How to do everything

Installing FIRE

FIRE is a single Windows installer. There is nothing else to install: no Python, no command line, no accounts to create anywhere except with your exchange.

1. Download the installer from the link in your welcome email or on the download page.
2. Run it. It does not ask for administrator rights and installs for your Windows account only.
3. Windows may show a blue box saying it protected your PC. Choose More info, then Run anyway. This appears for any installer Windows has not seen many times before.
4. Click through the installer. It takes a few seconds.

Requirements. Windows 10 or Windows 11. About 60 MB of disk. An internet connection.

Your first run

FIRE opens on a setup screen and asks how you want to start. You can change your mind later, so pick whichever suits you.

• Try it first puts you in demo mode. Simulated markets, a simulated balance, no exchange account and no money.
• Connect my exchange account takes you through the risk acknowledgements and then asks for your API key.

We suggest demo first even if you intend to trade immediately. It costs nothing and it is the cheapest place to learn where the buttons are.

Entering your licence key

1. Open FIRE.
2. Click Account at the top right.
3. Paste your key into the licence box and click Apply licence.

That is the whole of activation. There is no account to create and no password to remember. If it does not take, see subscription problems below.

Connecting your exchange account

FIRE trades through an API key that you create in your own exchange account. We never see it.

1. Sign in to your exchange and find its API key settings.
2. Create a new key. Download the private key file it gives you. Most exchanges show this once and never again, so save it somewhere safe.
3. In FIRE, open Preferences and enter the key ID and the private key.
4. Paste the private key whole, including its first and last lines. It must not be password protected.

FIRE encrypts the key immediately using Windows' own secret store, which ties it to your Windows sign in. Only the encrypted form is written to disk. Somebody who copies that file to another computer cannot read it.

Your first live order

Before you click anything with real money behind it:

1. Check the banner. Blue and PAPER means simulated. Red and LIVE means real money and orders that are final.
2. Set your maximum loss per order in Preferences. FIRE refuses any order whose worst case loss is larger than that share of your balance.
3. Leave the confirmation prompt on until you are comfortable. It asks before every live order and shows the maximum you can lose.
4. Start small. A binary contract settles at its full value or at nothing, so the amount you pay is the amount you can lose.

Updating

When a new version is available, FIRE shows one line across the top with a download button. It never interrupts you with a dialog.

1. Click Get the update. Your browser downloads the new installer.
2. Close FIRE and run the installer.
3. It installs over the top. Your settings, your saved API key and your subscription are all kept.

There is no need to uninstall first, and nothing to migrate.

Reinstalling

Download the current installer and run it. Installing over an existing copy keeps everything. If you want a genuinely clean start, uninstall first and answer Yes when it offers to remove your settings, then install again and re-enter your licence key and API key.

Changing computer

Your subscription covers three computers. To move to a new one:

1. Go to your account page and enter your licence key.
2. Find the old computer in the list and click Remove. The seat is free immediately.
3. Install FIRE on the new computer and enter your licence key.

Removing a computer does not cancel anything, and it does not touch your exchange account or your positions.

Uninstalling

1. Open Windows Settings, then Apps.
2. Find FIRE and choose Uninstall.
3. It asks whether to also remove your settings and the encrypted copy of your API key. Choose No to keep them for a later reinstall, or Yes to remove them.

Uninstalling also does not cancel your subscription. Do that from your account page.

Common problems

Windows warns about an unknown publisher

Choose More info, then Run anyway. Windows shows this for any installer it has not seen many times before.

My balance is exactly one thousand dollars

You are in demo mode. Everything on screen is simulated. Connect your exchange account in Preferences and reopen FIRE.

The BUY buttons are greyed out

The card tells you which of three reasons applies:

• Waiting for the next window. That market is between windows and reopens on its own.
• Subscription ended. See below.
• Trading is switched off. Access to this installation was withdrawn. Send us a support bundle if that looks wrong.

It says sign in required, or my credentials were rejected

The exchange is not accepting your key. In order of likelihood:

1. The key was revoked or has expired. Create a new one.
2. The private key was pasted incompletely. It must include the first and last lines of the file.
3. The key file is password protected. FIRE cannot use an encrypted key. Create one without a password.

An order did not fill

FIRE sends immediate or cancel orders. They fill against what is on the book at that moment or they do not fill at all, and nothing rests. Nothing was charged. The usual cause is that the price moved between the book you looked at and the moment you clicked, or there were not enough contracts at your limit. Both are normal in short duration markets.

Prices have stopped updating

Check the connection indicator at the top right.

• connecting or degraded: FIRE is retrying by itself.
• rate limited: the exchange asked FIRE to slow down and it has. Prices update less often until it clears.
• offline: check your internet connection.

FIRE reconnects on its own in all of these. Restarting does not help.

Subscription problems

My licence key is not accepted

1. Check it against your receipt. Case and spacing do not matter, and you can leave the dashes out.
2. If FIRE says the licence is in use on the maximum number of computers, free one up on your account page.
3. If it still fails, create a support bundle from Diagnostics and email it to us with the address you bought with. Do not email the key itself.

FIRE says it cannot confirm my subscription

Open Account and press Refresh. FIRE keeps working for several days without being able to reach us, so this means it has been offline for a while or something is wrong on our side. If Refresh does not fix it, email us.

I cancelled. What happens to my positions?

Nothing. You keep access to the end of the period you have paid for, then FIRE stops sending orders and tells you why. Anything you hold stays open at your exchange, where you manage it as normal. Demo mode keeps working.

My payment failed

Nothing happens immediately. Your card issuer and Stripe retry over several days, and FIRE keeps working throughout. Update your card on your account page and it resolves itself.

Rotating your API key

Do this on whatever schedule you are comfortable with, and immediately after anything that might have exposed the key. The order matters, so you are never locked out mid window.

1. In your exchange account, create a new API key. Leave the old one working for now.
2. In FIRE, open Preferences, choose Remove saved credentials, then enter the new key ID and private key.
3. Confirm the connection indicator reads connected and your balance is right.
4. Only now, revoke the old key at your exchange.

Lost or stolen computer

Do these in this order.

1. Revoke the API key at your exchange, first. Before anything else. The copy on that computer is encrypted and tied to that Windows sign in, but revoking removes the question entirely.
2. Check your exchange account for orders or positions you did not place.
3. Remove that computer from your account page, so the seat is free.
4. Create a fresh API key for your replacement machine.

We cannot revoke an exchange key for you. Only your exchange can do that, and only you can ask them to.

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