Research

Alpaca options data 2026: the free indicative feed vs OPRA on Algo Trader Plus at $99/month, quote caps, the msgpack stream, Greeks, history from Feb 2024.

Comparison, 4-minute read, October 11, 2026

Massive (formerly Polygon.io) flat files in 2026: the S3 endpoint, which plan downloads aggregates, trades or quotes, start dates and REST trade-offs.

Guide, 5-minute read, October 11, 2026

Massive (formerly Polygon.io) for AI agents: the hosted MCP server, x402 pay-per-request at $0.01 a call in USDC, or an API key. Costs, limits and fit.

Comparison, 5-minute read, October 11, 2026

Polygon.io to Massive migration for engineers: api.massive.com, the socket and files hosts, the massive Python and JS SDKs, and what stays the same.

Tutorial, 5-minute read, October 11, 2026

Best economic and macro data APIs in 2026: FRED, Trading Economics, Nasdaq Data Link, and DBnomics compared on coverage, price, rate limits, and licensing.

Comparison, 8-minute read, July 17, 2026

yfinance alternatives in 2026: the free Python libraries alpaca-py, finnhub-python, tiingo and alpha-vantage compared on limits, keys and legal risk.

Comparison, 8-minute read, July 17, 2026

Alpha Vantage API pricing 2026: verified premium tiers from $49.99 to $249.99/mo, the free 25 requests/day cap, and the widely-cited 5 req/min throttle.

Guide, 7-minute read, June 17, 2026

Databento raised CME Standard from $179 to $199/month on June 22, 2026; earlier subscribers keep $179 for 12 months. New Plus and Unlimited rates too.

Comparison, 6-minute read, June 17, 2026

DeepSeek V4 for finance 2026: V4.1-Flash reads a full 10-K for about $0.041 at $0.30/$1.20 per Mtok, half that off-peak, with a 1M-token window.

Guide, 7-minute read, June 17, 2026

Financial QA LLM benchmarks 2026: FinQA, FinanceBench, DocFinQA, and Fin-RATE scores, plus whole-filing read costs on the current model lineup.

Comparison, 10-minute read, June 17, 2026

FMP API pricing 2026: free Basic at 250 calls/day, then Starter $29, Premium $69, Ultimate $139 a month ($19/$49/$99 billed annually). Verified Oct 2026.

Guide, 6-minute read, June 17, 2026

Interactive Brokers API updates 2026: TWS API 10.51 latest, 10.50 stable; 10.47 removed reqFundamentalData and added $LEDGER-; 10.49 went open source.

Guide, 7-minute read, June 17, 2026

Twelve Data API pricing 2026: free Basic is 8 credits/min and 800/day; Grow starts at $29/mo for 55 credits, with three credit levels on every paid plan.

Guide, 6-minute read, June 17, 2026

Almgren-Chriss optimal execution on a 250k-share sell: permanent and temporary impact, the mean-variance frontier and the cost at the 2005 calibration.

Method and opinion, 7-minute read, June 14, 2026

Markowitz 1952 Portfolio Selection on a real stocks/bonds/gold tape: the E-V rule, why variance holds diversification, and a live efficient frontier.

Method and opinion, 7-minute read, June 14, 2026

Interactive Brokers vs Alpaca vs Tradier trading APIs in 2026: rate limits, market-data costs, options support and account requirements compared.

Comparison, 5-minute read, June 8, 2026

Polygon.io (Massive) vs Databento vs Alpaca market data API 2026: flat $199 real-time vs metered $/GB with L2 depth vs $99 broker-bundled SIP. Verified.

Comparison, 4-minute read, June 8, 2026

Tiingo vs EODHD vs FMP in 2026: fundamentals and EOD data APIs for a solo quant. Tiingo fundamentals are now sales-gated; EODHD and FMP are self-serve.

Comparison, 5-minute read, June 8, 2026

A computed reference: the minimum annualized Sharpe needed to claim real edge, by strategies tried and backtest length. Short backtests punish search most.

Guide, 9-minute read, May 27, 2026

Best free stock market data API 2026: Alpaca's IEX tier for real-time US equities, SEC EDGAR for fundamentals, Twelve Data and EODHD for breadth.

