTP, Market value, Unrealized P&L, and Realized P&L.
Each row has an Exit button that squares off the position with a market order on the opposite side. While that square-off order is still pending the button reads Pending and is disabled, so you can't double-exit. When a closing trade fills, the position quantity is decremented and its realized P&L rolls into your account's cumulative figure.
Orders¶
The Orders tab is the log of every order you've placed, open or finished. A status filter (All / Pending / Executed / Cancelled / Rejected) narrows the list.
Columns: Placed, Symbol, Side, Type (MARKET / LIMIT / SL / SL-M), Qty, Price, Trigger, Status, and Filled @.
A Cancel action appears only on Pending orders — use it to pull an order that hasn't matched yet. Executed, cancelled, and rejected orders are read-only history. There's no modify action; cancel and re-place instead.
Trade history¶
The Trade history tab is the immutable record of fills — every order that actually executed. Unlike Orders (which includes pending/cancelled), this tab only shows completed fills.
Columns: Filled at, Symbol, Side, Qty, Price, Brokerage, Slippage, and Net amount. This is where you see the exact charges that were applied on each fill. (Realized P&L isn't repeated here — it's on the Holdings tab.)
Trade history is preserved across account resets and soft-deletes, so it stays a complete audit trail of the account.
Resetting an account¶
Account menu → Reset. This sets cash back to your initial capital, closes all open positions, and cancels all pending orders. There's no auto-reset — useful when you want to start a fresh test of a strategy.
Deleting an account¶
Soft-delete via the account menu. Existing trades and fills are preserved for audit; the account just stops appearing in the selector.