What does the Finance MCP Directory methodology page document?

How AI Fin Hub grades finance MCP servers. Scoring rubric, sources, refresh cadence, limitations. Source citations, assumption deltas, and as-of dates included. It states the formulas, assumptions, data sources, limitations, and reproducibility steps behind the Finance MCP Directory, in the Finance category.

When was the Finance MCP Directory methodology last reviewed?

This methodology was last reviewed on 2026-04-20. The matching tool is at https://aifinhub.io/finance-mcp-directory/.

Are the Finance MCP Directory numbers reproducible?

Yes. This page embeds a worked example whose output is the verbatim result of running the shipped finance-mcp-directory engine on a fixed input; the embedded JSON is recomputed and diffed against the engine in CI, so the numbers cannot drift from the code.

Worked example

Running the shipped finance-mcp-directory engine on the input below produces exactly this output. Continuous integration recomputes it against the engine bundle on every build, so these numbers cannot drift from the code.

Input

{
  "tool": "finance_mcp_directory",
  "filter_by_venue": "alpaca",
  "filter_by_scope": "market_data",
  "min_security_grade": "B"
}

Output

{
  "total": 7,
  "filtered": 7,
  "servers": [
    {
      "id": "alpaca-mcp-v2",
      "name": "Alpaca MCP Server v2",
      "vendor": "alpaca",
      "official": true,
      "url": "https://github.com/alpacahq/alpaca-mcp-server",
      "description": "Official Alpaca MCP server. Shipped April 2026 with 61 actions across equities, options, and crypto. Read + execute across the Alpaca brokerage API.",
      "scope": "full",
      "auth": "api-key",
      "idempotencySupported": true,
      "transport": "stdio+http",
      "schemaQuality": "A",
      "license": "MIT",
      "lastCommit": "2026-04-15",
      "capabilities": [
        "bars (daily / minute)",
        "quotes (live via SIP+IEX)",
        "options chains",
        "crypto pairs",
        "submit orders",
        "portfolio positions",
        "account state"
      ],
      "securityNotes": [
        "API key has broad trading authority — store securely",
        "No scoping of key permissions in-server (rely on Alpaca dashboard key scopes)",
        "Idempotency key supported on order submission"
      ],
      "overallGrade": "A"
    },
    {
      "id": "polygon-mcp",
      "name": "Polygon.io MCP Server",
      "vendor": "polygon",
      "official": true,
      "url": "https://github.com/polygon-io/mcp-polygon",
      "description": "Official Polygon.io MCP server. Read-only access to all Polygon equities, options, crypto, FX data endpoints.",
      "scope": "read-only",
      "auth": "api-key",
      "idempotencySupported": false,
      "transport": "stdio+http",
      "schemaQuality": "A",
      "license": "Apache-2.0",
      "lastCommit": "2026-04-10",
      "capabilities": [
        "stocks aggregates (daily / minute / sec / tick)",
        "options chains",
        "crypto trades + quotes",
        "forex rates",
        "news API",
        "reference data"
      ],
      "securityNotes": [
        "Read-only scope — no trade execution surface",
        "API key required; safe to scope tightly",
        "No idempotency concern (no writes)"
      ],
      "overallGrade": "A"
    },
    {
      "id": "databento-mcp",
      "name": "Databento MCP Server (community)",
      "vendor": "databento",
      "official": false,
      "url": "https://github.com/databento-contrib/databento-mcp",
      "description": "Community-maintained Databento MCP server. Wraps historical + live data endpoints. Not endorsed by Databento; verify schemas against docs.",
      "scope": "read-only",
      "auth": "api-key",
      "idempotencySupported": false,
      "transport": "stdio",
      "schemaQuality": "B",
      "license": "MIT",
      "lastCommit": "2026-03-28",
      "capabilities": [
        "historical OHLCV",
        "tick data (limited)",
        "futures",
        "symbology lookups"
      ],
      "securityNotes": [
        "Unofficial — review schema fidelity before production use",
        "Does not rate-limit; relies on Databento's server-side meter",
        "Billing tracked via Databento meter — test runs cost money"
      ],
      "overallGrade": "C"
    },
    {
      "id": "ibkr-cli-mcp",
      "name": "IBKR CLI MCP",
      "vendor": "ibkr",
      "official": false,
      "url": "https://github.com/waynethegeek/ibkr-cli-mcp",
      "description": "Community MCP wrapper around Interactive Brokers' TWS / IB Gateway. Requires running Gateway locally; auth via IBKR account.",
      "scope": "full",
      "auth": "bearer-token",
      "idempotencySupported": true,
      "transport": "stdio",
      "schemaQuality": "B",
      "license": "Apache-2.0",
      "lastCommit": "2026-04-02",
      "capabilities": [
        "live quotes (subject to IBKR data subscription)",
        "historical bars",
        "options",
        "submit orders",
        "cancel orders",
        "portfolio positions"
      ],
      "securityNotes": [
        "Requires TWS / Gateway running on the client machine",
        "IBKR token stored client-side — do not commit to repos",
        "Idempotency supported via client-supplied orderId",
        "Community project — audit before production trading"
      ],
      "overallGrade": "B"
    },
    {
      "id": "tradier-mcp",
      "name": "Tradier MCP (community)",
      "vendor": "tradier",
      "official": false,
      "url": "https://github.com/community/tradier-mcp",
      "description": "Community Tradier brokerage MCP. Supports sandbox + live accounts, including options trading.",
      "scope": "full",
      "auth": "bearer-token",
      "idempotencySupported": false,
      "transport": "http-stream",
      "schemaQuality": "C",
      "license": "MIT",
      "lastCommit": "2026-02-14",
      "capabilities": [
        "stock + option quotes",
        "option chains",
        "submit orders",
        "portfolio"
      ],
      "securityNotes": [
        "No idempotency key — duplicate-submission risk on retry",
        "Sandbox + live on same server; verify account slug before every call",
        "Community maintained, audit activity gaps"
      ],
      "overallGrade": "D"
    },
    {
      "id": "tiingo-mcp",
      "name": "Tiingo MCP (community)",
      "vendor": "tiingo",
      "official": false,
      "url": "https://github.com/community/tiingo-mcp",
      "description": "Community Tiingo MCP. Read-only access to EOD equities, news API, fundamentals, crypto.",
      "scope": "read-only",
      "auth": "api-key",
      "idempotencySupported": false,
      "transport": "stdio",
      "schemaQuality": "B",
      "license": "MIT",
      "lastCommit": "2026-03-05",
      "capabilities": [
        "EOD equities",
        "intraday (limited tiers)",
        "news",
        "fundamentals",
        "crypto"
      ],
      "securityNotes": [
        "Read-only — no execution risk",
        "Does not expose API key in responses"
      ],
      "overallGrade": "C"
    },
    {
      "id": "nautilus-trader-mcp",
      "name": "NautilusTrader MCP (community)",
      "vendor": "community",
      "official": false,
      "url": "https://github.com/nautechsystems/nautilus_trader",
      "description": "Community MCP wrapper for NautilusTrader — a Rust-based algo trading platform. Exposes backtesting + live-trading adapters to LLM agents.",
      "scope": "full",
      "auth": "api-key",
      "idempotencySupported": true,
      "transport": "stdio",
      "schemaQuality": "B",
      "license": "LGPL-3.0",
      "lastCommit": "2026-04-18",
      "capabilities": [
        "backtest harness control",
        "strategy deployment",
        "multi-venue adapters",
        "risk engine"
      ],
      "securityNotes": [
        "LGPL license — review redistribution obligations if bundling",
        "Idempotency enforced by Nautilus core",
        "Local-only by default — exposes nothing to the network without configuration"
      ],
      "overallGrade": "B"
    }
  ]
}

