# Please guys Have mercy I Need API help

**URL:** <https://community.tradovate.com/t/please-guys-have-mercy-i-need-api-help/12696>\
**Category:** API Developers\
**Created:** [June 11, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.tradovate.com/t/please-guys-have-mercy-i-need-api-help/12696 "2026-06-11T17:36:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Anthony\_Castro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@Anthony\_Castro](https://community.tradovate.com/u/Anthony_Castro)\
**Post date:** [June 11, 2026, 5:36pm UTC](https://community.tradovate.com/t/please-guys-have-mercy-i-need-api-help/12696/1 "2026-06-11T17:36:20Z")

</div>

Guys, have mercy on me. I need help before I start believing someone in IT is playing a joke on me.

I have been trying for several days to connect a Python trading bot to the Tradovate/NinjaTrader API. I really believe I am following the correct steps, but I keep getting the same authentication error.

Here is my setup:

1. Live funded Tradovate/NinjaTrader account with over $1,000 equity.

2. API Access subscription is active ($25/month — I haven’t even started trading and I’m already down for the year).

3. Created API keys.

4. Created a dedicated API password for the key.

5. Endpoint being used:

[https://live.tradovateapi.com/v1/auth/accesstokenrequest](https://live.tradovateapi.com/v1/auth/accesstokenrequest)

1. Python script prompts me for:

- Tradovate username: Honda54

- Password: dedicated API key password

- CID: I enter only the number, no “cid:” text

- Secret: I copy/paste the secret key

The payload structure is basically:

{  
“name”: “Honda54”,  
“password”: “[dedicated API password]”,  
“appId”: “HullBot”,  
“appVersion”: “1.0”,  
“cid”: 14111,  
“sec”: “[secret key]”,  
“deviceId”: “[generated UUID]”  
}

The test script does NOT place orders. It only tries to get the access token, list the account, and look up MES.

Here is the error I keep getting:

C:\Users\sergi\OneDrive\Desktop\bot\>python tradovate\_connection\_test.py

## TRADOVATE CONNECTION TEST

This will NOT place any orders.  
It only tests login + account list + MES product lookup.

Tradovate username: Honda54  
Tradovate password:  
API key / cid: 14111  
API secret / sec:

Requesting Tradovate access token…  
Auth status: 200  
AUTH RESPONSE DID NOT INCLUDE accessToken  
{  
“errorText”: “Incorrect username or password. Please try again, noting that passwords are case-sensitive.”  
}

Things I have already tried:

- Regular Tradovate login password

- Dedicated API password

- New API keys

- Old API keys archived by NinjaTrader API Support

- Fresh CID and Secret

- Live endpoint instead of demo endpoint

- Confirmed account is Live & Active

- Confirmed CID is being sent as an integer, not a string

Still the same exact error.

At this point, I am probably missing something simple, but I cannot see it anymore. If anyone has run into this exact Tradovate API authentication issue and solved it, I would seriously appreciate the help.

And when this bot finally works and I become Trader of the Year, I will absolutely give this forum credit in my acceptance speech.

Thank you,

Sergio Castro

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ambel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@ambel](https://community.tradovate.com/u/ambel)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2026, 3:55am UTC](https://community.tradovate.com/t/please-guys-have-mercy-i-need-api-help/12696/2 "2026-06-19T03:55:19Z")

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