Trade automation that runs when your computer is off (no VPS)
Short answer
It works when every link in the chain runs somewhere other than your desk. TradingView fires alerts from its own servers whether your chart is open or not. Shifu receives the alert and places the order from the cloud, and the take-profit, stop and trailing stop rest at the broker. Nothing is installed on your computer, so closing the laptop changes nothing. The setups that need a VPS are the ones with a desktop bridge in the middle, such as an add-on running inside NinjaTrader 8.
Updated: September 25, 2026
| Step | Where it runs | Needs your computer on? |
|---|---|---|
| Your strategy decides to trade | TradingView’s servers, where the alert was created | No |
| The alert is delivered | From TradingView to Shifu | No |
| The order is sized and sent | Shifu, in the cloud | No |
| Take-profit and stop wait for price | At the broker, as resting orders | No |
| The trailing stop follows | At the broker (Tradovate’s own trailing stop; simulated on paper) | No |
| The fill is journaled | Shifu | No |
The only thing that runs on your computer is the browser you use to look at it.
The VPS habit comes from a different design: a strategy on your chart sends an alert to a program on your PC, and that program talks to your broker. If the PC sleeps, updates, or loses its connection, the order never leaves it — so people rent a machine that never sleeps. With Shifu there is no program on your PC to keep alive.
- Brackets are not a promise from software on your desk. When the entry fills, the take-profit and stop are placed at the broker as one group, one cancelling the other; the exit waits there, not in an app.
- A trailing stop on Tradovate is the broker’s own trailing stop, with an arm-after trigger if you set one. It keeps following after you close the lid.
- A new entry on paper or Tradovate replaces the old position: resting orders in that contract are cancelled and the position is flattened before the new entry goes in. Your chart can be closed the whole time.
- Every alert and every refusal is written to your Alerts page with the reason, so what happened overnight is readable in the morning.
Questions people ask
Do I need to keep TradingView open in a browser?
No. Alerts you create on TradingView fire from TradingView’s own servers. Make sure the alert has not expired; TradingView lets you set that when you create it.
What if my internet goes down overnight?
Nothing in the chain touches your network. TradingView, Shifu and the broker talk to each other directly; your connection only matters when you open the dashboard to look.
Does the trailing stop keep moving while I sleep?
On Tradovate, yes — it is the broker’s own trailing stop, resting at the broker. On the paper account it is simulated by Shifu from your own alerts. Neither needs your computer.
So I never need a VPS?
Not for Shifu. If you also run something that lives on your desktop — a NinjaTrader add-on, a local script — that part still needs a machine on, and a VPS is the usual answer for it.