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Alternative Data
Alternative data matters for this project because every target market has a physical or flow-driven counterpart that conventional price and fundamental feeds only capture with a lag. For the energy contracts (MCL, QM, BZ), satellite tank-top measurements, AIS tanker tracking, and flaring detection front-run the weekly EIA and monthly OPEC/IEA statistics that everyone else trades on — Wood Mackenzie's Cushing report, for example, is delivered two days ahead of EIA and is explicitly marketed as a WTI-trading input. Weather is the other big physical channel: Gulf-coast hurricane risk shuts in refining and production capacity that prices straight into WTI/Brent spreads, and degree-day demand data feeds energy-complex demand models — all available free from NOAA.
For the equity-index contracts (ES/MES, NQ/MNQ, YM, RTY/M2K), the highest-value "alternative" datasets are actually flow calendars. The FTSE Russell reconstitution — which moved to a semi-annual June + December cycle in 2026 — is the single largest predictable liquidity event in RTY/M2K; quarterly futures roll windows are tracked by CME's free Equity Quarterly Roll Analyzer; and corporate buyback blackout windows, by sell-side desk estimates, remove the market's largest single buyer for weeks around each earnings season. Retail order-flow proxies (Nasdaq RTAT, Quiver, Unusual Whales) and attention proxies (Google Trends, Wikipedia pageviews) are cheap and genuinely accessible at retail budgets.
Honest budget framing up front: the institutional satellite and AIS vendors (Kayrros, Ursa, Kpler, Vortexa, Spire) price in the tens of thousands of dollars per year and are effectively out of retail reach. They are documented here so the project knows what the "smart money" sees and when — Kayrros inventory updates daily, Genscape's Cushing measurements land twice weekly. The realistic retail alt-data stack for these markets is: free NOAA/Open-Meteo weather, free EIA-930 electricity, free Wikimedia pageviews, free event calendars (Russell recon, roll dates, blackout estimates), free CFTC-adjacent CTA proxies (SG Trend Indicator), plus low-cost subscriptions (Quiver ~$30/mo, SerpApi $25–75/mo for Trends, ADS-B Exchange ~$10/mo) — with TankerTrackers.com ($1,000/mo) as the cheapest credible tanker-intelligence option, still steep for retail.
Free / official sources
NOAA / National Weather Service API (api.weather.gov)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Free US government weather API: forecasts, alerts, observations, gridpoint data (api.weather.gov) |
| Coverage | US only — relevant to Gulf Coast refining/production (MCL, QM, BZ sympathy) and demand-side weather for the energy complex; no direct equity/metals link |
| Granularity | Hourly/12-hour gridpoint forecasts, station observations, zone alerts |
| History depth | Forecasts only; historical observations via NCEI archives, not this API — Unknown — verify NCEI depth per station |
| Latency / updates | Near-real-time; forecasts updated continuously |
| Access method | REST API (JSON-LD/GeoJSON), no API key — requires a User-Agent header. Endpoint verified live 2026-07-11 (/points/29.75,-95.36 returned 200) |
| Cost | Free (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api |
| Licensing / redistribution | US government work, public domain; unrestricted reuse |
| Reliability caveats | Occasional outages/degraded endpoints; no SLA; US-only so no help for Brent-relevant North Sea/Europe weather |
| Best for | Free hurricane/heat-event monitoring feeding energy-demand and refinery-disruption features |
NOAA NHC hurricane data + CSU seasonal forecasts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | National Hurricane Center advisories/track data (nhc.noaa.gov/gis, page verified 200 on 2026-07-11) plus Colorado State University seasonal Atlantic forecasts (tropical.colostate.edu) |
| Coverage | Atlantic/Gulf hurricane risk — the classic supply-shock channel for NYMEX crude (MCL, QM) and Gulf refining; BZ indirectly |
| Granularity | Storm-level advisories every 6h during events; CSU seasonal forecasts ~4x/year (Apr/Jun/Jul/Aug) |
| History depth | HURDAT2 best-track database back to 1851 (via NHC data archive); CSU forecasts archived to 1984 |
| Latency / updates | Advisories real-time in season (Jun 1–Nov 30); 2026 season note: CSU's July 8, 2026 update cut the forecast to 9 named storms / 4 hurricanes / 1 major on strengthening El Niño (Fox Weather) |
| Access method | Web pages, GIS shapefiles/KML, RSS/ATOM feeds, text advisories |
| Cost | Free (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gis/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Public domain (NOAA); CSU forecasts freely published PDFs |
| Reliability caveats | Seasonal forecasts have wide error bars; storm-impact-to-price mapping is nonlinear (refinery shut-ins can be bearish crude / bullish products) |
| Best for | Event-risk overlay on energy positions June–November; seasonality feature engineering |
NOAA CPC degree-day data
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Climate Prediction Center heating/cooling degree-day observations, departures, and forecasts (CPC degree days, verified 200 on 2026-07-11) |
| Coverage | US national/regional/state/city HDD & CDD — energy-demand proxy for the crude complex (heating oil/gasoil pull-through affects BZ/WTI cracks) |
| Granularity | Daily/weekly/monthly summaries, population-weighted aggregates |
| History depth | Monthly state/divisional degree days back to 1895 via NOAA climate data (CPC monitoring & data); weekly text archives shallower — verify per product |
| Latency / updates | Weekly and monthly publication cycles; forecast degree days also published |
| Access method | Text/CSV files on CPC web pages (no formal API); scrape-friendly fixed-format text |
| Cost | Free (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/cdus/degree_days/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Public domain |
| Reliability caveats | Text-file formats change rarely but parsing is brittle; population weights re-based periodically |
| Best for | Free demand-side weather features for energy models; commercial alternative is degreedays.net (below) |
Open-Meteo
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source global weather API (forecast, historical reanalysis, marine, air quality) (open-meteo.com) |
| Coverage | Global — covers US Gulf, North Sea (Brent), and any locale; weather features for energy contracts |
| Granularity | Hourly (15-min for some models); historical reanalysis (ERA5) hourly |
| History depth | Historical Weather API back to 1940 (ERA5) — Unknown — verify exact start on docs |
| Latency / updates | Forecast models updated hourly-to-6-hourly; endpoint verified live 2026-07-11 |
| Access method | REST API (JSON); Python/other clients |
| Cost | Free for non-commercial use: 600 calls/min, 5,000/hr, 10,000/day, 300,000/month (as of 2026-07-11, pricing page). Paid commercial tiers: API Standard 1M calls/mo, Professional 5M, Enterprise 50M+ — prices rendered dynamically on the page and not captured this session; verify on page. Historical/seasonal/ensemble APIs require Professional+ |
| Pricing page | https://open-meteo.com/en/pricing |
| Licensing / redistribution | Free tier is non-commercial only; commercial licence comes with paid API key; open-source (AGPL) self-hosting possible |
| Reliability caveats | Reanalysis history is model output, not station truth; free tier prohibits commercial use — a live trading system arguably needs the paid tier |
| Best for | Best free programmatic weather (global, historical + forecast) for backtestable weather features |
