How to Trade Stocks, Options and Crypto Using Claude

Yes, Claude Desktop can place real trades — stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, and multi-leg strategies — through natural language. It works via the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which connects Claude directly to your brokerage account. This guide covers what MCP is, how to set it up, and what you can do once it is running — from your first stock order to iron condors and covered calls.

The one prerequisite most guides skip: you need a brokerage with a public trading API and an official Claude MCP server. Public offers a commission-free retail trading API with a Claude Desktop MCP server — one of the few brokerages that makes this possible for individual accounts.

What Claude Desktop and MCP Do for Traders

Most AI tools work as research assistants — you ask a question, you get a text answer. Claude Desktop with the Public MCP server is different. It can take actions. You type a trade instruction, and Claude calls your brokerage API directly to execute it.

The setup runs locally on your Mac or PC. Your API key stays in a config file on your machine. The MCP server process runs on your machine. Your brokerage API calls go directly from your computer to Public — Anthropic’s servers are not in that data path for order execution.

With the Public MCP server connected, you can do all of the following from a single Claude Desktop conversation:

• Pull live quotes, bid/ask spreads, and options chains
• Place market, limit, stop, and stop-limit orders for stocks, ETFs, and options
• Run a preflight check before any order is submitted — showing cost and buying power impact
• Place multi-leg options orders including vertical spreads, iron condors, and straddles as a single order
• Review your portfolio, open positions, P&L, and order history
• Place crypto orders through the same connection
• Trade inside a Traditional or Roth IRA via API
• Combine the Public MCP server with other MCP servers for research-to-execution workflows

What is MCP and Why Does it Matter for Brokerage Access

MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. Anthropic introduced it as an open standard so that Claude can connect to external tools, APIs, and data sources in a structured way. Instead of Claude only generating text responses, MCP allows Claude to call functions exposed by an external server — in this case, your brokerage.

Here is what happens when you type a trade instruction into Claude Desktop after the MCP server is configured:

1. Claude Desktop starts the MCP server process at launch, using the settings in claude_desktop_config.json
2. The MCP server exposes brokerage functions to Claude: get_quote, place_order, get_options_chain, get_option_greeks, and others
3. You type an instruction such as “Buy 5 shares of AAPL at market price”
4. Claude identifies the correct function and calls it with the right parameters
5. The MCP server sends that call to Public’s API and returns the result to Claude
6. Claude shows you the result in plain text, including order status and fill details

How to Get Set Up

Setup takes about 5 minutes. Here is what you need and how it works:

What You Need

• Claude Desktop for macOS or Windows — free at claude.ai/download. A paid Claude plan may be required to use MCP integrations
• A free Public brokerage account — open one at public.com/signup
• A Public API key — generate one in Account Settings > Security > API

Connect in 3 Steps

1. Install uv (a Python package manager) via Homebrew — the Public MCP server runs locally on your machine and needs it
2. Add the Public MCP server entry to Claude Desktop’s config file — a single JSON block with your API key and account ID
3. Restart Claude Desktop, open Connectors, confirm public-com is active, then verify by asking Claude for your account balance

For the full step-by-step setup with terminal commands and screenshots, see the Claude Desktop MCP developer guide

Place Your First Stock Order

Once the connection is verified, you can place orders by typing in plain English. The flow for a basic stock order: get a quote, check buying power, place the order.

Get a Live Quote

Check Your Buying Power

Place a Market Order

Claude runs a preflight check first — showing estimated fill cost, total buying power impact, and order type. After you confirm, Claude submits the order and returns the order ID, status, and fill price.

Other Order Types

• Limit order: “Buy 10 shares of AAPL with a limit of $215”
• Stop order: “Sell 5 shares of TSLA with a stop at $175”
• Fractional by dollar: “Buy $500 worth of NVDA”
• Crypto: “Buy 0.25 ETH at market price”
• Cancel: “Cancel my open TSLA limit order”
• History: “Show my recent transactions”

Pull an Options Chain and Place a Single-Leg Order

Claude MCP options trading follows a step-by-step flow: pull the chain, review the contract, check the Greeks, run a preflight, place the order.

