Your desk is ready. Let's set it up.
Welcome aboard. Setup takes a few minutes, and you stay in full control the whole way — the desk practices with pretend money until you say otherwise, your accounts stay yours alone, and nothing goes live without your approval. Follow the steps below — everything you need is right here on this page.
We emailed your license key the moment your payment cleared. If it isn't in your inbox within a few minutes, check your spam folder. You'll use it twice: in Step 03 to build your install text, and again when your desk's setup wizard asks for it. Keep it private — it activates your desk on up to two computers.
Find your license key
Open the email titled "Your Trade Desk Ultimate license key" and copy the key. It looks like a long string of letters and numbers.
Choose where it runs
Pick where your desk will live. Your desk — a small private server that runs your trading setup (the rented kind is commonly called a "VPS") — can run right on your Mac, or on a small computer you rent online that stays on around the clock, so it keeps watching the market while yours is off. It runs on your computer, never on ours. Either way works — the decision is yours.
Build your install text — right here
This is the fun part: paste your license below and we'll build your personal install text on the spot. Then rent your server (a small plan is plenty — 8 GB of memory and two processor cores handles everything), paste the text into the box the provider labels "User data", and create the server. Your desk builds itself — you'll know it worked when the screen shows a web address.
It's in the email we sent when your payment cleared — a long string of letters and numbers.
Building this text happens entirely in your browser — nothing here is sent to us. (Checking your licence on the Your Licence page does send it to us, so we can look it up.)
Open the setup wizard and activate
Open the web address from the install — you'll see the setup wizard's welcome screen. When the wizard's "Your License" step asks for your key, paste it in. You'll see a green check when your desk activates.
Connect Your Accounts
Connect each brokerage account you want the desk to trade through, plus any data services you subscribe to — the wizard's "Connect Your Accounts" step walks you through it. Your brokerage gives you two codes for connecting apps (you'll see them labeled "API Key" and "API Secret" on your brokerage's screen) — they let your desk see your account and place the trades you approve. Paste them into the wizard and they stay on your desk — we never see them. This bring-your-own-keys setup is the industry term you may see written as "BYOK".
Start with pretend money (paper mode)
By default the desk trades with pretend money so you can watch it work with no real money on the line. When you're ready, flip a strategy to live — and remember, the desk still waits for your approval before any live order reaches the market.
Need a hand?
Check your subscription, manage the machines using your licence, or download the installer again on Your Licence. Email support@tradedeskultimate.com and we'll help you get set up.
Trade Desk Ultimate is software, not a brokerage or advisory service. It surfaces your own configured guardrails and alerts; you make every trading decision. It does not provide investment advice or guarantee any outcome. Trading involves substantial risk of loss.