OpenWeather
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Commercial weather API with a large free tier (openweathermap.org) |
| Coverage | Global |
| Granularity | Current, 5-day/3-hour forecast free; One Call timeline API for minute/hourly/daily |
| History depth | Historical products exist (paid/student tiers); depth Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | 10 min–2 h data update frequency depending on plan |
| Access method | REST API (JSON) |
| Cost | Free: 60 calls/min, 1,000,000 calls/month; One Call 4.0: first 1,000 calls/day free (as of 2026-07-11, price page). Paid plans Startup/Developer/Professional/Expert exist but exact monthly prices were not displayed in the fetched content — verify on page |
| Pricing page | https://openweathermap.org/price |
| Licensing / redistribution | CC BY-SA 4.0 / ODbL on free data (check current terms); commercial terms on paid plans |
| Reliability caveats | Free-tier availability SLA is 95% on lowest paid tier — free tier has none |
| Best for | Redundant/secondary weather feed; Open-Meteo is generally the better free primary |
EIA-930 Hourly Electric Grid Monitor (+ EIA API v2)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Hourly US electricity demand, forecast demand, net generation (by fuel), and interchange for all 65 lower-48 balancing authorities (about page) |
| Coverage | US power grid — real-time economic-activity proxy (ES/NQ macro nowcasting) and gas/power-energy complex linkage |
| Granularity | Hourly by balancing authority; subregional demand and generation-by-fuel |
| History depth | July 1, 2015 for demand/interchange; July 1, 2018 for fuel mix and subregional demand (EIA Today in Energy) |
| Latency / updates | Published with roughly a 1-day lag, hourly granularity; dashboard near-real-time |
| Access method | REST API v2 (free API key required — verified 2026-07-11 that keyless calls return API_KEY_MISSING, register at eia.gov/opendata); bulk CSV downloads; dashboard |
| Cost | Free (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.eia.gov/opendata/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | US government public domain |
| Reliability caveats | BA-submitted data with revisions and occasional gaps/anomalies (PUDL project documents cleaning issues: catalyst.coop EIA-930) |
| Best for | Free high-frequency real-economy nowcast features; demand-weather interaction terms |
GridStatus (open-source) + GridStatus.io hosted API
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Python library unifying ISO electricity data (CAISO, ERCOT, PJM, MISO, SPP, NYISO, ISONE, IESO, AESO + EIA) (opensource.gridstatus.io, GitHub); hosted API at gridstatus.io |
| Coverage | US/Canada ISOs — richer (prices, LMPs, fuel mix) than EIA-930 |
| Granularity | 5-min to hourly depending on ISO/dataset |
| History depth | Varies by ISO source; hosted API archives multi-year — Unknown — verify per dataset |
| Latency / updates | Near-real-time for many ISO feeds |
| Access method | Python client (pip gridstatus), hosted REST API (gridstatusio client) |
| Cost | Open-source library free; hosted API free plan limited to 500,000 rows/month (confirmed in the official gridstatusio client README, as of 2026-07-11); paid-tier pricing page still returns 403 to automated fetch — verify in a browser |
| Pricing page | https://www.gridstatus.io/pricing |
| Licensing / redistribution | Library BSD-licensed; underlying ISO data subject to each ISO's terms |
| Reliability caveats | Scraper-based library breaks when ISOs change sites; hosted API mitigates |
| Best for | Deeper electricity features (ERCOT/PJM load, prices) than EIA-930 alone, still ~free |
Wikimedia Pageviews API
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Free REST API for per-article Wikipedia pageview counts (wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1) — attention/retail-interest proxy |
| Coverage | Any article: "Stock market", "S&P 500", "Recession", "Gold", "Brent Crude" etc. — attention features for ES/NQ risk appetite, gold fear proxies (1OZ, QO) |
| Granularity | Daily (hourly for project-level aggregates) |
| History depth | Pageviews API from July/August 2015 onward (earlier via legacy pagecounts dumps with different methodology) |
| Latency / updates | Daily, ~1-day lag |
| Access method | REST API, no key; verified live 2026-07-11 (per-article daily query for Stock_market June 2026 returned data); rate limit ~100 req/s guidance |
| Cost | Free (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Freely licensed (CC0/CC BY-SA depending on component); redistribution fine with attribution |
| Reliability caveats | Bot filtering imperfect (use agent=user); article-title redirects fragment counts; academic evidence of predictive value is mixed and mostly pre-2018 |
| Best for | Free, backtestable attention features; complements Google Trends without its rate-limit pain |
Google Trends (web, official API alpha, pytrends status)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Relative search-interest data. Three access routes: the trends.google.com UI (free CSV export), the official Google Trends API launched in alpha July 2025 (announcement, docs/apply), and scraper libraries |
| Coverage | Any search term/topic — retail attention on "S&P 500", "buy gold", "oil price", recession fear terms |
| Granularity | Daily/weekly/monthly (window-dependent rescaling on the UI); official API: consistently scaled daily/weekly/monthly/yearly |
| History depth | UI back to 2004; official alpha API: rolling 1,800 days (~5 years) |
| Latency / updates | UI near-real-time; alpha API quotas limited |
| Access method | UI CSV; official API (alpha, application required, rolling access); pytrends is dead — repo archived read-only April 17, 2025, unmaintained, frequent 429s; commercial scrapers (SerpApi, Glimpse) fill the gap |
| Cost | UI and official alpha API free (as of 2026-07-11); commercial scraper costs under SerpApi entry below |
| Pricing page | https://developers.google.com/search/apis/trends |
| Licensing / redistribution | Google ToS; scaled indices only, no absolute volumes; redistribution restricted |
| Reliability caveats | Relative 0–100 rescaling per query window breaks naive backtests (must stitch windows); sampling noise on low-volume terms; alpha API access not guaranteed |
| Best for | Retail attention/sentiment features — use official API if accepted into alpha, else SerpApi |
FTSE Russell reconstitution calendar
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Official schedule for Russell US index reconstitution — the dominant predictable flow event for RTY/M2K (LSEG reconstitution hub) |
| Coverage | RTY, M2K directly; second-order effects on ES/NQ from index-fund rebalance flow |
| Granularity | Event calendar: rank day, preliminary add/delete lists, lock-down, effective date |
| History depth | Annual event since 1988; press releases archived on LSEG site |
| Latency / updates | 2026 schedule (press release): rank day Apr 30; preliminary lists May 22; updates May 29/Jun 5/Jun 12/Jun 18; effective after close Jun 26, 2026. Regime change: reconstitution is now semi-annual from 2026 — December event ranks on the last business day of October, effective after the close of the second Friday of December (move announcement PDF; CME article) |
| Access method | Web pages / press releases / PDFs — free |
| Cost | Free calendar (as of 2026-07-11); constituent-level data files require FTSE Russell licence — Contact sales |
| Pricing page | https://www.lseg.com/en/ftse-russell/russell-reconstitution |
| Licensing / redistribution | Calendar freely citable; index constituent data licensed |
