◆ GETTING STARTED

Installation

From "never heard of Swing Deck" to "staring at your first audit" in about 5 minutes. You need Python 3.11+ and a terminal.

ON THIS PAGE 1. Install 2. Add your tickers 3. Your first audit 4. Activate your license 5. Settings tour

1. Install

Three options, pick whichever fits your setup:

Option A — macOS / Windows installer (recommended)

Download the .dmg or .exe from swing-deck.com/download.
Install Python 3.11+ from python.org if you don't have it already.
Open the Swing Deck app. The dashboard launches in your default browser at http://localhost:8001.

Option B — from source (developers)

git clone https://github.com/pinoy81/swing-audit
cd swing-audit
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Create your ticker lists (gitignored)
echo "NVDA" > portfolio.txt
echo "RTX" > candidates.txt

# Start the server
python3 control_server.py
# → open http://localhost:8001

⬡ WHY PYTHON? The audit engine uses pandas, numpy, and ta for technical analysis. Bundling these with a packaged binary produces huge downloads (~400 MB) that frequently break on macOS arm64. Expecting a Python install is the same model Blender, Home Assistant, and most data-science desktop tools use.

2. Add your tickers

Open portfolio.txt in any text editor. One ticker per line. Anything after # is a comment — use it to jot down your thesis:

NVDA   # Semi — AI supercycle anchor
AVGO   # Custom silicon — hyperscaler moat
AMD    # MI300 cycle + server share gains
GLD    # Hard-asset floor (Pillar 5)
USFR   # T-bill armor — 4%+ yield

The audit watches the file and re-runs automatically when you save. No restart needed.

⚠ TIER LIMIT Free tier: 5 tickers. Pro: 25. Premium: unlimited. If you list more than your tier allows, the audit truncates silently and logs a warning.

3. Your first audit

The audit runs automatically every 5 minutes. You can also trigger it manually:

Terminal: python3 audit_framework.py (uses your current portfolio.txt)
One-off tickers: python3 audit_framework.py NVDA AVGO AMD
Dashboard: click ↺ Refresh in the top-right

The output (audit_output.json) is what the dashboard reads. Each ticker gets scored on 11 technical dimensions and filtered through 13 risk pillars. Scores ≥ 75 → green. 50-74 → amber. < 50 → red.

4. Activate your license

If you bought Pro or Premium (or started a free trial), your license key arrived by email. Format: SWING-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX.

Click the 🔑 free chip in the top-right of the dashboard.
In the License tab, paste your key into the input field.
Click Activate. The chip flips to 🔑 PRO (or PREMIUM). All features unlock immediately — no restart.

⬡ HOW VALIDATION WORKS The local app checks your key against api.swing-deck.com once per 24h, then caches the result. You can trade through a 7-day network outage without losing features — the license manager uses the cached response until real internet returns.

5. Settings tour

The ⚙ icon in the topbar opens a tabbed settings modal:

Tab	What it does	Available on
🔑 License	Paste/change key, see expiry, open Stripe billing portal	All tiers
✦ Features	Current tier's feature flags, greyed out = not available	All tiers
🔔 Alerts	Toggle alert types, thresholds, daily digest time, send test	Pro / Premium
☁ Sync	Enable encrypted cloud backup, trigger manual backup, restore	Pro / Premium
🎁 Refer	Your referral code, share URL, credits earned	Licensed users
⭐ Upgrade	Plan comparison, direct-to-Stripe checkout	Free / Trial

Paid-tier features at a glance

Broker writes (Raise-Stop) — move stop-loss orders up through E*Trade without leaving the dashboard. 4-guard safety layer.
Email + push alerts — score drops, regime changes, earnings warnings, daily digest. Configured in Settings → Alerts.
Encrypted cloud sync — client-side AES-256-GCM backup of portfolio, journal, positions. Restore on any machine.
Watchlist promote — tag a candidate ticker as "watchlist", audit scores it with 0 shares (0 P&L).
Multi-portfolio (Premium) — switch between named portfolios (trading, longterm, paper) from the topbar.

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Docs overview

Broker setup