VOL. XCIV, NO. 247
★ FINANCIAL TOOLS & SERVICES DIRECTORY ★
PRICE: 5 CENTS
Sunday, October 5, 2025
Best Free Options & Derivatives Tools for Investors
Every product on this page includes a genuinely free tier, so you can plug trusted options & derivatives software into your workflow without swiping a card.
We filtered our full directory to focus on the 14 free options & derivatives platforms investors lean on today. Community voting keeps the rankings honest, while editorial picks highlight standout experiences for research, screening, and execution. Use this shortlist to compare pricing limits, supported platforms, and capabilities before graduating to paid upgrades.
More ways to explore
Want the full picture? The main category page covers 20 total options & derivatives tools, and the broader Find My Moat directory spans more than 205 investing platforms.
Top 10 picks
10 picks- 1
A global, multi-asset charting and trading platform with advanced analytics, strategy backtesting, and broker connectivity. Features include Pine Script® v6 for custom indicators, server-side alerts, options chains with strategy builder, and multi-asset screeners. Real-time data feeds are sold as add-ons, with availability and pricing varying by exchange and region.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web, Mobile, Desktop - 2
Real-time options flow and dark-pool analytics built for active traders. Free plans view delayed data; paid tiers stream live flow, with annual plans unlocking data downloads. The public API is sold separately, and “Periscope” (market-wide SPX exposure) is available as an add-on.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web, Mobile, API - 3
REST APIs delivering global market data in JSON and CSV. The free tier allows 25 requests per day, while premium plans remove limits and unlock real-time and 15-minute delayed US equities plus real-time US options. Entitlements and account management are handled through the Alpha X Terminal.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web, API - 4
A long-standing platform (founded in 1998) best known for its proprietary earnings sentiment data and predictive tools. Free members get weekly earnings calendars, daily summaries, and a personal watchlist. Paid Investor Services add the Whisper Report, expanded earnings calendar with implied volatility and average move data, sentiment heat maps, downloads, and more. Trader Service goes further with trading ideas, scores, ratings, and option tools, with a two-week free trial available. Investor pricing is listed at $49.95/month or $499.95/year.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web - 5
Financial data vendor offering flexible dataset-level subscriptions and bulk one-time downloads. Real-time options require OPRA licensing, though a lighter 'OptionsEdge' product avoids that complexity. Data is delivered via REST, WebSocket, CSV, or integrations like Snowflake, S3, and FTP.
Category votes onlyPricing: Subscription, One-timePlatforms: Web, API - 6
Open-source data and analytics platform with a REST API, Python SDK, and an enterprise workspace for custom dashboards and apps. The free Community plan includes unlimited dashboards and 20 AI Copilot queries per day. Pro adds collaboration features, Excel integration, secure deployment (VPC/on-prem), and export options. Infrastructure is SOC 2 Type II certified, with SSO support and a public status page.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web, API - 7
Web app for options analytics and visualizations (P&L, greeks, IV skew, expected move, GEX/DEX, option history) with market‑wide trend screens. Free tier uses 15‑minute delayed OPRA; real‑time options available on Ultimate plan after exchange agreements. Not a broker; no trading execution.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web - 8
Free web-based toolkit for visualizing options strategies and profit/loss scenarios. Quotes are delayed 15–30 minutes. A paid membership adds advanced calculators, a backtester with 20+ years of data, and an ad-free experience. Real-time data is listed as “coming soon.”
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web - 9
Options strategy builder and unusual flow scanner with plan-based feature tiers. The free plan provides delayed quotes and limited flow. Paid plans unlock real-time builder tools, full unusual flow with alerts, live news, and insider/Congress trades. Live data is available only for non-professional users, with a 7-day free trial on paid plans.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web, Mobile - 10
Analytics platform focused on short interest and securities lending, with additional coverage of options flow, insider trades, analyst views, and index rebalances. Offers a free tier with limited features, plus paid plans (Basic $39/mo, Advanced $129/mo). Options data is sourced from OPRA and requires agreeing to OPRA terms. API access is available with key-based authentication, and an Excel Add-in (beta) supports short interest data.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web, Mobile, API
- 11
QuantConnect runs on the open-source LEAN engine, giving quants and systematic traders a unified workflow from research to backtesting to live deployment. You can run everything locally or in the cloud. Historical data down to tick and second resolution is available on paid tiers, and live-trading notifications scale by plan (from a handful per hour to thousands). Some broker and data feeds—like Trading Technologies futures or premium vendors—are only unlocked at higher tiers.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web, Desktop, API - 12
Robinhood is a US and UK brokerage offering commission-free trading in stocks, ETFs, and options, plus access to futures and crypto. Options carry per-contract fees. Robinhood Gold ($5/month after a 30-day trial) unlocks Nasdaq TotalView Level II, Morningstar research, larger instant deposits, and a 3% IRA match for eligible customers. The platform also offers 24-Hour Market trading on select symbols, real crypto wallets with deposits/withdrawals, and an accessible mobile-first design.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, Subscription, OtherPlatforms: Web, Mobile - 13
EU-built stock research platform focused on U.S. markets. Features real-time options flow (Benzinga), 15‑min delayed dark-pool prints, analyst targets/ratings, hedge-fund 13F explorer, U.S. Congress trades, earnings calendar/news feed, business metrics, watchlists and alerts, plus an AI Agent for conversational research. Market data/fundamentals/ETF analytics are sourced from Financial Modeling Prep; options chains from Intrinio (OPRA). Company is Stocknear GmbH (Siegen, Germany). No public API as of Sept 2025.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web - 14
Equity research and portfolio platform with coverage of both India and US markets. Screener alerts, backtests, and data downloads are tiered by plan—for example, screener alerts refresh as often as every 15 minutes on Pro/Pro Plus, backtest limits range from 200 to 1200 per year, and data exports expand from 2,000 rows to unlimited. Excel and Google Sheets integration is available on higher plans, with global access on Pro Plus. Broker sync works with major Indian brokers, and transcripts include AI summaries for faster digestion.
Category votes onlyPricing: Free, SubscriptionPlatforms: Web, Mobile
Ready for the full lineup? Compare all 20 options & derivatives tools, including premium upgrades and advanced tiers.
View full Options & Derivatives listingsInformation
About Me
Hey! Thanks for stopping by. I'm an independent investor with a soft spot for coding and the stock market - especially value investing (as you can probably tell from the tools I've collected here, haha). Hopefully you'll find something useful or interesting along the way.
Find me here:
- Twitter / X: @Jera_Value
- Substack: Jera Value
Got questions or suggestions? I'm all ears!
Missing a Tool?
Discovered a gem I don't have here yet? Drop the link below and I'll check it out ASAP. Tagging me on X works too! Can't wait to see what you've found!
Starred Tools
These are my top picks. Tools I've tested thoroughly and found to be excellent. They do their job really well, and I use them a lot. If you're not already familiar with them, I highly recommend checking them out.
Tested Tools
These are tools I've tried and found to be solid, but not standout. Think of them as passing an initial quality screen: worth exploring, though not all will be exceptional.
Curation & Accuracy
This directory blends AI‑assisted discovery with human curation. Entries are reviewed, edited, and organized with the goal of expanding coverage and sharpening quality over time. Your feedback helps steer improvements (because no single human can capture everything all at once).
Details change. Pricing, features, and availability may be incomplete or out of date. Treat listings as a starting point and verify on the provider’s site before making decisions. If you spot an error or a gap, send a quick note and I’ll adjust.