VOL. XCIV, NO. 247

★ FINANCIAL TOOLS & SERVICES DIRECTORY ★

PRICE: 5 CENTS

Sunday, October 5, 2025

View QuantConnect View Unusual Whales Back to Home

Head-to-head

QuantConnect vs Unusual Whales comparison

Compare pricing, supported platforms, categories, and standout capabilities to decide which tool fits your workflow.

Quick takeaways

QuantConnect adds Quant, Backtesting, and Auto-Trading & Bots coverage that Unusual Whales skips.

Unusual Whales includes Screeners, Portfolio, Dark Pool & Off-Exchange, Alerts, News, US Government Trades, Insider Data, 13F, Data APIs, Education, Calendar, and Dividends categories that QuantConnect omits.

QuantConnect highlights: Seamless environment that connects research, backtests, and live trading on institutional-grade co-located servers., Powered by the open-source LEAN engine (Python 3.11 and C#), with the flexibility to run locally or in the cloud., and Multi-asset coverage across equities, ETFs, options, futures, FX, and crypto, with a long list of broker and data integrations including Interactive Brokers, Schwab, TradeStation, Tastytrade, Alpaca, OANDA, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, and Bloomberg EMSX..

Unusual Whales is known for: Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy., Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones., and Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals..

Unusual Whales offers mobile access, which QuantConnect skips.

QuantConnect

quantconnect.com

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.

Platforms

Web

Desktop

API

Pricing

Free

Subscription

Quick highlights

Seamless environment that connects research, backtests, and live trading on institutional-grade co-located servers.
Powered by the open-source LEAN engine (Python 3.11 and C#), with the flexibility to run locally or in the cloud.
Multi-asset coverage across equities, ETFs, options, futures, FX, and crypto, with a long list of broker and data integrations including Interactive Brokers, Schwab, TradeStation, Tastytrade, Alpaca, OANDA, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, and Bloomberg EMSX.
Robust options support with Greeks, implied volatility, and helpers for building multi-leg strategies such as iron condors.
Generates detailed backtest reports you can download as PDFs and raw results exportable as CSV or JSON.

Community votes (overall)

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Unusual Whales

unusualwhales.com

Editor’s pick Hands-on review

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.

Platforms

Web

Mobile

API

Pricing

Free

Subscription

Quick highlights

Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy.
Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones.
Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals.
Options Profit Calculator to model multi-leg strategies, Greeks, and payoff P/L.
Paper trading for both stocks and options to test ideas without risk.

Community votes (overall)

0% upvotes 0% downvotes

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Overlap

Shared focus areas

3 overlaps

Mutual strengths include Paper Trading, Options & Derivatives, and APIs & SDKs.

Where they differ

QuantConnect

Distinct strengths include:

Quant

Backtesting

Auto-Trading & Bots

Seamless environment that connects research, backtests, and live trading on institutional-grade co-located servers.
Powered by the open-source LEAN engine (Python 3.11 and C#), with the flexibility to run locally or in the cloud.
Multi-asset coverage across equities, ETFs, options, futures, FX, and crypto, with a long list of broker and data integrations including Interactive Brokers, Schwab, TradeStation, Tastytrade, Alpaca, OANDA, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, and Bloomberg EMSX.
Robust options support with Greeks, implied volatility, and helpers for building multi-leg strategies such as iron condors.

Unusual Whales

Distinct strengths include:

Screeners

Portfolio

Dark Pool & Off-Exchange

Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy.
Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones.
Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals.
Options Profit Calculator to model multi-leg strategies, Greeks, and payoff P/L.

Feature-by-feature breakdown

Attribute	QuantConnect	Unusual Whales
Categories Which research workflows each platform targets	Shared: Paper Trading, Options & Derivatives, APIs & SDKs Unique: Quant, Backtesting, Auto-Trading & Bots	Shared: Paper Trading, Options & Derivatives, APIs & SDKs Unique: Screeners, Portfolio, Dark Pool & Off-Exchange, Alerts, News, US Government Trades, Insider Data, 13F, Data APIs, Education, Calendar, Dividends
Asset types Supported asset classes and universes	Stocks, ETFs, Options, Futures, Currencies, Cryptos	Stocks, ETFs, Options
Experience levels Who each product is built for	Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced	Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced
Platforms Where you can access the product	Web, Desktop, API	Web, Mobile, API
Pricing High-level pricing models	Free, Subscription	Free, Subscription
Key features Core capabilities called out by each vendor	Unique Seamless environment that connects research, backtests, and live trading on institutional-grade co-located servers. Powered by the open-source LEAN engine (Python 3.11 and C#), with the flexibility to run locally or in the cloud. Multi-asset coverage across equities, ETFs, options, futures, FX, and crypto, with a long list of broker and data integrations including Interactive Brokers, Schwab, TradeStation, Tastytrade, Alpaca, OANDA, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, and Bloomberg EMSX. Robust options support with Greeks, implied volatility, and helpers for building multi-leg strategies such as iron condors. Generates detailed backtest reports you can download as PDFs and raw results exportable as CSV or JSON. Cloud API and Lean CLI for managing projects, running backtests, deploying live strategies, and pulling reports programmatically.	Unique Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy. Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones. Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals. Options Profit Calculator to model multi-leg strategies, Greeks, and payoff P/L. Paper trading for both stocks and options to test ideas without risk. Portfolio Manager with broker linking for IBKR, tastytrade, Fidelity, and Robinhood.
Tested Verified by hands-on testing inside Find My Moat	Not yet	Yes
Editor pick Featured inside curated shortlists	Standard listing	Highlighted

Frequently Asked Questions

Which workflows do QuantConnect and Unusual Whales both support?

Both platforms cover Paper Trading, Options & Derivatives, and APIs & SDKs workflows, so you can research those use cases in either tool before digging into the feature differences below.

Do QuantConnect and Unusual Whales require subscriptions?

Both QuantConnect and Unusual Whales keep freemium access with optional paid upgrades, so you can trial each platform before committing.

Which tool has mobile access?

Unusual Whales ships a dedicated mobile experience, while QuantConnect focuses on web or desktop access.

What unique strengths set the two platforms apart?

QuantConnect differentiates itself with Seamless environment that connects research, backtests, and live trading on institutional-grade co-located servers., Powered by the open-source LEAN engine (Python 3.11 and C#), with the flexibility to run locally or in the cloud., and Multi-asset coverage across equities, ETFs, options, futures, FX, and crypto, with a long list of broker and data integrations including Interactive Brokers, Schwab, TradeStation, Tastytrade, Alpaca, OANDA, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, and Bloomberg EMSX., whereas Unusual Whales stands out for Live options flow across all US options exchanges, with a status indicator so you know the feed is healthy., Dark-pool tape plus ‘Dark Pool Levels’ to surface recent prints and ticker-specific liquidity zones., and Options and stock screeners with filters for premium, volume, open interest, IV rank, and common technicals..

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