fractional_shares_function.py

def fractional_shares_order(symbol, side, notional, amount, api_key, api_secret, endpoint):
    """ 
        A function to programatically purchase fractional shares leveraging the alpaca api

        Parameters
        ----------
        symbol : str, required
        side: str, 'buy' or "sell"
        notional: boolean, if True = notional, if False = fractional of a qty
        amount: str, If notional is true, a dollar amount. If notional is false, a fraction of a qty
        api_key: str, alpaca_api_key
        api_secret: str, alpaca_api_secret
        endpoint: str, alpaca_endpoint_url, paper vs. live url
        

        Output
        ------
        order_message: json, what was returned from posting to the alpaca API with our json body, or order request.
        """
    
    
    #boolean for notional. If true, purchase a notional amount. ie $10,000
    if notional == True:
        data = {
            "symbol":symbol,
            "notional":amount,
            "side":side,
            "type":"market",
            "time_in_force":"day"
        }
        
    #if false, purchase a qty amount. i.e 1.5 shares of a stock
    else:
        data = {
            "symbol":symbol,
            "qty":amount,
            "side":side,
            "type":"market",
            "time_in_force":"day"
        }
    
    #auth bearer headers
    headers = {'APCA-API-KEY-ID':api_key,'APCA-API-SECRET-KEY':api_secret}
    #make the API Raw Request and capture the json body from it
    order_message = requests.post(endpoint, json=data, headers=headers).json()

    return order_message