Live trading
paper first, then real.

01What trades live

02Turn it on, step by step

1. Paper firstRun the desk in paper mode long enough to see the lanes and books behave on your data (Research & analytics).
2. A private RPCSet a private Solana RPC (Helius, QuickNode, Triton…) in the console under Integrations. The public endpoint drops transactions under load; live mode refuses to start on it.
3. KeysIn the console under Integrations (encrypted, owner only) or in .env:

   SOLANA_PRIVATE_KEY=     # a fresh wallet funded only with your trading budget (base58 or JSON bytes)
   HL_API_WALLET_KEY=0x…   # Hyperliquid → More → API → generate and authorise an API wallet
   HL_ACCOUNT_ADDRESS=0x…  # the account the API wallet trades for

4. Live settingsConsole → Live trading (config.json → live only when the console is off): switch on pump.fun and/or Hyperliquid, set the caps, keep Dry run on, and type the confirmation sentence exactly:

   I accept that OUTRIDER places real orders and I can lose money

5. Mode LIVEConsole → Desk → Mode → LIVE, then restart the desk. If anything is missing it refuses to start and lists every problem. The dashboard shows LIVE · DRY RUN in amber.
6. Watch the dry runThe Live tab of the ledger lists every order the desk would have sent, signed and simulated. Check the sizes, the coins and the simulation results.
7. Go liveSwitch Dry run off and restart. The chip turns red: LIVE. Start with the smallest caps.

03Caps and safety

On top of these, every live entry passes the same gates as paper: the EV gate, lane limits and daily stops, max open positions, the exposure cap, the daily loss limit and the tiered hard stop. The kill switch (dashboard, Telegram /stop, data/STOP) stops new entries at once; a red hard stop sells every live pump.fun position. A failed live sell keeps the position and the exit rules try again next cycle; a full exit sells everything the wallet holds of that coin.

04Good to know

• PumpPortal and your RPC provider are third-party services with their own terms and fees; PumpPortal's local-trade API charges a small fee per trade.
• Hyperliquid rejects orders below $10; smaller rebalances are skipped and logged.
• Replays and backtests never trade live.
• On a running desk, a Mode change that involves LIVE and every Live trading setting are saved but held until the next restart; the dashboard shows "restart pending" and keeps working with the settings it started with. To stop at once, use the kill switch. Close your live positions before you restart in paper mode: a paper desk does not manage real positions.
• The first live start on a data folder that ran on paper drops the paper positions and starts the day, the equity history and the hard stop from the real wallet balance (journal row live_rebase).
• If a buy is confirmed but your RPC cannot return the transaction, the position is booked from the curve quote (marked as an estimate) so the exits still manage it; a full exit always sells everything the wallet holds of that coin.
• With the console running, Mode and every Live trading setting come from the console: its values (defaults included) win over config.json at each start (so switching back to paper or Dry run there always takes effect). Without the console (DASH=0), config.json decides.
• The first live start with Hyperliquid on clears the paper positions of the trend and HL copy books and starts each from its share of the real account value. Positions the account already holds are reported, never adopted or closed by the desk.
• The daily loss limit and the hard stop measure the SOL side (the wallet and the pump.fun book). Hyperliquid live exposure is limited by its own caps and by the portfolio gross cap; a red hard stop sells the pump.fun positions but does not close Hyperliquid positions. Watch both.
• "Not confirmed in time" is counted as a failed order, although a slow transaction can still land later: check the signature in the Live tab on a block explorer. A sell confirmed but not readable from your RPC is booked from the curve quote as an estimate.
• The pump.fun transaction is built by PumpPortal from the amount the desk requests; the desk verifies that your wallet is the fee payer and signs it. The per-trade cap is enforced on the requested amount and by the slippage bound, so use a trading wallet that holds only your trading budget.
• The Hyperliquid books take their starting equity from the account value at the first live start (the dry run counts). If you deposit afterwards, the books do not grow by themselves; the caps still apply.
• A dry run with an empty wallet shows simulation errors such as AccountNotFound: fund the wallet with a small amount to see clean simulations.
• Every live fill, dry run, skipped order and automatic kill switch is in the journal (the Live tab) with the transaction signature or order id.