Skip to content

Provider Directory

This page deduplicates every provider that appears in the data source catalog — 187 in total across the ten category pages. The comparison table gives the cross-cutting view: which categories each provider serves, how you access it, what it costs to get in the door, and what it would realistically cost this project per month (an editorial judgment grounded in the verified catalog costs, assuming a serious-retail futures research operation on the target CME contracts). All prices are snapshots as of 2026-07-11; the linked pricing page is always the source of truth. Figures marked "unofficial" or "unverified" carry the same flags they carry in the catalog. Profiles below the table synthesize each provider's role across categories.

Provider comparison

ProviderCategories coveredAccess methodsEntry priceRealistic monthly cost for this projectRedistributionAs ofPricing page
AAIIPositioningWeb, XLSLatest readings free; membership promo ~$1–2 (unverified)$0–2No2026-07-11Link
Alexandria TechnologyNewsFeed via partnersContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
AlpacaNewsWebSocket + RESTFree with brokerage account$0No2026-07-11Link
Alpha VantageMacro, NewsRESTFree 25 req/day; $49.99/mo+$0–50No2026-07-11Link
American Petroleum InstituteEnergyFeed via LSEG/ICEContact sales$0 (headline free-rides via calendars)No2026-07-11Link
AMP FuturesDepth, CalendarsBroker platform, web$0 platform; CME non-pro L1 $15 / L2 $45 bundle$45–70 if live depth routed hereNo2026-07-11Link
Argus MediaEnergy, MetalsPlatform, feedsContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
ATASDepthWindows appSTART €0; PLUS €24.95/mo€25–90 + feed, optionalNo2026-07-11Link
Atlanta FedMacroWeb, XLSX, FRED APIFree$0Attribution2026-07-11Link
Baker HughesEnergyXLSX downloadFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
Baltic ExchangeAlt dataFeed, terminalContact sales$0 (view BDI via aggregators)Strict licence2026-07-11Link
BarchartPrice, Volatility, PositioningWeb CSV; REST (OnDemand)Free site; Premier $29.95/mo ($239.95/yr); OnDemand contact sales$0–30No2026-07-11Link
BEAMacro, CalendarsREST, ICS/JSONFree$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
BenzingaNewsTerminal, REST, via Alpaca/IBKRPro $37/mo; APIs contact sales; free via Alpaca$0–37No2026-07-11Link
BloombergNews, Alt dataTerminal, EDF feedsContact sales (terminal ~$32k/yr unofficial)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
BLSMacro, CalendarsREST v2, iCalFree (500 queries/day with key)$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
BookmapDepthDesktop appDigital free; Global $99/mo + data $34–79/mo~$100–180 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
BrainNewsFlat files, APIContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
CboeVolatilityCDN CSV, JSON, DataShop files, RESTIndex CSVs free; LiveVol Core $105/mo; All Access $2,499/mo$0 core; DataShop cart orders as neededNo; index licence from ~$1k/mo2026-07-11Link
CEICMetalsPlatform, APIContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
Census BureauMacro, CalendarsREST (key required)Free$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
CFTCPositioningSocrata REST, zip archivesFree$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
Chicago FedMacroWeb, FRED APIFree$0Attribution2026-07-11Link
CitiMacroBloomberg / Citi VelocityContact sales$0 (replicate surprise index DIY)No2026-07-11Link
Cleveland FedMacroWebFree$0Attribution2026-07-11Link
CME GroupPrice, Depth, Volatility, Macro, Metals, Positioning, Alt data, CalendarsWeb, QuikStrike, DataMine API/SFTP/S3, RESTWeb/tools free; FedWatch API $25/mo EOD; non-pro depth $12.10/exch ($36.50 bundle); DataMine contact sales$25–60 (tools + FedWatch + pass-through data fees)No (CME licences)2026-07-11Link
CNNPositioningWebFree$0No2026-07-11Link
Conference BoardMacroWeb, Data Central portalContact sales (press releases free)$0No2026-07-11Link
Context AnalyticsNewsFeed, Snowflake, FactSetContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
COTbasePositioningWeb + platform indicatorsFree 1-yr tier; Premium $19.99/mo$0–20No2026-07-11Link