| Reliability caveats | Add/delete prediction (the alpha part) requires your own ranking model or paid preliminary lists; recon-day liquidity in RTY is extreme |
| Best for | Trade-calendar feature and volatility/liquidity regime flag for RTY/M2K in June and (new) December |
CME roll calendars & Pace of the Roll tools
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Free CME tools tracking quarterly futures roll progression: Equity Quarterly Roll Analyzer (cmegroup.com/rollpace), Energy Pace of the Roll |
| Coverage | ES/NQ/YM/RTY and micros (equity roll), CL complex for energy; directly matches our symbols |
| Granularity | Daily roll VWAP, implied financing, % rolled vs 20-roll history |
| History depth | Previous 20 rolls displayed in-tool; longer history not exported |
| Latency / updates | Daily during roll windows (equity roll concentrated in the ~8 business days before quad-witching expiry) |
| Access method | Free web tools (QuikStrike); no API |
| Cost | Free (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/paceoftheroll/index.html |
| Licensing / redistribution | CME website terms; view-only tool |
| Reliability caveats | Tool, not feed — systematic use requires manual capture or CME DataMine purchases |
| Best for | Timing roll execution for any held position; calendar-spread behavior features around expiry |
Corporate buyback blackout calendar (estimated)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | No official source exists — blackout windows are company-policy conventions (typically ~2 weeks to a month before earnings through 1–2 days after). Sell-side desks (Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan) publish % of S&P 500 in blackout; these estimates circulate in media (EBC explainer; ISABELNET chart archive; SSGA study PDF) |
| Coverage | ES/MES, NQ/MNQ, YM — corporate bid withdrawal around each earnings season (late Jan, late Apr, late Jul, late Oct) |
| Granularity | Weekly estimates of % of index market cap in blackout |
| History depth | Media-relayed desk estimates only; a DIY series can be rebuilt from any earnings calendar (blackout ≈ T-30d to T+2d per company) |
| Latency / updates | Quarterly cycle; e.g. media relayed Goldman desk estimates of ~40% of companies in open windows in May 2026 rising to ~100% by late May (Advisor Perspectives) (unverified — article blocked automated access 2026-07-11) |
| Access method | DIY construction from free earnings calendars; media/desk notes; RTTNews buybacks calendar (free announcements list) |
| Cost | Free to construct (as of 2026-07-11); desk research requires broker relationship |
| Pricing page | https://www.rttnews.com/corpinfo/stockbuybacks.aspx |
| Licensing / redistribution | DIY series is yours; desk numbers are not redistributable |
| Reliability caveats | Blackout ≠ zero buying (10b5-1 plans continue through blackout); SSGA finds no systematic negative blackout-period performance — treat as liquidity/flow context, not a directional signal |
| Best for | Seasonal flow-regime flag for ES/NQ/YM (weak corporate bid late-quarter into earnings) |
Earth Observation Group VIIRS Nightfire (gas flaring)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Satellite (VIIRS) nightly detection of gas flares — temperature, source size, radiant heat — from the Payne Institute at Colorado School of Mines (EOG, global gas flare product) |
| Coverage | Global upstream oil/gas activity — proxy for production activity in Permian, Russia, Iraq, etc. (MCL, QM, BZ) |
| Granularity | Nightly detections; annual global flaring survey aggregates |
| History depth | VIIRS era: 2012 onward |
| Latency / updates | Nightly product with short lag; annual reports (data feed the World Bank Global Gas Flaring Tracker) |
| Access method | Downloads from eogdata.mines.edu after free registration; a data-use licence form applies to some products |
| Cost | Free (public/academic access; some premium products may require agreement) (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://payneinstitute.mines.edu/eog/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Credit EOG/Payne Institute required; check licence form for commercial-use terms — Unknown — verify commercial terms |
| Reliability caveats | Cloud cover gaps; flaring is an indirect, noisy production proxy; NOAA nighttime-light program changes may affect continuity (NCEI sunset notice) |
| Best for | Free satellite-derived upstream activity signal for crude supply models |
OpenSky Network (flight tracking)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Community ADS-B network with free research API for live/historical aircraft state vectors (opensky-network.org) |
| Coverage | Global (crowd-sourced coverage, best over US/EU) — raw material for corporate-jet / activity tracking |
| Granularity | Per-aircraft position/velocity state vectors (seconds) |
| History depth | Historical database back to 2013 for researchers (access application) — verify current terms |
| Latency / updates | Live API; verified live 2026-07-11 (anonymous states/all bounding-box query returned data) |
| Access method | REST API (anonymous with tight rate limits; registered accounts get more); historical via Impala/Trino for approved researchers |
| Cost | Free for non-commercial/research (as of 2026-07-11); commercial licensing by arrangement — Contact sales |
| Pricing page | https://opensky-network.org/about/faq |
| Licensing / redistribution | Non-commercial research terms; commercial use requires agreement |
| Reliability caveats | Coverage gaps; aircraft can block/anonymize (PIA/LADD programs reduce visibility of exactly the interesting corporate jets) |
| Best for | Free experimentation with jet-tracking signals before paying for ADS-B Exchange/JetTrack |
SG Trend Indicator / SG CTA indices (CTA-positioning proxy)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Société Générale's free daily SG Trend Indicator report — a transparent hypothetical trend-following model (long/short across major futures incl. equity indices, crude, gold) built as an attribution tool for the SG Trend Index (top-10 trend CTAs, 0.75 lifetime correlation to the index per SG's methodology) |
| Coverage | Directly relevant: models CTA positioning in ES-type equity index futures, crude, gold — the "who's about to get stopped out" crowd for our exact symbols |
| Granularity | Daily model positions/returns (report); daily index levels |
| History depth | Indicator created 2009; SG CTA/Trend indices from 2000 |
| Latency / updates | Daily |
| Access method | Free web report; full daily data / commercial licensing via SG Markets — Contact sales |
| Cost | Free daily report (as of 2026-07-11); commercial data licence: Contact sales |
| Pricing page | https://wholesale.banking.societegenerale.com/en/prime-services-indices/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Free report for information only; licensing required to redistribute/reference commercially |
| Reliability caveats | It is a proxy model, not actual holdings; bank CTA-flow notes (Goldman, Nomura McElligott-style "CTA trigger levels") are client-only and all replication is unofficial by construction |
| Best for | Free CTA-positioning/trend-crowding feature; pairs with CFTC COT (covered by positioning category) |
Nasdaq RTAT10 (free tier of Retail Trading Activity Tracker)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Free daily top-10 most retail-traded US tickers with sentiment, from Nasdaq's RTAT (documentation) |
| Coverage | US equities/ETFs — retail risk-appetite proxy for ES/NQ (meme-flow regimes) |
| Granularity | Daily top-10 tickers + retail activity share + buy/sell sentiment |