Pull the Options Chain

Claude returns calls and puts sorted by strike price, with live premium, volume, open interest, and implied volatility for each contract.

Check the Greeks on a Specific Contract

Claude returns live Greeks for that contract. You can follow up by asking what those values mean for a given price move in the underlying, which helps assess actual exposure before placing the trade.

Run a Preflight and Place the Order

The preflight shows total premium, per-contract cost, buying power impact, and maximum loss before any order is submitted. Once you confirm, Claude places the order and returns fill details.

Other Single-Leg Options Prompts

• “Show the put chain for QQQ expiring in two weeks”
• “What is the implied volatility for the AAPL $200 call expiring next Friday?”
• “Buy 1 NVDA put at the $120 strike expiring next month, limit order at $3.50”
• “Close my open SPY call position at market”
• “Show me the Greeks for my current options positions”

Execute Multi-Leg Options Strategies

The Public trading API supports native multi-leg order placement. All legs of a strategy are submitted as one order. You can set up vertical spreads, iron condors, and covered calls through Claude Desktop with a single prompt.

Bull Call Spread

What it is: Buy a lower-strike call, sell a higher-strike call at the same expiration. Caps max loss at the net debit paid. Suited for a moderately bullish view.

Example: AAPL is trading at $210. You buy the $215 call and sell the $225 call, both expiring next Friday.

The preflight shows net debit, maximum profit if AAPL closes above $225, maximum loss if AAPL closes below $215, and the breakeven price — all from live premium data.

Iron Condor

What it is: Sell an OTM put spread below the market and an OTM call spread above it. Collects a net credit, profits if the underlying stays within the range between short strikes through expiration.

Example: SPY is trading at $557. You sell the $545 put, buy the $540 put, sell the $570 call, buy the $575 call — all expiring in two weeks.

The preflight shows net credit received, maximum loss on each side, the profitable range, and buying power required.

Covered Call

What it is: Sell a call against shares you already hold. Generates premium income on a flat-to-slightly-bullish position.

Example: You hold 100 shares of MSFT at an average cost of $420. You want to write a covered call at least 3% out of the money expiring this month.

Claude checks your MSFT position, identifies the appropriate strike based on current price, shows you the net credit and the price at which your shares would be called away, and runs the preflight before placing.

What Else You Can Trade via Claude Desktop

The Public API covers the full account — not just stocks and standard options:

• Crypto: “Buy 0.25 ETH at market price” — executes via the same MCP connection
• Extended hours trading: equity orders up to 16 hours per day — specify extended hours in your prompt
• Fractional shares: “Buy $200 of NVDA” — no manual share calculation needed
• Index options: SPX, NDX, and other cash-settled index contracts — use the index ticker in your prompt
• IRA accounts: set PUBLIC_COM_ACCOUNT_ID to your IRA account ID. Add a second mcpServers entry for both taxable and IRA accounts
• Margin accounts: fully supported for leveraged strategies via API

Why Commission-Free API and Options Rebates Matter for Active Traders

When you trade manually a few times a week, per-contract fees are easy to overlook. When you run workflows that place orders programmatically through Claude Desktop, those same fees apply to every single order. Over time, the difference between a commission-charging broker and one that charges zero compounds significantly.

Why Public is the preferred Brokerage for Claude Trading Bot

If you are going to automate your trading, the brokerage you choose matters more than it does for manual trading. Commissions compound. Latency matters. Uptime is non-negotiable.

•   Zero commissions on all API trades — stocks, ETFs, and options
•   Options rebates: earn $0.06–$0.18 per contract traded. At scale, this is significant income that no other commission-free broker offers
•   Instant buying power up to $250,000 — no waiting for funds to settle on time-sensitive bot trades
•   99.994% uptime over the past 12 months
•   Full multi-asset API: stocks, ETFs, options, index options, crypto in one integration
•   IRA and margin support via API — rare among retail brokerage
• Official agent skills for Perplexity Computer, Claude Desktop, and OpenClaw — actively maintained