CPM GroupMetalsPDF/e-book purchaseYearbook ~$170 (unofficial)~$14 (one yearbook/yr)No2026-07-11Link
CQGPrice, Depth, VolatilityData Factory web store; broker feedData Factory $7–27 per commodity-month; non-pro depth $13/exch, $41 bundle$41 live DOM + ad-hoc history buysNo2026-07-11Link
CSI DataPriceDesktop (Unfair Advantage)From $25/mo$25 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
DatabentoPrice, Depth, Volatility, CalendarsREST/streaming, DBN/CSV/ParquetPAYG from ~$0.50/GB; $125 intro credits; Standard $179/mo live$50–200 PAYGInternal/external after 24h (most datasets)2026-07-11Link
DBnomicsMacroREST, clientsFree$0Per-provider terms2026-07-11Link
DegreedaysAlt dataRESTSignup-gated pricingMinor, optionalVerify2026-07-11Link
Dow JonesNewsVia IBKR; direct feed/API$78/mo via IBKR; direct contact sales$0–78No2026-07-11Link
dxFeedPrice, Depth, VolatilityAPI/feed, via retail platformsContact sales; retail $37–39/mo per exchange via platforms$37+ if platform-basedNo2026-07-11Link
Earth Observation GroupAlt dataFile downloads (registration)Free$0Attribution; verify commercial2026-07-11Link
EarthDaily AnalyticsAlt dataPlatform, APIContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
EconodayMacro, CalendarsEnterprise API, widgetsContact sales; retail items $14.95–$120/yr$0 (via broker-embedded calendars)No2026-07-11Link
EconDBCalendarsREST (token)Unknown — verify$0Unknown2026-07-11Link
EIAEnergy, Alt dataREST v2 (free key), bulk CSVFree$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
Energy AspectsEnergy, Alt dataPlatform, reportsContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
EODHDMacro, News, CalendarsRESTFree 20 calls/day; $19.99–$99.99/mo$0–100No2026-07-11Link
EPFRPositioningFeeds, terminalContact sales ($10k–650k/yr unofficial)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
EstimizeAlt dataWeb; feeds via ExtractAlphaContributor access free; feeds contact sales$0No2026-07-11Link
etf.comPositioningWeb toolFree$0View-only2026-07-11Link
exchange_calendarsCalendarsPython packageFree (Apache-2.0)$0Open source2026-07-11Link
Federal Reserve BoardMacro, CalendarsWeb, RSS, Data Download ProgramFree$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
FinancialJuiceMacro, News, CalendarsWeb/mobile squawk, widgetsFree tier; Pro/Elite $69–99/quarter promo$0–33No2026-07-11Link
Financial Modeling PrepCalendarsRESTUnknown — verifyn/aNo2026-07-11Link
FINRAPositioningWeb, XLSFree$0Attribution2026-07-11Link
FinnhubNews, CalendarsREST, clientsFree 60 calls/min; paid tiers unverified$0No2026-07-11Link
FirstRate DataPriceZip/CSV downloadBundle price checkout-gated; updates $59.95/moOne-time bundle + optional $60No2026-07-11Link
ForexFactoryMacro, Energy, CalendarsJSON/XML/CSV feed, webFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
FREDMacro, Volatility, CalendarsREST (free key), CSVFree$0Mostly redistributable (check per series)2026-07-11Link
FreightosAlt dataWeb, Terminal platformFree tier (12 lanes, 30d); Terminal contact sales$0Licensed2026-07-11Link
GasBuddyEnergySocial/blog postsFree commentary$0Quote-only2026-07-11Link
GDELTNewsCSV, BigQuery, RESTFree$0 (BigQuery costs at scale)Open, attribution2026-07-11Link
GoldChartsRUsMetalsWeb charts + CSV purchasesContact sales (~$200/yr unofficial)~$17No2026-07-11Link
Google TrendsAlt dataUI CSV export; official alpha APIFree$0No2026-07-11Link
GridStatusAlt dataPython library + hosted RESTFree library; hosted free 500k rows/mo$0BSD library; ISO terms apply2026-07-11Link
Haver AnalyticsMacroDLX desktop, RESTContact sales (five figures/yr unofficial)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
HedgopiaPositioningBlog, RSSFree$0Quote-only2026-07-11Link
HistoricalOptionDataVolatilityBulk CSV1-yr L1 $230; 24-yr L3 $2,035; subs $585–865/yrOne-time few hundred $No2026-07-11Link
ICEMacro, Energy, MetalsFeeds, developer catalogContact sales; IBA usage licences $4k–$30k/yr$0 (free delayed LBMA tables)Licensed2026-07-11Link
ICIPositioningWeb, XLSFree$0Attribution2026-07-11Link
IEAEnergyPDF/web; webstore subscriptionFree summary; full contact sales$0No2026-07-11Link