| History depth | Dataset launched 2021 — verify exact start in Data Link |
| Latency / updates | Daily, T+1 |
| Access method | Nasdaq Data Link API (free key) |
| Cost | Free (RTAT10) (as of 2026-07-11); full RTAT is paid — see commercial entry |
| Pricing page | https://data.nasdaq.com/databases/RTAT |
| Licensing / redistribution | Nasdaq Data Link terms; personal use |
| Reliability caveats | Top-10 only — truncated view; derived from Nasdaq execution venues, not all retail flow |
| Best for | Free daily retail-sentiment regime flag |
Kalshi & Polymarket event-market APIs (creative addition)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Prediction-market prices as event-probability data: Kalshi (CFTC-regulated US exchange, API docs) and Polymarket (gamma API) — machine-readable odds on Fed decisions, CPI prints, elections, hurricanes |
| Coverage | Macro events that move ES/NQ/YM and gold (1OZ/QO): Fed cuts, recession odds, geopolitical events relevant to crude |
| Granularity | Market-level prices/orderbooks, tick-level via API/websocket |
| History depth | Kalshi from 2021, Polymarket from 2020; historical candles via API — verify depth per market |
| Latency / updates | Real-time |
| Access method | REST/WebSocket; both public endpoints verified live 2026-07-11 (Kalshi GET /trade-api/v2/markets and Polymarket GET /markets returned data without auth) |
| Cost | Free API access; trading fees only if trading (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://kalshi.com/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Exchange ToS; data redistribution restrictions — Unknown — verify |
| Reliability caveats | Thin liquidity on many markets distorts probabilities; Polymarket US-access restrictions have shifted over time |
| Best for | Free event-probability features (Fed path, hurricane landfall odds) ahead of scheduled macro risk |
Freightos Baltic Index (FBX) — free tier
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Daily container-freight rate index from real transactions; free access includes live FBX for 12 major lanes, FAX air indices, 30-day history, weekly reports (Freightos Terminal page) |
| Coverage | Global goods-trade cost proxy — macro demand signal (equity indices), tangential for energy demand |
| Granularity | Daily lane-level indices |
| History depth | Free: 30 days; paid Terminal: 5 years + 350,000 lane benchmarks |
| Latency / updates | Daily |
| Access method | Web (free view), Terminal subscription, also distributed via Refinitiv Eikon/JOC per Freightos |
| Cost | Free tier as described (as of 2026-07-11); Terminal subscription — Contact sales / see pricing page |
| Pricing page | https://www.freightos.com/enterprise/terminal/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Index values viewable free; systematic use/redistribution licensed |
| Reliability caveats | Container rates ≠ bulk/tanker rates (see Baltic Exchange for those); COVID-era regime dominates short history |
| Best for | Free weekly macro-trade pulse; cheap complement to (expensive) Baltic Exchange data |
Baltic Dry Index via free tickers
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | The BDI itself is licensed by the Baltic Exchange (see commercial entry), but daily values are freely viewable on aggregators, e.g. TradingEconomics BDI page |
| Coverage | Dry-bulk shipping demand — global-growth/China proxy relevant to metals complex and risk appetite (ES) |
| Granularity | Daily index level |
| History depth | TradingEconomics charts back to 1985 (verify licensing for download) |
| Latency / updates | Daily London publication |
| Access method | Web view free; TradingEconomics API is paid; official feed via Baltic Exchange licence |
| Cost | Free to view (as of 2026-07-11); programmatic access paid |
| Pricing page | https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/baltic |
| Licensing / redistribution | Viewing free; storing/redistributing BDI systematically requires a Baltic Exchange data licence (data policy) |
| Reliability caveats | Aggregator values occasionally lag/misprint; BDI is a composite of timecharter routes — mind methodology changes (2018 re-weighting) |
| Best for | Free daily macro feature if licensing risk of scraping is acceptable for personal research |
Commercial sources
Kayrros (now part of Energy Aspects)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Satellite + ML measurement of crude inventories (onshore tanks, floating storage, oil on water); also flaring/methane products. Status check: Energy Aspects completed its acquisition of Kayrros in May 2026 (SpaceNews; product now sold as Energy Aspects – Kayrros Crude Oil Inventories) |
| Coverage | 13,000+ tanks, 1,000+ locations, ~92% of global onshore crude inventories, 5.8bn bbl capacity + floating storage — direct MCL/QM/BZ relevance |
| Granularity | Tank to region; SPR/commercial/refinery stock type filters |
| History depth | 8+ years of history (per Energy Aspects product page, as of 2026-07-11) |
| Latency / updates | Daily, near-real-time |
| Access method | Dashboards, REST/Python API, weekly reports, email/CSV (Kayrros COI for Traders) |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing; consultation-based per Datarade profile) — institutional-grade, unofficial expectation well into five figures/yr; out of retail reach |
| Pricing page | https://www.kayrros.com/products/coi-for-traders/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise licence; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Optical/SAR measurement error on floating-roof tanks; fixed-roof/cavern storage (part of Cushing) not directly observable from space; post-acquisition product roadmap may change |
| Best for | Knowing what institutional crude traders see daily vs the weekly EIA print; benchmark for any DIY satellite effort |
Ursa Space Systems
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | SAR-satellite analytics firm; flagship global oil-storage measurement (radar works through clouds/night) (ursaspace.com, services) |
| Coverage | 1,000+ locations monitored persistently incl. China/dark regions (unverified — figure not on current Ursa site, 2026-07-11) — MCL/QM/BZ relevance |
| Granularity | Site/region-level storage volumes |
| History depth | Oil-storage products since ~2016 — Unknown — verify per subscription |
| Latency / updates | Weekly prepared downloads (per Umbra partnership note: umbra.space) (unverified — cadence not stated on current Ursa services page, 2026-07-11) |
| Access method | API, CSV downloads, Esri integration, data marketplace |
| Cost | Contact sales — subscription and usage-based models advertised, no public prices (as of 2026-07-11); marketplace URL for oil storage returned 404 this session |
| Pricing page | https://ursaspace.com/services/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise licence; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | SAR volumetrics have their own error bars; weekly cadence slower than Kayrros daily |
| Best for | China-inclusive storage coverage where optical vendors struggle; still institutional-priced |
RS Metrics MetalSignals
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Satellite measurement of outdoor metal/concentrate storage and smelter activity at hundreds of facilities ("hundreds of individual smelters and storage facilities" per product page; the ~400 figure could not be verified, as of 2026-07-11): aluminum, copper, zinc, iron ore (rsmetrics.com/metal-signals) |
| Coverage | Base metals only — no direct gold/silver coverage, so relevance to 1OZ/QO/QI/SIC is macro-indirect (industrial-demand and China-activity proxy; silver has ~50% industrial demand). Distributed via CME DataMine (CMEGroup/datamine-rsmetrics on GitHub) and Bloomberg (partnership) (distribution channels unverified this session — not mentioned on current product page) |
