Best tools for Quants/Developers

Benzinga

Benzinga is a real-time market-news and trading-data service for active traders, investors, developers, and data buyers. It covers alerts, scanners, calendars, squawk, options activity, analyst actions, filings, transcripts, and APIs. Real-time tools require a paid plan or add-on, and Benzinga does not provide portfolio accounting.

BIS Data Portal

The Bank for International Settlements' free data portal covers banking, credit, debt, derivatives, liquidity, property prices, exchange rates, central banks, and payments. It includes charts, downloads, a release calendar, and an SDMX API.

Börsdata

Börsdata gives investors long-history Nordic fundamentals, ratios, screens, ownership, insider and short-selling data, technical charts, reports, watchlists, calendars, and spreadsheet or API access. It is strongest for Nordic equities. Global data, holdings, Excel or Sheets workflows, and the REST API depend on the plan.

Calcbench

Calcbench extracts and standardizes financial data and disclosure text from SEC filings. Users can trace values to source documents, compare filings, work in Excel, or license API access separately.

Changeflow (Trackly)

Changeflow, formerly Trackly, monitors web pages, PDFs, feeds, and API endpoints. It summarizes detected changes for review. It does not supply market prices or execute trades.

Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab combines a U.S. brokerage, research, screeners, tax workflows, thinkorswim, paper trading, alerts, market data, and Trader API access. It suits investors who want one regulated account for long-term investing and active trading. It is a broker, not an open market-data API.

CME FedWatch

CME FedWatch converts 30-Day Fed Funds futures into market-implied probabilities for upcoming FOMC rate outcomes. It is useful for rates and macro monitoring, with a free web tool and paid end-of-day or intraday APIs. The probabilities are market pricing, not Fed guidance.

Databento

Databento delivers normalized live and historical exchange data through APIs, files, and client libraries. It is aimed at developers, quants, and trading firms that need ticks, order books, bars, instrument definitions, corporate actions, or raw packets across supported equity, options, and futures venues.

Dune

Dune lets users query decoded blockchain data with SQL and turn it into dashboards, APIs, alerts, uploads, and agent workflows. It is for custom onchain research across many chains, not a fixed crypto market-data screen.

ECB Data Portal

The European Central Bank's free portal provides euro-area statistics, policy rates, exchange rates, yield curves, macroeconomic series, metadata, and an SDMX API.

EDINET

EDINET is Japan's official corporate-disclosure system. Search issuers, securities, funds, stock codes, document types, keywords, and dates, then retrieve filings, XBRL resources, taxonomy files, and API results.

EIA Open Data

EIA Open Data is the U.S. government's source for energy statistics and operational data. Browse the series or use the free API, bulk files, and spreadsheet tools for commodity, utility, macro, and energy-market research.

European Central Bank (ECB) - Statistics & Data

European Central Bank Statistics & Data is the ECB's primary source for euro-area statistics, policy rates, FX reference rates, yield curves, inflation, macro indicators, downloads, and SDMX access. It supplies the data behind macro research, not investment-app commentary.

FactorsToday

FactorsToday publishes factor returns and stock exposures through web tools, downloads, and an open REST API. Its portfolio analysis, attribution, optimizer, factor builder, and hedge builder are research models, not brokerage or accounting systems.

Financial Datasets

Financial Datasets provides a REST API and hosted MCP server for US company fundamentals, prices, filings, insider trades, institutional ownership, news, screening, and selected crypto and macro data. It has no recurring free plan, and redistribution of underlying data requires Scale or a separate agreement.

Financial Modeling Prep (FMP)

Financial Modeling Prep provides API and spreadsheet access to market data, fundamentals, news, calendars, transcripts, ownership, and macroeconomic data. The free Basic tier is an end-of-day test plan. Real-time, global, transcript, 13F, intraday, and bulk access require paid plans. Display or redistribution requires a separate commercial agreement.

FinancialData.Net

FinancialData.Net provides market data, fundamentals, ownership, options, funds, ESG, calendars, and news through REST, Excel, and MCP interfaces. It covers stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, futures, crypto, foreign exchange, commodities, OTC securities, and indexes. The free plan is limited, and the homepage security claims are not supported by a public audit report.

Finatic

Finatic connects user brokerage accounts to a common API for accounts, balances, positions, orders, and transactions. It also provides broker-specific connection flows, user grants, signed webhooks, sandbox data, and trading where supported.

FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)

FRED is the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' free macroeconomic database. Use its series, charts, release calendar, Excel tools, mobile apps, and REST API for inflation, rates, GDP, employment, FX, credit, and market indicators. It is macro context, not equity fundamentals or brokerage infrastructure; API access needs a free key.

FXMacroData

FXMacroData supplies timestamped macro releases, central-bank data, rates, yields, calendars, COT, FX reference data, dashboards, MCP tools, exports, and an API. The free endpoints cover recent USD data. Full history, other currencies, protected datasets, and customer-facing display rights require paid access.