IGPositioningWeb, platformFree$0View-only2026-07-11Link
IMFMetalsREST + downloadsFree$0Attribution2026-07-11Link
India TRADESTAT and IBJAMetalsWeb query forms, PDFsFree$0Open data (India); IBJA verify2026-07-11Link
Interactive BrokersPrice, Volatility, News, CalendarsTWS API, Client Portal APIData subs $1.55–$12.10/mo per feed; commissions $0.85/side$10–100 (feeds + optional $78 DJ news)No2026-07-11Link
Investing.comMacro, Energy, CalendarsWeb onlyFree$0No (ToS)2026-07-11Link
Investors IntelligencePositioningSubscription reportsContact sales$0 (headlines via secondary charts)No2026-07-11Link
IQFeedPrice, DepthDesktop client + TCP API$108.15/mo core + surcharges + exchange fees~$160–200 all-inNo2026-07-11Link
iSharesMetals, PositioningWeb, XLS downloadFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
ISMMacroLogin-gated web reportsContact sales$0 (headline via calendars)No2026-07-11Link
IVolatilityVolatilityWeb download, RESTPay-per-use from $0.20/ticker-dayTens of $ ad hocNo2026-07-11Link
JETNETAlt dataBloomberg app, reportsContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
Jigsaw TradingDepthDesktop (daytradr)$579 one-time + $50/mo live~$50 + amortized licence, optionalNo2026-07-11Link
JODIEnergyCSV downloadFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
JPMorganPositioningClient research portalClient-onlyNot accessibleNo2026-07-11Link
JPXMetalsZIP/CSV downloadsFree EOD; real-time contact sales$0Licensed (real-time)2026-07-11Link
Kalshi and PolymarketAlt dataREST/WebSocketFree APIs$0Verify2026-07-11Link
KayrrosEnergy, Alt dataDashboards, REST/Python APIContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
KibotPriceHTTP download$820 one-time (all-futures 1-min); $3,750 tickOne-time only, quality-check firstNo2026-07-11Link
KinetickPriceNinjaTrader connectionFree EOD; $81.11/mo real-time (unverified)$0No2026-07-11Link
KplerEnergy, Alt dataPlatform, REST/GraphQL APIContact sales (~$55k/yr unofficial)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
LBMAMetalsWeb, MyLBMA downloadsFree data; benchmark usage licensed via IBA$0Licensed (benchmarks)2026-07-11Link
LiveSquawkNewsAudio/web app$350/mo (£275)$350 only if squawk neededNo2026-07-11Link
LSEGEnergy, Metals, News, Alt dataFeeds, Workspace terminal, webContact sales; FTSE Russell recon calendar free$0 (calendar only)No2026-07-11Link
MacrobondMacroDesktop, Excel, APIContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
MacroMicroMacroWeb charts; CSV/API paid~$25–30/mo (unofficial, unverified)$0–30No2026-07-11Link
MarineTrafficAlt dataWeb, REST (credits)~£10–100/mo (unofficial)£10–100 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
Market Data AppVolatilityREST, Google SheetsFree 100 credits/day; Starter $12/mo annual$12–30Commercial plan only2026-07-11Link
MarketauxNewsRESTFree 100 req/day; Basic $29/mo$0–29No2026-07-11Link
MassivePrice, Volatility, NewsREST, WebSocket, flat filesFree Basic; $29/$79/$199 per product line$29–79No (personal licence)2026-07-11Link
Menthor QPositioningWeb + platform integrationsPremium $59/mo (discounted); Pro $209/mo$59No2026-07-11Link
MetalChartsMetalsWeb chartsFree; premium $50–90/yr$0–8Re-publisher; no2026-07-11Link
Metals FocusMetalsClient portal, PDF/ExcelContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
Monetary MetalsMetalsWeb chartsFree charts; data licence contact sales$0Licensed2026-07-11Link
MotiveWaveDepthDesktop (Java)Checkout-gated (~$49/mo Order Flow unofficial)~$49 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
MQL5CalendarsWeb, MT5 runtime functionsFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
MT NewswiresNewsVia distributorsContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
NAAIMPositioningWeb, Excel downloadFree until 2026-08-01; subscription TBD after$0 nowVerify2026-07-11Link
NanotickDepthBulk file deliveryContact salesNot at this budgetVerify2026-07-11Link
NasdaqPrice, Volatility, Metals, Positioning, Alt dataData Link RESTRTAT10 free; RTAT/LBMA-i contact sales; CHRIS/OWF/VOLQ defunct$0NDL terms2026-07-11Link
New York FedMacroREST, XLSXFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
