Getting started with Capital.com on Autoview
Getting your key? → Capital.com API key guide
By the end of this guide your Capital.com account is connected to Autoview, your API credentials carry the right permissions, and you've fired one test order and cancelled it. That last part matters. A dry run tells you your syntax parses. Only a real order tells you the whole chain works, and Capital.com gives you a demo account to run that real order on without risking a cent.
Capital.com trades CFDs, not the underlying asset, across forex, indices, commodities, shares, and crypto. The setup below works the same regardless of which market you're automating.
If you want to trade Capital.com by hand from a TradingView chart, you don't need this guide. Capital.com is a native TradingView broker, and Capital.com on TradingView: native panel vs. automated alerts explains that manual route and where it stops. This guide is for the automated route, where a webhook places the order.
Step 0: Pick your platform
Autoview comes in two forms, and Capital.com works with both.
- The Chrome extension runs in your browser. It connects directly to TradingView alerts, and it only executes while your computer and Chrome are on.
- The webhook platform runs on our servers. It accepts a POST from anywhere: TradingView, TrendSpider, a Python script, your own cron job. It executes whether or not any browser is open.
If you want trades to fire while your laptop is closed, use the webhook platform. If you're tied to the extension's live TradingView link, use the extension. The setup below covers both; the command syntax differs by a single parameter, and I'll flag it where it does. Compare them side by side on the platforms page.
Step 1: Create API credentials on Capital.com
Capital.com asks for three pieces, not two, and one of them isn't your account login. You generate the API key inside Capital.com, not inside Autoview, and you set a separate Custom Password there at the same time, distinct from the password you use to log into Capital.com itself. Capital.com keeps its own walkthrough current, so follow theirs for the exact clicks.
When you create the key, keep in mind:
- Autoview needs trading access. It has to place and cancel orders, and read your balances and open positions, or nothing executes.
- The Custom Password is not your login password. Set one specifically for API access when Capital.com prompts you, and treat it with the same care as the key itself.
Copy your Email Address, API Key, and Custom Password somewhere safe. If you lose the Custom Password, you'll need to set a new one on Capital.com's side.
Step 2: Add the credentials to Autoview
Same credentials, slightly different door depending on your platform.
On the extension
Open the extension options, find Capital.com in the left menu, and click Add account. Enter your Email Address, API Key, and Custom Password. Leave the key unnamed unless you plan to run more than one Capital.com key. Naming it means every command has to address it with a=, so skip the name if you only have one.
On the webhook platform
Log in, open the Capital.com configuration, and enter your Email Address, API Key, and Custom Password there. Here, naming the key is what lets you wire it to a specific webhook later, so a clear name is worth it. Click Add API Keys to save. Saving doesn't check the values with Capital.com. The setup page then has you link a webhook, and its last step has a Test connection (read-only) button. That test signs in to Capital.com with your three values and places no order. If it passes, your credentials work.
If you'd rather test first, Capital.com offers a Demo account, and Autoview connects to it as its own separate connection, alongside your live one. Set it up the same way, with a Demo account's own Email, API Key, and Custom Password.
Step 3: Fire a test order, then cancel it
This is the step people skip, and then they wonder why a live signal did nothing. Don't skip it, and if you're on the Demo account there's no reason not to run it exactly like a live order.
A note if you're on the live account: place a limit order far enough from the market that it won't fill while you're testing.
Start with a dry run. Add d=1 to any command and Autoview parses it, shows you exactly what it would have done, and sends nothing to Capital.com. Get a clean dry run before you send a live one.
Then send the real thing. The cleanest trigger is a single-fire TradingView alert on an active market; a condition like "price greater than 0" fires it almost instantly. Capital.com identifies each market by its own code, called an epic (for example GOLD or US500), not always the everyday ticker. Find the exact epic on Capital.com before you send. A limit buy 5% under the market looks like this:
- Extension:
e=capital s=<CAPITAL_EPIC> b=buy p=-5% q=1 - Webhook:
s=<CAPITAL_EPIC> b=buy p=-5% q=1
The only difference is e=capital, which tells the extension which exchange to route to. On the webhook platform the webhook already knows its exchange, so you leave it out.