| Granularity | Facility-level sq-meter storage measurements; daily/weekly/monthly change indices |
| History depth | Unknown — not stated on current product page (the earlier "5+ years" claim is unverified as of 2026-07-11) |
| Latency / updates | Daily data feed |
| Access method | Web app, data feed, CME DataMine, Bloomberg |
| Cost | MetalSignals packages advertised "starting at $5,000" on the product page (as of 2026-07-11); enterprise feeds contact sales; CME DataMine packaging unverified this session |
| Pricing page | https://rsmetrics.com/metal-signals/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise licence; DataMine terms if bought there |
| Reliability caveats | Outdoor-visible storage only ("shadow" stocks); vendor's own hit-rate studies — treat marketing claims of 1–3 month price predictiveness skeptically |
| Best for | Industrial-metals context for the silver contracts (QI/SIC); not a precious-metals measurement source |
Orbital Insight — status check
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Pioneer of satellite oil-storage/parking-lot analytics. Status: no longer independent — acquired by Steve Wozniak's Privateer in May 2024 after near-bankruptcy financing distress (SpaceNews; Via Satellite); orbitalinsight.com now redirects messaging to Privateer, TerraScope folded into Privateer's Wayfinder |
| Coverage | Historically: global crude storage (GO product), foot traffic; current commodity-trader offering unclear |
| Granularity | Historically site-level; current Unknown — verify |
| History depth | Unknown — verify what survives under Privateer |
| Latency / updates | Unknown — verify |
| Access method | Via Privateer platform — Contact sales |
| Cost | Contact sales (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.orbitalinsight.com/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Unknown — verify |
| Reliability caveats | Do not build on this vendor without confirming the energy product still exists; its trader-facing oil product was already de-emphasized pre-acquisition |
| Best for | Historical context only; use Kayrros/Ursa instead for storage |
SpaceKnow
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | AI satellite-imagery analytics (activity indices, e.g. China Satellite Manufacturing Index heritage); still operating — ~38 employees as of May 2026 per Tracxn (employee count unverified — Tracxn blocked automated access 2026-07-11), operating status confirmed via the Satellogic partnership announced June 30, 2026 (spaceknow.com) |
| Coverage | Global economic-activity indices — macro nowcast for ES/NQ; some energy/mining monitoring |
| Granularity | Index-level and site-level products |
| History depth | Unknown — verify per product |
| Latency / updates | Product-dependent |
| Access method | SaaS platform, API |
| Cost | Contact sales (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://spaceknow.com/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise licence |
| Reliability caveats | Small company (execution/continuity risk); financial-markets product line has churned over the years |
| Best for | Niche satellite activity indices if quoted affordably; otherwise skip |
EarthDaily Analytics (incl. Descartes Labs)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Earth-observation analytics platform; acquired Descartes Labs (commodity-forecasting geospatial platform) in October 2024 (EarthDaily announcement; PRNewswire) |
| Coverage | Geospatial analytics across energy/mining/ag; commodity price-forecasting support tools |
| Granularity | Imagery + derived analytics |
| History depth | Descartes Labs platform archives multi-decade public imagery (Landsat/Sentinel) |
| Latency / updates | EarthDaily constellation (launching from 2025) targets daily global revisit |
| Access method | Platform/API — Contact sales |
| Cost | Contact sales (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://earthdaily.com/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise licence |
| Reliability caveats | Post-acquisition product consolidation ongoing; commodity products historically ag-tilted (less direct for our symbols) |
| Best for | DIY satellite feature building (their platform) rather than turnkey oil/metals signals |
Kpler (incl. ClipperData, MarineTraffic, FleetMon, Spire Maritime AIS)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | The consolidated commodity-flows and ship-tracking giant: cargo-level tracking of crude/products plus AIS. Acquisitions: ClipperData (2021), JBC Energy & COR-e (2022) (Kpler blog), MarineTraffic & FleetMon (closed March 2023) (PRNewswire), and Spire Global's maritime AIS business — acquisition completed April 25, 2025 for ~$241M (Kpler press release); the businesses continued operating independently pending a UK CMA review at closing (corrected as of 2026-07-11) |
| Coverage | Crude/condensate, products, LNG/LPG, dry bulk flows — direct MCL/QM/BZ relevance; import/export nowcasts ahead of official data |
| Granularity | Cargo-level (vessel, grade, origin/destination, volume); terminal-level |
| History depth | Crude flows back to ~2013 (ClipperData heritage) — verify per commodity module |
| Latency / updates | Near-real-time AIS + analyst-confirmed cargo matching |
| Access method | Terminal/web platform, REST/GraphQL API, Excel add-in |
| Cost | Contact sales. Unofficial: Vendr reports median $55,000/yr, range $50,000–$73,800/yr (as of 2026-07-11, Vendr Kpler page) — labeled unofficial |
| Pricing page | https://www.kpler.com/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise licence; module-based; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Cargo attribution partly inferential (grade/volume estimates); dark-fleet (sanctioned) cargoes deliberately hide — see TankerTrackers for that niche |
| Best for | Gold standard for waterborne crude flow data — if budget ever allows; otherwise use its free weekly insight posts |
Vortexa
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Energy cargo-tracking and freight analytics — Kpler's main competitor (vortexa.com) |
| Coverage | Waterborne crude/products/LNG; freight; full cargo history of every tanker >5,000 dwt (unverified — dwt threshold not found on current product page, 2026-07-11) |
| Granularity | Cargo/voyage-level; 12,800+ tankers, 320,000+ voyages/yr (freight product) |
| History depth | 2016 to present (unverified — start date not found on cited freight page as of 2026-07-11; 12,800+ tankers / 320,000+ voyages figures were confirmed) |
| Latency / updates | Real-time; highest update frequency claim on voyages dataset |
| Access method | Web GUI, API, Snowflake shares |
| Cost | Contact sales (no public pricing; as of 2026-07-11). Unofficial: comparable to Kpler (tens of thousands USD/yr) — labeled unofficial, inference only |
| Pricing page | https://www.vortexa.com/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise licence |
| Reliability caveats | Same AIS-inference limits as Kpler; analyst layer differs by region |
| Best for | Alternative quote to Kpler for institutional crude-flow data |
MarineTraffic (Kpler)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Best-known AIS ship-tracking web platform, now a Kpler company (marinetraffic.com) |
| Coverage | Global AIS (terrestrial free/cheap; satellite on higher tiers) — tanker congestion at Cushing-feeding ports, Strait of Hormuz transits, etc. |
| Granularity | Vessel positions, port calls, voyage events |
| History depth | Up to 5-year historical data on Enterprise tier (per plan descriptions) |
