Just got access to this yesterday and it’s pretty good! Esp if you throw into cursor and just start vibe coding some strategies that were too laborious before.

https://public.com/api

I'm looking for APIs that provide real-time stock data including volume and detailed metrics. I also need access to fundamental reports for companies (like earnings, balance sheets, etc.).Additionally, it would be great if the API offers the ability to categorize companies based on their industry. Yeah real time stock data doesnt comes without paying i'm ready to buy the paid api's too

I’m building a personal algo strategy and looking for a solid api for trading stocks that can also provide real-time options data. A lot of the big players either price aggressively or throttle way too quickly during backtests. Ideally I’m looking for something with a fast response time, decent documentation, and support for market events like earnings or splits. What are you all using for this kind of setup?

I'm trying to find a decent API for trading, it has to have streaming real time updates and market data, and then an HTTP end-point for order handling/account operations.

I've looked at Alpaca, but they never got back to me when I tried to open an account. I've looked at TD Ameritrade, but their API is disabled until they finish their Schwab integration. Interactive Brokers is one, but I can't say I like the idea of having to run their gateway in Java, I mean I'd do it if there is nothing else, but there has to be something else that isn't garbage.

Any suggestions?

I would like to hear your experiences with different brokers and which ones were the best for you

I currently have a working algo but I have to submit the trades manually. Is there a recommended service that lets me trade options? I've played around a bit with alpaca but I want to see what my options are.

Looking for opinions and suggestions on the best trading platforms and APIs with Python support. I have a Python trading strategy ready to deploy, but not sure which platform to deploy to.

Anyone have any experiences or recommendations? Anything would be very helpful and appreciated!

I’ve heard a lot of Alpaca or Interactive Brokers. Curious to see the sentiment regarding these two. Anyone have any suggestions or insights?

I know there are many different options as to which trading API to go with, but what are the pros and cons of each? I'm looking for a free API or close to free API which has minimal delay and can execute orders fast. What are my options, and which API is the best in terms of a performance over cost ratio?

What’s your go-to API for real-time stock data? Are you using Alpha Vantage, Polygon, Alpaca, or something else entirely? Share your experience with features like data accuracy, latency, and cost. For those relying on multiple APIs, how do you integrate them efficiently? Let’s discuss the best options for algorithmic trading and how these APIs impact your trading strategies.

I'm a recently graduated engineer, I want to get started on my own trading algorithms but I don't know where to start.

I know a small amount of programming from college, and I've been reading Oracle's Really Big Index for two weeks now - https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/reallybigindex.html - to learn an OOP.

I am trying to use Etrade's API, and I'm still trying to figure out what a RESTful architecture is.

What's the best and fastest way to start messing around in the sandbox?

Hi 👋

Whilst I have a keen interest in stocks and markets, I’m not a day trader. Over the years my crux has been time. I can’t physically sit there and watch the markets for a buy/sell signal.

Instead, I’ve done a significant amount of historical analysis and would like to expand this with scripts that execute custom buy/sell trade.

Seeking recommendations for trading platforms that have development environments.

Either scripts that can be built in the platform to execute when buy/sell indicators emerge.

Or trading platforms that execute scripts from an external source when buy/sell indicators emerge.

Lastly, seeking up to the second live API requests that can feed into dev environments.

Give me your recommendations!

I would like to use Python to automate my trading and test it out through paper trading, but from what I see most platforms charge to use their APIs, are there any that offer it for free?

Hi all,

I am just getting started in the stock algo trading world and wanted to quickly ask what is the most preferred API for algo trading as per the community? I want to make sure I spend my next couple of weeks with an API that is already established and widely used by this subreddit.

From Googling and reading articles online - I heard about alpaca, polygon, and TD Ameritrade APIs so far so would love to get people's thoughts on those and any other ones I am potentially missing.

Here are some of the things I would want from it:

• Historical tick data

• Live tick data

• Being able to do paper trading with historical & live tick data

• [Optional] Built-in signals such as EMA, SMA, RSI, etc.

For reference: my first simple project will just be following a SMA for a stock using historical data to see when to buy and see it. So I am looking for an API that can help me do all that.

Thanks for all the help!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been playing around with algorithmic trading using public data sources and wanted to see if there’s anyone here who’s genuinely managing to beat the market consistently.

I built a scalping bot for 0DTE options using public APIs. The logic is pretty simple:

• It uses exponential moving averages for trend detection

• Applies RSI and Bollinger Bands filters for entry/exit

• "After open" and "before close" time filters

• Everything is fully parametric — all thresholds, periods, etc., are configurable

• Backtested using backtesting.py

After optimizing parameters through backtests, I’ve found combinations that are profitable, but still underperform the market (e.g., S&P 500) over time.

So here’s the question:
Is anyone here actually beating the market using bots built off public data and APIs?
If so, what kind of edge are you leveraging? Timing? Alternative data? Smarter filters?

Curious to hear what’s working (or not) for others.

Yes, I know it's been asked 17 million times. The problem is, there are 58 million answers and the vast majority of them are sarcastic, rhetorical, or a simple "try this platform" without explanation of why.

I'm mostly just wanting an API that integrates well with Python that provides as real-time information as possible for a single stock symbol at a time. I believe my current usage is somewhere around 100 call/min IF I happen to be holding a stock. My calls per day is significantly lighter. I would prefer a free version, but I wouldn't mind paying a little bit if it was significantly more consistent and up to date.

Here are some that I have tried and problems I've had with them:
- yFinance seems to be delayed a little bit, but there's another weird thing going on. I've run 2 functionally identical programs side-by-side and one of them will start pulling the new price a good 20+ seconds before the other one, which is kinda a lot!
-Alpaca (free) seems to update slower than yFinance, which is odd given what I've been able to find with a google search. It also held the 'current price' at the Open of the minute that a particular stock was halted and not the Last (or Close) price when the halt was initiated. It also didn't update until 30s after trading was resumed.

Again, I'm not particularly opposed to paying a bit for 'live' data IF that data is truly "real-time" (meaning within the last couple seconds) (Alpaca does not) and returns the properly updated value with each API call (yFinance does not).

Hello! I would like to experiment with trading bots and I am wondering what are some platforms with good API. I am looking for something preferably free (no license cost for the usage of the API) but if there is no such option then I will settle for a paid API. If the API lets an application do mostly what a human user can do, its perfect. Thanks!

TradingView doesn't offer a public API that allows for automating things like plotting things on various charts. Is that correct? If so, are there any alternatives to TradingView that do allow this? Essentially, I'm looking to automate the following:

1. Automatically adding/removing to the watchlist.

2. Setting certain things, such as horizontal lines (with a label)

3. Setting, updating, and removing alerts.

Any pointers hers would be greatly appreciated. I'm not sure if things like this are frowned upon or something in the trading community, but having these capabilities would definitely save me a lot of time.

Thanks in advance!

Hey guys. I'm not super hard into algotrading, though I figure you guys would really know what brokerage would have the best APIs.

Like in the title, I just want the one with the simplest, easiest and most reliable documentation for buying and selling, and ideally it should have a high call limit. I'm not interested in using this API for data, or anything else, just the basics.

I know about Alpaca and Public.com though no one seems to really like them, but use them because they have to.