Comparison, 8-minute read, May 26, 2026

Binance vs Coinbase vs Kraken API 2026 for bots: Binance 0.10% spot fees, Kraken 0.40%/0.80% entry tier, Coinbase rates behind sign-in, and rate limits.

Comparison, 7-minute read, May 26, 2026

CCXT vs native exchange APIs 2026: CCXT normalizes 100+ exchanges in one codebase for multi-venue bots; native APIs win feature access and lowest latency.

Comparison, 7-minute read, May 26, 2026

Schwab API vs Alpaca 2026: Schwab brings a deeper options chain and a regulated incumbent; Alpaca wins on simple auth and an MCP server.

Comparison, 7-minute read, May 26, 2026

Alpaca free tier is the IEX feed (~4% of US volume); the paid SIP feed (Algo Trader Plus, $99/mo) is the full tape. What each is valid for, verified.

Comparison, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

Alpaca API rate limits 2026: Trading API 200 requests a minute (paper and live); Market Data 200 a minute on free IEX or 10,000 on Algo Trader Plus.

Guide, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

Alpaca vs Interactive Brokers API comparison 2026: Alpaca wins on REST/JSON ergonomics, IBKR on multi-asset coverage. Verified rate limits and fees.

Comparison, 8-minute read, May 25, 2026

Alpaca vs Tradier API 2026: Alpaca wins on free IEX data and 200 req/min trading; Tradier on options-first depth at 60 req/min trading. Verified limits.

Comparison, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Benzinga News API pricing 2026: quoted per channel and budget direct, or $99/month per dataset through Massive (ex-Polygon.io). Verified Oct 2026.

Guide, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

Best backtesting data sources 2026: Alpaca free IEX, Polygon flat files, Databento tick history, Nasdaq Data Link, plus the survivorship trap.

Guide, 9-minute read, May 25, 2026

Best crypto market data APIs 2026: CoinGecko Demo for prototyping, CoinMarketCap Builder for the cheapest paid step, Twelve Data for multi-asset agents.

Comparison, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Best fundamental and filings data APIs 2026: FMP for free-tier headroom, EODHD for global breadth, Alpha Vantage for clear pricing, Intrinio for feeds.

Comparison, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Best LLM for financial analysis 2026 is task-tiered: a budget model for extraction, a 1M-context model for synthesis, a frontier model for hard reasoning.

Guide, 9-minute read, May 25, 2026

Best real-time options data APIs 2026: Tradier free to account holders, Alpaca at $99, Polygon, Databento OPRA, Cboe LiveVol. Verified vendor pricing.

Guide, 9-minute read, May 25, 2026

Best news and sentiment APIs for trading in 2026: Finnhub's free news at 60 calls a minute, Massive's free sentiment labels, Alpha Vantage and Benzinga.

Guide, 8-minute read, May 25, 2026

Charles Schwab Trader API status 2026: live for individuals after manual app approval, an order limit up to 120 a minute, 30-minute and 7-day tokens.

Guide, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Claude vs GPT vs Gemini for financial analysis: current API list prices, cached-input rates, context windows and the cost of processing one 10-K, by tier.

Comparison, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

CoinGecko vs CoinMarketCap API 2026: free Demo 10k calls at 100/min vs Basic 15k credits at 50/min, plus paid plans. Calls vs credits, and who wins.

Comparison, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

FMP vs Alpha Vantage 2026: 250 vs 25 free calls a day, FMP Starter $29 ($19 annual) vs Alpha Vantage $49.99 for 75 req/min. Both verified Oct 2026.

Comparison, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

IBKR TWS API rate limits 2026: market-data lines ÷ 2 requests a second (50 by default), small-bar historical pacing, error 100 vs pacing, option chains.

Guide, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Interactive Brokers API pricing 2026: the API is free; API data needs IBKR Pro and USD 500 of equity; the US bundle is USD 10/month; 50 requests a second.

Guide, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Is Finnhub free in 2026? Yes: 60 API calls/minute, real-time US quotes and a 50-symbol WebSocket. Paid plans from $49.99/mo, and the commercial-use catch.

Guide, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

Polygon.io free tier limits 2026: Massive Basic allows 5 API calls/minute, end-of-day data, 2 years of history, no WebSockets. All verified Oct 2026.