| Latency / updates | Real-time (terrestrial); satellite refresh on paid tiers |
| Access method | Web, mobile, REST API (credits-based) |
| Cost | Plans page returned 403 to automated fetch this session; support article confirms tiers Basic / Essential / Enterprise without prices (support article). Unofficial (Tradlinx review, 2025): Basic ~£10/mo (10 vessels), Essential ~£100/mo (satellite + 7-day history), Enterprise custom (Tradlinx) — labeled unofficial; verify on plans page (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/online-services/plans |
| Licensing / redistribution | Personal/professional tiers; API credits; no bulk redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Free tier is terrestrial-only (ocean gaps); satellite AIS costs escalate fast; dark vessels invisible |
| Best for | Cheapest hands-on tanker watching (chokepoints, port queues) at retail budget |
VesselFinder
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | AIS tracking platform + data APIs (positions, port calls, particulars, raw NMEA streams) (realtime AIS data page) |
| Coverage | Global AIS, terrestrial + satellite |
| Granularity | Vessel-level positions, port-call events |
| History depth | Port-call history products; depth Unknown — verify |
| Latency / updates | Real-time |
| Access method | REST API (XML/JSON), raw TCP/UDP NMEA streams |
| Cost | Contact sales — no prices displayed; quotes depend on area size, station count, traffic density (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.vesselfinder.com/realtime-ais-data |
| Licensing / redistribution | Per-contract |
| Reliability caveats | Same AIS coverage limits as peers |
| Best for | Alternative AIS quote; free web map for casual monitoring |
TankerTrackers.com
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Boutique tanker-intelligence service specializing in dark-fleet / sanctioned crude (Iran, Russia, Venezuela) using satellite imagery + AIS + shoreside photography (tankertrackers.com) |
| Coverage | Crude exports from 23+ countries incl. sanctioned flows that AIS-only vendors miss — directly relevant to BZ (and WTI spread) geopolitics |
| Granularity | Vessel/cargo-level event analysis, export tallies |
| History depth | Service running since 2016; archive access with subscription — verify depth |
| Latency / updates | Daily-ish analysis; event-driven |
| Access method | Web platform, reports; bespoke research |
| Cost | Per their tier explainer (as of 2026-07-11): PremiumPlus $99/mo or $999/yr (closed to new signups since 2023-01-01), Corporate Lite $1,000/mo or $10,000/yr, Corporate $5,000/mo or $50,000/yr. Note: a registration-page snippet elsewhere cites $12,000/yr for Corporate Lite — price discrepancy (unverified — registration page blocked automated access 2026-07-11; the tier page's $1,000/mo |
| Pricing page | https://tankertrackers.com/articles/subscription-service-tiers-explained |
| Licensing / redistribution | Subscription for internal use; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Small team; qualitative/manual layer (also its edge); no API |
| Best for | Cheapest credible sanctioned-flow intelligence; $10k/yr (Corporate Lite annual, confirmed on tier page as of 2026-07-11) is the realistic floor for "real" tanker intel |
Spire Maritime (AIS) — status note
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Satellite-AIS constellation data (100+ nanosats). Acquired by Kpler — deal completed April 25, 2025 for ~$241M (press release; corrected as of 2026-07-11); legacy maritime.spire.com pricing page still up |
| Coverage | Global satellite AIS — raw feed for building your own flow analytics |
| Granularity | Message-level AIS |
| History depth | Multi-year historical AIS archives available |
| Latency / updates | Near-real-time satellite passes |
| Access method | GraphQL/REST APIs, streaming |
| Cost | Contact sales. Unofficial: monthly fees "starting at greater than $10K per month" per DataDocked comparison — labeled unofficial (unverified — figure no longer visible on cited page as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://maritime.spire.com/pricing/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise; no redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Raw AIS requires serious engineering to become a trading signal; buy analytics (Kpler/Vortexa) unless you want to build |
| Best for | Build-vs-buy reference point; not retail-viable |
Wood Mackenzie (Genscape) Cushing Crude Oil Storage Report
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Direct (non-satellite) measurement of every Cushing tank via calibrated infrared cameras and aerial flyovers; Genscape has been part of Wood Mackenzie since 2019 (product page — the old genscape.com URL now 301-redirects to woodmac.com (corrected 2026-07-11); WoodMac short-term analytics) |
| Coverage | Cushing OK — the WTI delivery point, so the single most price-relevant storage dataset for MCL/QM; global storage product also exists (Global Oil Storage) |
| Granularity | Tank/operator/location level, incl. fixed-roof tanks satellites cannot read |
| History depth | Genscape Cushing measurements since ~2009 — verify contractual history access |
| Latency / updates | Twice-weekly, delivered two days ahead of EIA; marketing claims "ten of the top ten hedge funds" subscribe (vendor claim) |
| Access method | Report delivery + data feed via WoodMac Lens |
| Cost | Contact sales (as of 2026-07-11); unofficial reputation: tens of thousands USD/yr — labeled unofficial |
| Pricing page | https://www.woodmac.com/industry/commodity-trading-analytics/cushing-crude-oil-storage-report/ (old genscape.com URL redirects to woodmac.com homepage, as of 2026-07-11) |
| Licensing / redistribution | Enterprise licence |
| Reliability caveats | Measurement, not truth — EIA remains settlement-relevant benchmark; expensive |
| Best for | Understanding why WTI moves Tuesday afternoons before Wednesday's EIA print |
Baltic Exchange (BDI and route assessments)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | The official source of dry-bulk/tanker freight benchmarks: 200 index products published daily (per data-services page, as of 2026-07-11); 39 FFA forward curves and 5 dry-bulk indices (unverified — counts not shown on current page) (data services) |
| Coverage | Global freight — macro/China demand proxy (metals, risk assets); tanker routes relevant to crude arbitrage |
| Granularity | Daily assessments per route/index |
| History depth | BDI history to 1985 (and predecessor to 1744 for the exchange); archive access with subscription |
| Latency / updates | Daily London publication |
| Access method | Subscription data feed, API, terminal redistribution (Bloomberg/Refinitiv) |
| Cost | Contact sales — membership/subscription required, prices not public; contact the regional sales team via the apply page (the membership@ email is not listed there; corrected as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.balticexchange.com/en/apply-page.html |
| Licensing / redistribution | Strict: Full vs Restricted Baltic Data Licence tiers; storage/redistribution controlled (data policy) |
| Reliability caveats | Panellist-assessed (not transacted) rates; methodology revisions (2018 BDI re-weighting) break naive long histories |
| Best for | Official freight benchmarks if licensing budget exists; else use free BDI tickers + Freightos free tier |
Freightos Terminal (paid)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Full FBX/FAX platform: 350,000+ lane benchmarks, forecasting, 5-year history (terminal page) |
| Coverage | Container + air freight globally |
| Granularity | Lane-level daily |
| History depth | 5 years on paid tier |