The example above hard-codes a price offset and a quantity, which is what you want for a controlled test. In real use you'll often want a live value instead. A TradingView alert can write one in: p={{close}} tells TradingView to substitute the candle's close at fire time, and Autoview just receives the number. The {{close}} token is TradingView's, not Autoview's. The point is that the alert sender supplies the value, so a Python script or another platform builds the same command its own way and posts a plain number where {{close}} would sit.
Fire it, then open the Autoview log and your Capital.com orders. You should see the resting limit order in both. Now cancel it:
- Extension:
e=capital s=<CAPITAL_EPIC> c=order - Webhook:
s=<CAPITAL_EPIC> c=order
Order placed, order cancelled, both confirmed in the log and on Capital.com. That's the full round trip. Your setup works.
One Capital.com strength worth knowing before you build a real strategy
Capital.com carries an entry, its stop-loss, its take-profit, and a trailing stop in one order, all placed together. You don't need to split them into separate alerts the way some exchanges make you. Capital.com also supports guaranteed stops, a stop that's protected against slippage even in a fast market. If you want one, that's a Capital.com account setting to check on their side; Autoview passes it through when you attach a stop.
Scaling out of a position in one alert
Capital.com also supports Autoview's & advanced-syntax separator, so one alert can place several orders at once instead of one. That covers the case a single sl=/tp= pair cannot: taking partial profit at more than one target from a single entry.
Say you want to buy 10 units and scale out 20% at the first target, 40% at the second, and 40% at the third. Pre-multiply those percentages into absolute sizes (2, 4, 4) and write one order per & section:
e=capital s=<CAPITAL_EPIC> b=long t=market & q=2 ftp=120 & q=4 ftp=130 & q=4 ftp=140On the webhook platform, leave out e=capital. The webhook already trades the Capital.com account it is linked to.
This places three independent market buys, sized 2, 4, and 4, each carrying its own take-profit at 120, 130, and 140. ftp= is the absolute take-profit price; use tp= instead if you want an offset from entry rather than a fixed price. Text before the first & (s=, b=, t=) is shared across every section, but any q= there is not: each & section always supplies its own, and q= always sizes against your account balance, independently per leg, never against a prior leg or the total position. That is why the three sizes above are written as plain units, not percents.
This is an entry-side feature. It does not apply to closing a position: c=position with & still resolves to a single order, so build a scale-out plan on the way in, not on the way out. For the full parameter table, the guaranteed-stop pre-flight rules, and confirmed position behavior, see the Capital.com command reference.
Step 4: Troubleshoot the usual snags
Most first-run problems are one of three things.
- Invalid API credentials. Autoview rejects the key. Almost always a typo on paste, a mismatched Custom Password, or a key created without trading permission. Re-check all three pieces and confirm the permission on Capital.com's side.
- Account shows disconnected. Nothing executes while it does. Re-check the Email Address, API Key, and Custom Password, and confirm you're using the Demo credentials on the Demo connection, not mixed with live.
- Capital.com rejects the order. The error in your log comes straight from Capital.com, often because the epic was wrong or the size sat below the market's minimum. Recheck the epic and the size, then resend.
- Log shows "Account Balance not available." This is an Autoview-side rejection, not Capital.com's, and it has a known cause on Demo connections that use
aid=to pick a sub-account. See the dedicated write-up for what's confirmed fixed and what isn't yet.
When a command behaves oddly, put d=1 back on it. The dry-run output is the fastest way to see what Autoview thinks you asked for versus what you meant.
Connected and tested? Good. Next you'll want stop-loss, take-profit, and trailing parameters layered onto the same entry command, or a multi-target scale-out with &, all in one alert. That's where the automation gets interesting.