For several years now, Japan’s “au Kabucom Securities” has been releasing an API for automated stock trading.

*API is an abbreviation for “Application Programming Interface.”

One thing that may be confusing is that there are two types of APIs released by au Kabu.com Securities.

〇”Kabu Station API” provides an API that issues trading commands to the “Kabu Station Program” that is installed on the user’s PC device.

[Advantage] Since trading can be done with a personal account, if you have programming knowledge you can easily get started.

[Disadvantage] Since it goes through a program on the PC device, it is slow.

〇”kabu.com API” allows you to issue trading commands directly to au Kabu.com Securities’ server.

[Advantage] Since commands can be issued directly to the server, it is fast.

[Disadvantage] A corporate account is required.

*I have not opened an account, so I do not know the details.

How to get started with Kabu Station API

《Terms of Use》

  • You have already opened a margin trading account or a futures and options trading account.
  • You have more than 300,000 yen in your account.
  • You have had at least one contract in all of our transactions from the month before last to the business day before last/the business day before last.

All you have to do is set up “Kabu Station API Usage Settings” from your My Page.

For more information, please refer to the official website.

Kabu Station API transaction fees

There is no fee for margin trading via API, but depending on the stock, there may be an effective fee called a “premium fee” for margin selling.

This is the same as the “HYPER fee” that SBI Securities charges.

Just to be clear, au Kabucom Securities charges a fee for margin trading. Various costs such as interest, stock lending fees, and execution fees are charged.

I don’t know what the future will be, but at least for general trading, I think SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities offer the best deals in terms of fees.

Kabu Station API Findings

At present, judging from the website, the official website seems to be sluggish, and there is very little information online.

This may be due to my lack of specialized knowledge, but first of all, there is very little information about the API specifications, and it felt very unfriendly.

The system does not allow for orders, IFD, or OCO, so it is really difficult to detect open positions, execute a contract, and then place a settlement order for the open positions.

The worst thing is that the program cannot be run in a test environment.

In the end, I spent tens of thousands of yen to test the contract and check the behavior.

Considering the situation of depopulation, I think there are two possibilities.

  1. Friction between program developers and investors prevents cooperation.
  2. In the first place, it is impossible to write a program that will win.

It may be both, but the fact is that it is depopulated.

However, there are a few blogs that say it would be a problem if the “kabu station API” disappeared, so it is possible that those who are winning are “keeping quiet.”