| Latency / updates | Daily |
| Access method | Web platform; data feeds |
| Cost | Contact sales / "view pricing page" — no exact prices displayed on fetched page (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.freightos.com/enterprise/terminal/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Subscription terms |
| Reliability caveats | Transaction-derived but forwarder-skewed sample |
| Best for | Only if trade-flow macro features prove out on the free tier first |
Quiver Quantitative
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Retail-priced alternative-data aggregator: congressional trading, government contracts, lobbying, off-exchange/retail flow, WSB sentiment, corporate private-jet tracking, insider trading (quiverquant.com) |
| Coverage | US single names — aggregates into ES/NQ sentiment/flow features; jet-tracking is single-name M&A color |
| Granularity | Daily per-ticker datasets |
| History depth | Varies by dataset (congress trading from 2019-ish; WSB from 2018) — verify per dataset |
| Latency / updates | Daily; disclosure-lagged where based on filings (congress trades up to 45 days late by law) |
| Access method | Web dashboards + REST API with Python examples |
| Cost | Verified on api.quiverquant.com/pricing as of 2026-07-11: Hobbyist $30/mo (or $300/yr), Trader $75/mo (or $750/yr), Commercial custom. No commercial-use rights on the cheap tiers |
| Pricing page | https://api.quiverquant.com/pricing/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Personal-use only below Commercial tier |
| Reliability caveats | Filing-lag datasets are stale by construction; academic evidence on congress-trade alpha is contested; jet data subject to FAA privacy opt-outs |
| Best for | Cheapest broad alt-data API for retail; good source of ES/NQ sentiment regime features |
Unusual Whales
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Options-flow / dark-pool / retail-sentiment platform popular with retail; includes congressional tracking; API available (unusualwhales.com, API docs) |
| Coverage | US equities/ETF/index options — SPY/QQQ/SPX flow maps directly onto ES/NQ; 0DTE flow context |
| Granularity | Trade-level options flow, aggregated GEX/dealer metrics |
| History depth | Options flow archive several years — verify per endpoint |
| Latency / updates | Real-time platform; API websockets on higher tier |
| Access method | Web app, Discord bot, REST API + WebSocket |
| Cost | Website pricing page was Cloudflare-gated to automated fetch this session — verify at pricing. Official newsletter (May 2025) set API at: Trial $50/week, Basic $150/mo, Advanced $375/mo (UW substack); third-party reviews cite platform subs ~$48–50/mo — labeled unofficial (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://unusualwhales.com/pricing |
| Licensing / redistribution | Personal use; API terms restrict redistribution |
| Reliability caveats | Flow-labeling (buy/sell inference) is heuristic; vendor is media-loud — validate signals independently |
| Best for | Retail-affordable options-flow context for ES/NQ day trading |
Nasdaq Retail Trading Activity Tracker (RTAT, full)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Daily retail activity + sentiment for 9,500+ US tickers, ~$30B/day of retail trades, from Nasdaq (product page) |
| Coverage | US equities/ETFs — aggregate into retail risk-appetite indices for ES/NQ/RTY |
| Granularity | Daily per-ticker activity share + buy/sell sentiment |
| History depth | From January 2016 (per Nasdaq Data Link documentation, confirmed as of 2026-07-11) |
| Latency / updates | Daily T+1 |
| Access method | Nasdaq Data Link API |
| Cost | Pricing page requires login/JS (not captured this session) — verify at pricing; free RTAT10 tier exists (see free section) (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://data.nasdaq.com/databases/RTAT/pricing |
| Licensing / redistribution | Data Link subscription terms; personal vs commercial tiers |
| Reliability caveats | Nasdaq-venue-derived sample of retail flow; methodology opaque |
| Best for | The serious version of the free top-10 feed if a retail-flow factor proves valuable |
Similarweb
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Web/app traffic panel data (similarweb.com) — digital-economy nowcasts for mega-cap names dominating NQ/ES |
| Coverage | 100+ countries, website/app level |
| Granularity | Monthly (weekly/daily on higher tiers) traffic, engagement |
| History depth | Up to 37 months on premium packages (per pricing page, as of 2026-07-11) |
| Latency / updates | Monthly refresh typical; investor products faster |
| Access method | Web platform, API/DaaS (Snowflake, AWS), standalone API purchase |
| Cost | Contact sales for business/investor packages (official page shows no prices, as of 2026-07-11). Unofficial: self-service Starter reported ~$199/mo month-to-month / ~$125/mo annual by third-party reviews (TMB, SaaSPricePulse) — labeled unofficial |
| Pricing page | https://www.similarweb.com/corp/pricing/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | No redistribution; investor licence separate |
| Reliability caveats | Panel re-calibrations create level breaks; single-name tool, indirect for index futures |
| Best for | Only if trading index moves via mega-cap earnings nowcasts; marginal for this project |
Bloomberg Second Measure (consumer transaction data)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Card-transaction consumer-spend analytics; status check: alive — Bloomberg launched the Second Measure US Consumer Spend Index in Sept 2024 (press release; secondmeasure.com) |
| Coverage | US consumer spend by company/sector — consumption nowcast relevant to ES/YM macro |
| Granularity | Daily indices; company-level KPIs |
| History depth | Panel history to ~2017 — verify |
| Latency / updates | Daily via Bloomberg Terminal and feeds |
| Access method | Bloomberg Terminal function + enterprise data feeds |
| Cost | Contact sales — bundled with Bloomberg relationships; no public pricing (as of 2026-07-11). Terminal itself ~$30k/yr (unofficial common knowledge) — out of retail reach |
| Pricing page | https://secondmeasure.com/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Bloomberg enterprise terms |
| Reliability caveats | Panel drift/rebalancing; single-name focus |
| Best for | Documenting what institutional consumer-nowcasts exist; not retail-accessible |
JETNET JetTrack / Gordon Haskett (corporate jet tracking, packaged)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Packaged corporate-jet movement intelligence: JETNET JetTrack (the dataset Bloomberg distributes: Bloomberg JetTrack overview PDF) and Gordon Haskett's Jet Tracker research product (Integrity Research). Reality check on the signal: a 2018 Oxford study found statistically significant M&A predictive power in corporate flight paths, and the famous 2019 Occidental-jet-in-Omaha spot preceded Buffett's $10B investment (Marcellus recap); Quandl's pioneering corporate-jet dataset (WatersTechnology, 2019) passed to Nasdaq — current listing status Unknown — verify |
| Coverage | Single-name M&A/strategy events — index-futures relevance is only via mega-cap event risk; honestly marginal for ES/NQ |
| Granularity | Tail-number flight histories mapped to companies |
| History depth | JetTrack: "10 Years plus historical M&A ownership", every plane by Russell 3000, ~35,000 flights/month (per Bloomberg Enterprise PDF, confirmed 2026-07-11) |
| Latency / updates | Near-real-time flights; FAA data lag on some feeds |
| Access method | Bloomberg app portal; vendor reports; DIY via ADS-B Exchange/OpenSky + FAA registry |