Guide, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

Does Polygon.io (Massive) support futures? Yes. 2026 API pricing: futures free Basic to $199 Advanced (real-time CME group); Currencies $49 for forex.

Guide, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Polygon.io options API pricing 2026, now Massive: Basic free, Starter $29, Developer $79, Advanced $199 real-time. Greeks from Starter. Verified Oct 2026.

Guide, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

Polygon.io (now Massive) pricing 2026: Basic free at 5 calls/min, Starter $29, Developer $79, Advanced $199 real-time. Annual prices, verified Oct 2026.

Guide, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Robinhood API 2026: the Crypto Trading API is official and the Agentic Trading MCP lets AI agents trade stocks and options, but no REST stock API exists.

Guide, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

SEC EDGAR API rate limits 2026: 10 requests a second per requester, free with no API key, User-Agent header required. Endpoints, bulk data and pipelines.

Guide, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Tiingo vs Polygon vs Finnhub in 2026, with Polygon now Massive: hourly caps, unlimited calls and per-minute limits, plus the licensing that sets real cost.

Comparison, 9-minute read, May 25, 2026

TradeStation API pricing 2026: a funded account plus an email request gets a WebAPI key; rate limits are per-category. Verified access and limits.

Guide, 7-minute read, May 25, 2026

Tradier API rate limits and pricing 2026: 120 req/min market data, 60 req/min orders, 60 in sandbox; Lite $0, Pro $10, Pro Plus $35 with API access on all.

Guide, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

Tradier vs tastytrade API 2026: Tradier's published 120/60 requests a minute vs tastytrade's unpublished REST threshold, DXLink streaming caps and sandbox.

Comparison, 6-minute read, May 25, 2026

GBM Sharpe 1.91 on 504 days is the strategy null. GARCH paths add vol clustering — the regime that breaks vol-sensitive strategies. Run both.

Guide, 7-minute read, May 21, 2026

On the canonical 50-bar tape the engine returns mean OOS Sharpe 0.653, efficiency 0.600 — but the four windows hide a regime flip the half-life rule fixes.

Guide, 11-minute read, May 21, 2026

Deflated Sharpe ratio derived from Bailey & Lopez de Prado (2014), with a 1,000-trial Monte Carlo, the skew-kurtosis denominator, and the deflation table.

Guide, 11-minute read, May 9, 2026

LLMs misfire on theta sign, vega-vs-gamma conflation, and ITM-vs-ATM gamma ranking. The three reproducible error categories, plus a verifier fix.

Method and opinion, 10-minute read, May 9, 2026

Schema, append-only log design, and reproducibility patterns for SEC/FINRA-compliant LLM trade audit trails — what regulators expect to see.

Guide, 12-minute read, May 7, 2026

Long-context financial question answering over SEC filings, annual reports & earnings calls with RAG: eight LLM tasks, chunking, and 2026 benchmarks.

Guide, 14-minute read, April 23, 2026

2026 broker API rate limits, fees & auth: Interactive Brokers, Alpaca, Tradier, Schwab, Robinhood — request caps, order types, and option-chain polling.

Comparison, 10-minute read, April 22, 2026

Real-time vs end-of-day market data: a signal-decay decision rule, and $99-$199 a month for real-time against free EOD data from Tiingo or Massive Basic.

Method and opinion, 9-minute read, April 22, 2026

Alpaca vs Interactive Brokers vs Tradier in 2026: broker APIs ranked on MCP coverage, order idempotency, and retry safety for autonomous AI trading.

Comparison, 8-minute read, April 20, 2026

Market data API pricing 2026: Polygon.io (now Massive) $199 real-time, Databento $199 flat or metered, Alpaca free IEX or $99, Tiingo $30, FMP from $29.

Comparison, 9-minute read, April 20, 2026

Free-form prompts yield uncalibrated LLM output. An 8-step template makes research reproducible and better-calibrated across model versions.

Method and opinion, 9-minute read, April 20, 2026

BaFin and EU rules for retail AI traders who publish: MAR investment recommendations, when a post becomes advice, MiCAR and the German tax changes.

Method and opinion, 12-minute read, April 20, 2026