Part 5, the last one. This is a summary of the setup steps. The README in the template repo (ierturk/trading-project-template) is the source of truth.

Not financial advice. This is a research and paper-trading project. Any numbers here are examples from past data, not promises, and the rules come with no guarantee. Paper trade first and decide for yourself.

Before you start

You need a Claude project, a broker with a read-only connector for a paper account, and about an hour. Everything you must fill in is written as a placeholder in double curly braces. PLACEHOLDERS.md lists them: your name, time zone, paper account, start date and paper balance. Search the repo for the opening braces to find each one.

The steps

1. Create the project in Claude, and add your own copy of the repo as a source if you want versioning.
2. Copy the folders (prompts, strategies, scripts, desk) into the project’s shared files, keeping the folder names. The prompts expect certain paths, so edit them in the shared prompt file if you rename anything.
3. Paste the project instructions and fill the placeholders.
4. Connect your broker for reading only, on a paper account. The prompts were written for one broker’s connector. Another broker works if its connector offers the same reads, then edit the tool names. Never grant or use order tools for these tasks.
5. Install the three skills (signal check, fill log, weekly digest) with Claude’s skill proposal flow.
6. Build the Desk by asking Claude to create the dashboard from the spec, then put its link in the shared prompt file.
7. Seed the bar cache by running the Close Loop once by hand on a weekday after the close.
8. Create the two scheduled tasks (Close Loop in the evening, Open Check in the morning, New York time, weekdays) and test each by hand before trusting the schedule.
9. Check the first morning. If the Open Check says the Close Loop is missing or old, the evening task did not run.

Before you trust it

Read the built-in rules again: report only, no order without your explicit words, paper first. Run the stock book on paper for several weeks with no rule breaks before even thinking about a live step, and keep any live trial small. Rerun the backtests on your own data and costs, because the example numbers in this series are not yours.

Update the NYSE holiday list in the month-end script each year. It ends at 2027.