NewsAPI.orgNewsRESTFree dev tier (24h delay); Business $449/mo$0 (dev only)No2026-07-11Link
NewsquawkNewsApp squawkBasic $199/mo; Pro $399/mo$199–399 only if squawk neededNo2026-07-11Link
NFACalendarsWeb$0.01/side fee (doubles 2027-07-01)Cost line item, not dataPublic info2026-07-11Link
NinjaTraderPrice, Depth, CalendarsDesktop, NinjaScriptPlatform $0–$99/mo or $1,499 lifetime; L2 $48 bundle$0–60No2026-07-11Link
NOAAEnergy, Alt dataREST, text/CSV, GIS filesFree$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
Norgate DataPrice, CalendarsUpdater app + Python package$148.50/6mo or $270/yr (futures package)$22.50No2026-07-11Link
OFRMacroREST (no key)Free$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
OPECEnergyPDF, Excel, webFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
Open-MeteoAlt dataRESTFree non-commercial (10k calls/day); paid tiers verify$0 (paid if commercial use)AGPL self-host option2026-07-11Link
OpenFIGICalendarsRESTFree$0Permissive; verify storage2026-07-11Link
OpenSky NetworkAlt dataRESTFree non-commercial$0Non-commercial2026-07-11Link
OpenWeatherAlt dataRESTFree 1M calls/mo; paid tiers verify$0CC-class licence; verify2026-07-11Link
OptionMetricsVolatilityBulk files; WRDS (academic)Contact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
optionsDXVolatilityFile downloads$0–$50 per packageTens of $ one-timeNo2026-07-11Link
Optimus FuturesDepthOptimus Flow platformFree platform with account + data fees $41–45$41–45 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
ORATSVolatilityREST, flat filesDelayed Data API $99/mo$99 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
Orbital InsightAlt dataVia Privateer platformContact sales; product status unclearAvoid pending verificationUnknown2026-07-11Link
pandas_market_calendarsCalendarsPython packageFree (MIT)$0Open source2026-07-11Link
Petro-LogisticsEnergySubscription reportsContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
PortaraPriceASCII TXT/CSV exportsContact sales (thousands of USD unofficial)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
Primary VisionEnergySocial posts; paid platformFree national count; paid contact sales$0Verify2026-07-11Link
QuantConnectPriceCloud LEAN engineFree tier; paid tiers via configurator$0 to low tensPlatform-bound2026-07-11Link
QuantowerDepthWindows appFree limited; All-in-One $70/mo (≈$49 annual)$0–70 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
Quiver QuantitativeAlt dataWeb + RESTHobbyist $30/mo; Trader $75/mo$30Personal use only2026-07-11Link
RavenPackNewsFeed, files, WRDS (academic)Contact sales ($20–40k academic unofficial)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
RBN EnergyEnergyWeb, emailFree daily blog; ~$1,320/yr premium (unverified)$0No2026-07-11Link
RedditNewsOAuth REST + archive dumpsFree non-commercial; $0.24/1k calls commercial (unofficial)$0No ML training without consent2026-07-11Link
RithmicDepthR Trader Pro, R API$25/mo connection + depth $45 bundle~$70 all-in for live MBONo2026-07-11Link
RS MetricsAlt dataFeed, web appPackages from $5,000Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
S&P GlobalMacro, EnergyPress releases; platforms/feedsContact sales$0 (flash PMI headlines free)No2026-07-11Link
SerpApiAlt dataRESTFree 250 searches/mo; Starter $25/mo$25Vendor legal shield2026-07-11Link
SGEMetalsWebFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
SHFEMetalsWeb downloadsFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
Sierra ChartPrice, DepthDesktop (ACSIL C++)Packages $36–56/mo + CME depth $13.50/exch or $40.50 bundle~$96.50 (package 12 + depth bundle)No2026-07-11Link
Silver InstituteMetalsPDF downloadsFree$0Quote with attribution2026-07-11Link
SimilarwebAlt dataPlatform, APIContact sales (~$199/mo self-serve unofficial)Skip — marginal for futuresNo2026-07-11Link
Société GénéraleAlt dataFree web reportFree daily report; commercial licence contact sales$0Licensed for commercial use2026-07-11Link
SpaceKnowAlt dataSaaS, APIContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