| Cost | Contact sales (all vendors; no public pricing, as of 2026-07-11). DIY route: ADS-B Exchange basic API reported at $10/mo for 10,000 requests via RapidAPI (LiveTraffic gitbook) (unverified — RapidAPI pricing page did not render prices to automated fetch, 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.jetnet.com/products/jettrack |
| Licensing / redistribution | Vendor terms; FAA LADD/PIA privacy programs legally hide many corporate tails |
| Reliability caveats | Fun-but-niche: opt-outs bias the sample toward companies that don't care about being seen; event frequency too low for systematic index-futures signals |
| Best for | Curiosity/event color; not a systematic input for our futures list |
degreedays.net API (commercial degree days)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Station-level HDD/CDD calculation service with regression tools, over a million weather stations globally (degreedays.net/api) |
| Coverage | Global — energy-demand features beyond the free US-only CPC data |
| Granularity | Daily/weekly/monthly/custom breakdowns, any base temperature; hourly temps |
| History depth | Extended history via API (website capped at 36 months; API goes further — verify max) |
| Latency / updates | Daily |
| Access method | JSON/XML API, Excel integration |
| Cost | Prices only shown at signup ("clear pricing" claimed but not public on the API page) — verify at signup (as of 2026-07-11) |
| Pricing page | https://www.degreedays.net/api/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Standard API terms — verify |
| Reliability caveats | Station selection/quality automation can pick poor stations; validate against CPC |
| Best for | Cheap, clean global degree-day features if free CPC/Open-Meteo derivations aren't enough |
SerpApi (Google Trends via scraper API)
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Commercial SERP-scraping API with dedicated Google Trends endpoints — the practical pytrends replacement (SerpApi Trends blog) |
| Coverage | Any Google Trends query/geo/timeframe |
| Granularity | Same as Trends UI (daily/weekly by window) |
| History depth | Whatever Trends serves (2004+), window-rescaled |
| Latency / updates | On-demand |
| Access method | REST API |
| Cost | Verified on serpapi.com/pricing 2026-07-11: Free 250 searches/mo; Starter $25/mo (1,000); Developer $75/mo (5,000); Production $150/mo (15,000); Big Data $275/mo (30,000); Enterprise custom |
| Pricing page | https://serpapi.com/pricing |
| Licensing / redistribution | SerpApi "US Legal Shield"; Google ToS gray zone acknowledged by vendor |
| Reliability caveats | Scraping-based — breaks/latency when Google changes; rescaling stitching still your problem. Alternative vendor: Glimpse (absolute-volume estimates, pricing not public — contact sales) |
| Best for | Reliable programmatic Trends at retail cost until the official API exits alpha |
Estimize (ExtractAlpha) — crowdsourced estimates
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What it is | Crowdsourced EPS/revenue estimates (120,000+ contributors per ExtractAlpha, as of 2026-07-11); status: alive, owned by ExtractAlpha since the early-2021 merger (extractalpha.com/estimize) |
| Coverage | US single names — earnings-season expectation gaps aggregate to ES/NQ event risk |
| Granularity | Per-release consensus distributions |
| History depth | Since 2011 |
| Latency / updates | Continuous pre-earnings |
| Access method | Web (free contribution accounts), institutional feeds via ExtractAlpha, WRDS, QuantConnect |
| Cost | Contact sales for feeds (as of 2026-07-11); contributor access free |
| Pricing page | https://extractalpha.com/estimize/ |
| Licensing / redistribution | Institutional licence for systematic use |
| Reliability caveats | Crowd coverage concentrated in liquid tech names; contributor quality varies |
| Best for | Earnings-season expectation features for NQ; free browsing is genuinely useful |
Summary table
| Source | Free tier? | Entry cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| NOAA / NWS API (api.weather.gov) | Yes (fully) | $0 | US weather/hurricane features |
| NOAA NHC + CSU seasonal forecasts | Yes (fully) | $0 | Hurricane event risk (energy) |
| NOAA CPC degree days | Yes (fully) | $0 | US energy demand proxy |
| Open-Meteo | Yes (non-commercial) | Paid tiers (dynamic pricing — verify) | Global programmatic weather |
| OpenWeather | Yes (1M calls/mo) | Paid tiers (verify prices) | Backup weather feed |
| EIA-930 / EIA API v2 | Yes (free key) | $0 | Hourly electricity nowcast |
| GridStatus / GridStatus.io | Yes (lib + 500k rows/mo) | Paid tiers (verify) | ISO-level power data |
| Wikimedia Pageviews API | Yes (fully) | $0 | Attention features |
| Google Trends (official alpha API) | Yes (application) | $0 | Search attention |
| FTSE Russell recon calendar | Yes (calendar) | $0 (constituents licensed) | RTY/M2K flow events |
| CME roll calendars / Pace of the Roll | Yes (fully) | $0 | Roll timing |
| Buyback blackout calendar (estimated) | DIY free | $0 | ES/NQ flow regime |
| EOG VIIRS Nightfire | Yes (registration) | $0 | Flaring/supply activity |
| OpenSky Network | Yes (non-commercial) | $0 | Jet-tracking experiments |
| SG Trend Indicator / SG CTA indices | Yes (daily report) | $0 (licence for data) | CTA positioning proxy |
| Nasdaq RTAT10 (free tier) | Yes (top-10) | $0 | Daily retail-sentiment flag |
| Kalshi / Polymarket APIs | Yes (fully) | $0 | Event probabilities |
| Freightos FBX (free tier) | Yes (12 lanes, 30d) | $0 | Trade-flow macro pulse |
| Baltic Dry Index via free tickers | Yes (view-only) | $0 (programmatic access paid) | Free daily macro feature |
| Kayrros (Energy Aspects) | No | Contact sales | Daily satellite crude inventories |
| Ursa Space Systems | No | Contact sales | SAR storage incl. China |
| RS Metrics MetalSignals | No | From $5,000 (packages, as of 2026-07-11) | Base-metals smelter activity |
| Orbital Insight (Privateer) | No | Contact sales | Status-check: verify product exists |
| SpaceKnow | No | Contact sales | Satellite activity indices |
| EarthDaily / Descartes Labs | No | Contact sales | DIY geospatial platform |
| Kpler | No | Contact sales (~$55k/yr unofficial) | Institutional crude flows |
| Vortexa | No | Contact sales | Institutional crude flows |
| MarineTraffic (Kpler) | Free web map | ~£10–100/mo (unofficial) | Hands-on tanker watching |
| VesselFinder | Free web map | Contact sales | AIS API alternative |
| TankerTrackers.com | No | $1,000/mo (Corporate Lite) | Dark-fleet crude intel |
| Spire Maritime (Kpler) | No | Contact sales (>$10k/mo unofficial, unverified) | Raw satellite AIS |
| WoodMac (Genscape) Cushing report | No | Contact sales | WTI delivery-point storage |
| Baltic Exchange | View-only via aggregators | Contact sales | Official freight benchmarks |
| Freightos Terminal (paid) | See free FBX tier | Contact sales | Full lane benchmarks + 5-year history |
| Quiver Quantitative | Trial content | $30/mo | Retail-priced alt-data API |
| Unusual Whales | Limited free | ~$48–50/mo (unofficial); API $150/mo | Options-flow context |
| Nasdaq RTAT (full) | RTAT10 top-10 free tier | Verify (login-gated) | Retail flow factor |
| Similarweb | Limited free | Contact sales (~$199/mo self-serve unofficial) | Mega-cap web nowcasts |
| Bloomberg Second Measure | No | Contact sales (Terminal-bundled) | Consumer spend nowcast |
| JETNET JetTrack / Gordon Haskett | No | Contact sales | M&A jet-tracking color |
| degreedays.net API | Trial | Signup-gated pricing (verify) | Global degree days |
| SerpApi (Google Trends) | Yes (250 searches/mo) | $25/mo | Programmatic Trends today |
| Estimize (ExtractAlpha) | Contributor access | Contact sales | Earnings expectation gaps |