Free APIs Power Professional Trading Tools
A decade ago, market data cost $1000+/month. Today, free APIs give you everything professionals use. The only cost is learning to code.
Best Free Market Data APIs
Yfinance
Historical stock prices, dividends, splits. Python only. Best for backtesting. Free, no API key needed.
IEX Cloud
Stock prices, fundamentals, technicals. Free tier (100/month calls). Good for small projects.
Alpaca Data API
Stock and crypto prices, real-time quotes. Free for paper trading, paid for live. 200 requests/minute.
CCXT
Crypto exchange data from 100+ exchanges. Single interface to all markets. Free, open source.
Finnhub
Real-time quotes, company news, earnings. Free tier. Good for news integration.
Building Your First Trading Tool
Simple example: Stock screener
- Use Yfinance to get S&P 500 prices
- Filter for stocks with RSI below 30
- Export results to CSV
- Review and trade
50 lines of Python. Done in an afternoon. Replaces $50/month tool.
API + TradePilot
Combine free APIs with TradePilot's AI signals to build a complete trading system.