SPDR Gold SharesMetals, PositioningXLSX endpoint, bar listsFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
SpiderRockVolatilityStreaming feed, filesContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
Spire MaritimeAlt dataGraphQL/REST, streamingContact sales (>$10k/mo unofficial, unverified)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
SpotGammaVolatility, PositioningWeb dashboardsStandard $89/mo; Alpha $299/mo$89–299 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
SqueezeMetricsPositioningCSV, webFree DIX/GEX CSV; full data $720/mo$0Unknown2026-07-11Link
StockNewsAPINewsRESTBasic $19.99/mo$20 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
StockPulseNewsVia IBKR; direct feedFree buzz texts via IBKR; AI reports $80/mo$0–80No2026-07-11Link
StockTwitsNewsREST (registration closed)Contact sales (Enterprise)Not accessibleNo2026-07-11Link
StooqPriceCSV downloadFree$0Verify2026-07-11Link
Swiss Federal CustomsMetalsDashboard, CSV (opendata)Free$0Attribution; commercial needs permission2026-07-11Link
TankerTrackersEnergy, Alt dataWeb portal, SMS, APICorporate Lite $1,000/mo ($10,000/yr)Above budget on its ownNo2026-07-11Link
ThetaDataVolatilityLocal terminal + REST/WebSocketFree tier; Options Value $40/mo; Standard $80/mo$40–80No2026-07-11Link
TickDataPriceZipped file delivery, TickWriteContact sales (thousands of USD unofficial)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
Tier1 AlphaPositioningNewsletter, Hedgeye portal$49.95/mo or $449/yr$50 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
TiingoNewsRESTFree Starter; Power $30/mo + news add-on$30No; bulk institutional only2026-07-11Link
TradierVolatilityREST + streamingFree with brokerage account$0No2026-07-11Link
Trading EconomicsMacro, Energy, CalendarsREST + streaming, clientsContact sales (~$149–299/mo unofficial)~$149 if a calendar API is requiredNo2026-07-11Link
Trading TechnologiesDepthTT platform, REST/FIXContact sales (unofficial $775+/mo)Not at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
TradingHoursCalendarsREST, bulk zip$50–150/mo$50 optionalInternal use only2026-07-11Link
TradingsterPositioningWebFree$0No2026-07-11Link
TradingViewPriceWeb charts, manual CSV exportPaid plans unverified + CME data add-ons$0–~30 (verify)No2026-07-11Link
TradovatePrice, Depth, CalendarsREST/WebSocket, appsPlans $0/$99/mo/$1,499 lifetime; L1 free with account; L2 $41 bundle$0–41No2026-07-11Link
TSAEnergyWeb tableFree$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
University of MichiganMacroWeb portal CSVFree post-release; sponsor early access contact sales$0Verify2026-07-11Link
Unusual WhalesPositioning, Alt dataWeb, REST + WebSocket~$48–50/mo platform (unofficial); API $150/mo$48–150 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
Ursa SpaceEnergy, Alt dataFeed, API, CSVContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
US Mint and Perth MintMetalsWeb pages, CSV, blog postsFree$0US public domain; Perth verify2026-07-11Link
US TreasuryMacroREST (no key), CSV/XMLFree$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
USGSMetalsPDF/XLSX downloadsFree$0Public domain2026-07-11Link
Vanda ResearchPositioningPlatform, Excel, APIContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
VesselFinderAlt dataREST, NMEA streamsContact sales$0 (free web map)Per-contract2026-07-11Link
VIX CentralVolatilityWeb onlyFree$0None granted2026-07-11Link
VollandPositioningWeb dashboardBasic $150/mo to Live $1,000/mo (Jun-2024 guide)$150 optionalNo2026-07-11Link
VolumetricaDepthWindows, webUnknown — verify (pricing page 404)UnknownNo2026-07-11Link
VortexaEnergy, Alt dataPlatform, API, SnowflakeContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
WikimediaAlt dataREST (no key)Free$0Open (CC)2026-07-11Link
Wood MackenzieEnergy, Alt dataLens platform, reportsContact salesNot at this budgetNo2026-07-11Link
World Gold CouncilMetalsWeb, Excel/PDF downloadsFree$0Restricted; verify2026-07-11Link
X (Twitter)NewsREST + streaming (credits)Pay-per-use ($0.005/post read); no free tier$0 (skip — cost explodes at scale)No2026-07-11Link
Yahoo FinancePriceyfinance Python (unofficial)Free$0No2026-07-11Link