Glassnode

Glassnode combines onchain metrics, crypto market and derivatives data, ETF data, alerts, research, charts, exports, and API delivery. It is useful for wallet behavior, entity-adjusted series, point-in-time data, futures, options, and institutional crypto work. Studio access, exports, Excel, API add-ons, and data credits depend on the plan.

Global Factor Data (JKP Factors)

Global Factor Data publishes equity factor returns, underlying portfolios, industry returns, reference files, and construction code. It covers 153 published factors across 93 countries and four regions. The data is for noncommercial research, not live trading.

LIQN

LIQN, or Liquidation Nation, tracks factors and themes across more than 3,000 U.S. equities. It combines factor maps, flow and short-interest context, historical analysis, crowd and podcast signals, news, event exposures, thesis prompts, and custom baskets.

Marketstack

Marketstack is an APILayer REST service for prices, end-of-day history, intraday bars, corporate actions, reference data, ETF holdings, bond yields, commodities, analyst ratings, and SEC EDGAR datasets. It suits prototypes and products that need a simple stock API. It is not a charting app, broker, portfolio tracker, or unlimited institutional license.

MesoSim

MesoSim is an options backtesting service with low-code strategies, multi-leg simulations, risk graphs, Greeks, volatility surfaces, margin models, and paper or live workflow paths. It is options research, not general stock research or portfolio accounting.

OpenBB

OpenBB combines an open-source data layer with a hosted Workspace for dashboards, AI research, agents, and teams. It connects your providers, internal data, widgets, and MCP tools rather than supplying production market data itself. Community, Lite, and Pro cover different collaboration and enterprise needs.

Optuma

Optuma Desktop offers a full professional Relative Rotation Graph workflow with custom universes, history, comparisons, scans, scripting, and intraday support on higher tiers. It is powerful and expensive, and its current desktop product requires Windows.

OTC Markets

OTC Markets provides public issuer pages, tiers, quotes, news, filings, screens, and licensed Level 1 and Level 2 products for OTC securities. It is useful for OTC research and feeds, not a global terminal, broker, or free redistribution source.

PortfoliosLab

PortfoliosLab offers portfolio backtesting, optimization, risk, correlations, screens, and AI-assisted workflows across stocks, ETFs, funds, crypto, and models. Paid plans add more history, imports, exports, and MCP access.

Relative Rotation Graphs® (RRG Research)

Relative Rotation Graphs are visual tools for comparing relative strength and rotation across securities, sectors, asset classes, currencies, crypto, and custom universes. The web app is lightweight; API and branded implementations are professional services.

rotki

rotki is a privacy-focused, self-hosted portfolio and accounting tool. It combines exchange and blockchain activity, onchain decoding, balances, history, profit and loss, and tax reports without putting transaction history in a hosted tax service.

SentiSense

SentiSense is a beta AI market-intelligence and data API service for stock data, sentiment, news clusters, social signals, institutional flows, insider trades, congressional disclosures, and generated analysis. It supplies research signals, not brokerage or advice.

Sharpely

Sharpely combines an official RRG implementation for Indian markets with screening, strategy testing, factor analysis, fund research, and portfolio review. It has a forever-free account, but its public sources do not consistently confirm that the free tier can open RRG charts.

StockInsights.ai

StockInsights.ai summarizes filings and earnings calls, categorizes disclosures, monitors watchlists, and exposes company data through APIs and MCP. It covers U.S. and Indian markets. Commercial use, redistribution, webhooks, and custom workflows require Business or Solutions terms.

StreamXLS

StreamXLS puts Interactive Brokers quotes, balances, positions, P&L, and open orders into Windows Excel through RTD. It can stage an order ticket for manual review in TWS, but it does not transmit trades, provide market-data entitlements, support Mac or browser Excel, or replace IBKR.

Testfol.io

Testfol.io is a portfolio backtesting site for allocations, cash flows, rebalancing, tactical signals, correlations, and historical risk and return. Free use remains available; paid tiers add analytics, uploads, downloads, alerts, and cloud features. Backtests use historical assumptions and are not execution or guarantees.

TickerTrends

TickerTrends estimates public-company KPIs from search, web traffic, apps, social, reviews, news, transcripts, financial data, and consensus. It can add alternative evidence for investors and quants, but the signals are proxies and need validation.

Trading Economics

Trading Economics provides indicators, calendars, forecasts, market data, company financials, news, ratings, and events through web, REST, WebSocket, spreadsheet, BI, and AI integrations. It is data infrastructure for dashboards and pipelines, not a broker or adviser. Plans control streaming, limits, and commercial rights.

TrendSpider

TrendSpider is a paid analysis and automation workspace for multi-timeframe technical scans, strategies, alerts, bots, AI, and alternative data across stocks, ETFs, options, futures, forex, and crypto. It is not a broker; live routing needs SignalStack and a supported broker. Plan, data, Sidekick, and backtest limits matter.

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes official US economic accounts, including GDP, personal income and spending, PCE prices, industry and regional statistics, trade, and international investment. Tables and downloads are public. API access requires a free UserID.