Lessons 1–3
Set up
What a prop firm is, what you're paying for, and three accounts wired up with API access on.
Cursor, GitHub and TopStep, ready
AI coding, taught by building
Stop collecting courses.Learn AI by something.
This one ends with something running: a trading bot of yours, trading live market data on a practice account. Seven hands-on lessons in Cursor with Claude, GPT, Gemini and DeepSeek.
Want to see what's in the lessons? See the lessons.
- $100–150/mo in tools, itemized below
- Practice accounts only, never your own money
- Tool subscriptions cancel anytime
For US residents. TopStep may not work in the EU, the UK or elsewhere, though the coding-with-AI lessons apply anywhere.
A weekend to build it. Less than five minutes a day to run it.
- one-time account setup
- ~50 min
- to your first working bot
- ~40 min
- all seven lessons
- ~3.5 hrs
trading-botplanclaude-opus-5
you
I have this GitHub repo. I want to clone it and use it with my own credentials, and get the codebase set up to trade using TopStep's API.
Reviewed 34 files · read strategy definitions · checked for credentials
Where should the copy of the code live?
- Local only for nowrecommended
- Push to a new GitHub repo
cursor
Cloned the template. There are no credentials in it, so I've written a .env file with two blank fields. Fill in TOPSTEP_USERNAME and TOPSTEP_API_KEY and save, then tell me to proceed.
you
Added it to the env file and saved. Please proceed.
account discovery
$ python -m bot.discover_accountsauthenticating against ProjectX …4 accounts found PRACTICE-8814 sim MNQ enabled COMBINE-50K-A eval MNQ enabled COMBINE-50K-B eval MES enabled COMBINE-50K-C eval idleyou
Good. Now make a test trade on my practice account.
test trade / PRACTICE-8814 (simulated)
$ python -m bot.smoke_test --account PRACTICE-8814order sent MNQ 1 contract marketfilled entry 20418.25closed round trip completelogged entry, exit, reasonaccount flat, no working orderscursor
Order out, filled, closed, account flat. That's the whole pipe working end to end, which is all a smoke test is for. I also found two bugs while I was in there. Want me to walk through them?
That's Claude Opus 5 picking the plan, top right. Any other model is one click away. Describe it, build it, run it, fix it: that's the loop, and every lesson runs it.
Why this sticks
Most courses end with nothing running.
A certificate, some syntax, a calculator app you never opened again. Nothing that had to work, so nothing that told you whether it stuck.
Here, you leave knowing how to build with AI. The market is just where you practice.
How every lesson works
How we teach you to build with AI
Not a lecture track. You practice the same process every lesson until you can run it on an idea of your own.
Describe
You tell Cursor what you want in plain English. It asks about what you left out, then shows you a plan you can read before a line is written.
Build
The model writes the code and explains what it did. You choose between Claude, GPT, Gemini and DeepSeek and learn when that choice matters.
Run
Your bot connects to live market data with your own credentials and starts deciding. You watch the first order land.
Fix
Something breaks. You read the logs, describe what went wrong, and get it fixed. Most courses skip this move. You'll use it more than the other three.
Same four moves. Any data you like.
The market is where you practice. Swap the feed for a spreadsheet, an inbox or a price list and nothing about the loop changes. The hard part becomes choosing what to build.
- A working mockup of the idea in your head
- Inventory alerts before stock runs out
- Inbox triage that only pings you when it matters
- A competitor's prices, checked every morning
- The Monday report, written without you
- Your health data, charted your way
The lessons
Seven lessons. Three phases. One bot of your own.
You start from a repo with two working trading bots. You finish with a strategy you designed.
Lessons 4–5
Build and run
Clone the template, add your credentials, place a test trade. Then run a full day and read the journal at the close.
A bot trading unattended
Lessons 6–7
Make it yours
Version your work, then design a brand-new strategy from a conversation and backtest it.
A strategy you built yourself
By Sunday night you're holding
A running bot
On a practice account, trading by rules you can read.
A repo of your own
Versioned on GitHub, with two working strategies and one you designed.
Its daily journal
Every decision it made and why, in plain English.
The loop
Describe, build, run, fix. Ready for whatever you point it at next.
Tool costs
The whole bill, before you decide.
Third-party subscriptions, on top of the course. None of it comes to me, and all of it cancels.
- per month in tools, all in
- $100–150
- per year for the course
- $450
Everything runs in TopStep's simulated accounts. Your bank account never connects to any of this. Worst case, you're out a month of subscriptions.
TopStep Combine50k size, includes the Practice account
$50–100/moComes with the Practice account, which is where every lesson's trades happen and the only account I recommend using. Take the smallest size.
CursorPro plan
$20/moThe line that buys you the skill. One subscription covers Claude, GPT, Gemini and DeepSeek, with no separate API keys.
TopStep API accessvia ProjectX, promo code TOPSTEP
$15/moLive data and order placement from your own code. The code is TopStep's standing discount; I earn nothing from it.
GitHubFree account
$0Where your work gets saved and versioned. No Pro, no Copilot needed.
Billed to you directly by TopStep, Cursor and ProjectX. Prices move, so confirm at checkout. None of these tool subscriptions are contracts: buy a month, go through the course, cancel what you don't keep.
Straight talk
Come if this is you. Skip it if it isn't.
Come if
- You use AI every day and want to build with it instead of chatting
- You don't need to be a programmer, and you're willing to learn
- You want a skill you can point at your own work on Monday
Skip it if
- You want to quit your job or get rich. This won't do that.
- You want to be told what to trade. Better teachers exist for that.
- You want a credential. You get a working system instead.
Pricing
One plan. AI coding, taught by building.
The Builder Plan is the AI coding course: seven lessons, two working trading bots, and future courses about building with AI while you're subscribed. Questions about the course, or anything else you're building, come to me.
Builder Plan
Start hereThe AI-coding skill, start to finish.
$450/year
Renews yearly until you cancel. 14-day full refund, no questions asked.
- All seven lessons, plus future courses about building with AI as they're released
- Email me your questions, about the course or anything else you're building with AI
- The template repo with two working trading bots
- Every prompt used in the videos
- Setup guides for Cursor, GitHub and TopStep
Get the Builder Plan
The strategies I hand you aren't profitable as they stand. You're buying a skill. Nothing here promises a return.
Included with the Builder Plan
For the trading side
Every Builder Plan includes the market tools I use and the analysts I follow. Useful if you care about trading. Ignore them if you don't.
- The market tools I actually use
- The analysts I follow, and why
FAQ
Asked before buying.
The questions people ask before they decide.
Annually. The Builder Plan is $450 a year. The trading side (the tools and analysts I use) comes with it.
The plan bills annually and renews automatically until you cancel. Cancel any time before the renewal date and you won't be charged again.
Fourteen-day refund, no questions asked. Email me inside two weeks and I'll refund it in full; course access ends with the refund. The tool subscriptions are billed by TopStep, Cursor and ProjectX, so those you cancel with them.
Get started
Your first trading bot is one weekend away.
Seven lessons, and a bot of yours placing orders on a practice account by Sunday. Not ready to buy? Leave an address and the free AI-coding guide unlocks right here.
How to build with an AI coding tool
Free. Four habits that separate chatting with AI from shipping something that runs.