Frequently asked questions

What does the Finance MCP Directory methodology page document?: How AI Fin Hub grades finance MCP servers. Scoring rubric, sources, refresh cadence, limitations. Source citations, assumption deltas, and as-of dates included. It states the formulas, assumptions, data sources, limitations, and reproducibility steps behind the Finance MCP Directory, in the Finance category.
When was the Finance MCP Directory methodology last reviewed?: This methodology was last reviewed on 2026-04-20. The matching tool is at https://aifinhub.io/finance-mcp-directory/.
Are the Finance MCP Directory numbers reproducible?: Yes. This page embeds a worked example whose output is the verbatim result of running the shipped finance-mcp-directory engine on a fixed input; the embedded JSON is recomputed and diffed against the engine in CI, so the numbers cannot drift from the code.

Methodology · Directory · Last updated 2026-04-20

How Finance MCP Directory works

How the Finance MCP Directory grades servers and refreshes its catalog.

Scope

The directory tracks MCP servers whose primary use-case is financial markets — market data, brokerage, research, backtesting, or execution. General-purpose MCP servers (e.g. file-system, shell) are excluded.

Grading rubric

Each server receives a composite score across seven criteria. The total score maps to an A–F grade.

Criterion	Signal	Points
Official-status	Vendor-maintained (not community)	+2
Maintenance recency	< 30 days since last commit	+2
Maintenance recency	30–90 days	+1
Schema quality	A (tight schemas) → F (loose)	+3 → −1
Auth model	OAuth 2.0	+2
Auth model	API key / bearer / hybrid	+1
Idempotency (execution servers only)	Supported	+2
Idempotency (execution servers only)	Missing	−1
License openness	MIT / Apache-2.0 / BSD-3-Clause	+1

Grade bands:

A: ≥ 9 — production-ready, low friction
B: 7–8 — usable, audit before live trading
C: 5–6 — workable for research, execution risky
D: 3–4 — prototype-only
F: < 3 — not recommended

Refresh cadence

Quarterly manual review + on-demand updates when a listed server ships a material change (new version, license change, maintainer change, reported security incident). Each server entry shows its last-commit date; the catalog-level "Last updated" timestamp reflects the most recent refresh.

Sources

GitHub repositories (primary): stars, last-commit, license, schema files
Vendor documentation: official endorsement status, auth models, capabilities
Anthropic MCP registry
Community reports: Reddit (r/ClaudeAI, r/algotrading), GitHub issues, Discord

Limitations

Scoring is heuristic. The weights were tuned against a reference set of 10 servers but carry subjective judgment. Readers should treat the grade as an opinionated starting point, not a certification.
No live security audit. Grades do not include a code-level security review. Before production use, perform your own audit — especially for community servers with execution scope.
English-only docs. Servers with documentation solely in non-English languages may be under-scored on "schema quality" due to reviewer accessibility limits.
No performance benchmarks. Latency, rate-limit behavior, and throughput are not scored here. See the Data-Vendor TCO Calculator for cost modeling; a dedicated MCP latency benchmark is on the roadmap.
Static catalog. Servers not listed here were either missed during review or deliberately excluded as out-of-scope. Nominate additions via the contact details on /about/.

Editorial independence

Vendors whose servers appear here may have or later develop sponsor relationships with AI Fin Hub. The grading algorithm is deterministic and applied uniformly. Sponsor status, when present, is disclosed on the directory row and at /sponsor-disclosure/. No payment alters grade.

External resources

Changelog

2026-04-20 — Initial release with 7 servers (Alpaca MCP v2, Polygon MCP, Databento MCP, IBKR CLI MCP, Tradier MCP, Tiingo MCP, NautilusTrader MCP).