Provider profiles

AAII

Runs the classic weekly retail bull/neutral/bear sentiment survey (since 1987), a long contrarian-percentile series for the equity-index legs. Latest readings are free; the historical spreadsheet appears membership- or bot-gated, with intro membership promos around $1–2 (unverified).

Alexandria Technology

Institutional NLP classification/sentiment engine trained by finance-domain analysts, scoring earnings calls, premium news, and macro categories. A RavenPack alternative with strong earnings-call heritage; contact-sales pricing keeps it out of retail reach.

Alpaca

Brokerage whose free account includes a real-time Benzinga-sourced news WebSocket plus historical news REST — the cheapest real-time headline firehose in the catalog. Best used as the collection layer for DIY FinBERT/LLM sentiment scoring with proxy ETF tickers.

Alpha Vantage

Freemium REST API wrapping US macro series (FRED-sourced) and a scored news/sentiment endpoint with macro and energy topic filters. The free 25 requests/day tier is only for experiments; $49.99/mo makes it a convenience layer, though FRED directly is usually the better macro choice.

American Petroleum Institute

Publisher of the Tuesday ~4:30 p.m. ET Weekly Statistical Bulletin — the pre-EIA crude inventory print — sold only through LSEG and ICE at contact-sales prices. Retail can free-ride the headline build/draw via calendar sites within minutes of release.

AMP Futures

Deep-discount futures FCM whose public pages double as reference data: the live day-trade margin table and the definitive retail exchange-data fee schedule (CME non-pro L1 $5/exchange or $15 bundle, L2 $17/exchange or $45 bundle, Rithmic $25/mo). A practical execution and live-depth venue for this project's cost modeling.

Argus Media

Price-reporting agency for physical crude (Americas WTI grades) and metals-adjacent assessments, mirrored via LSEG. Institutional-priced and unnecessary for exchange-settled futures strategies at this budget.

ATAS

Order-flow/footprint analytics platform (cluster charts, DOM, MBO-based iceberg/stop trackers) for CME futures via Rithmic/CQG feeds. Mid-priced at €24.95–89.95/mo plus data fees; discretionary tooling rather than a data source.

Atlanta Fed

Free publisher of GDPNow (the mechanical GDP nowcast, with vintages via ALFRED) and the Market Probability Tracker (SOFR-options-implied rate distributions). Both are core free macro-regime inputs for the equity-index and metals legs.

Baker Hughes

Publishes the free weekly North America rig count (Friday 1 p.m. ET) with basin/state detail back to 2000 — the classic supply-side leading indicator for the WTI complex. Excel downloads only; no API.

Baltic Exchange

Official source of the Baltic Dry Index and freight route assessments, licensed at contact-sales prices with strict data-licence tiers. Daily BDI values are viewable free on aggregators, which suffices for a macro feature at this budget.

Barchart

Multi-role retail data vendor spanning three categories: free 2-year daily history and COT chart pages, Premier ($29.95/mo) unlocking ~10 years of 1-minute futures bars via web CSV downloads, futures-options IV/greeks pages, and the sales-gated OnDemand commercial API. Premier is the cheapest legitimate path to deep intraday bars without an API requirement.

BEA

The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes GDP and PCE (the Fed's target inflation measure) with a free REST API and the cleanest machine-readable release schedule (ICS + JSON) of any US agency. Public domain; pair with ALFRED vintages for revision-aware backtests.

Benzinga

Retail-friendly newsroom sold three ways: free full-body articles through Alpaca's news API, the Benzinga Pro terminal from $37/mo, and contact-sales commercial APIs (plus a $35/mo breaking-news API via IBKR). The pragmatic headline source for a DIY sentiment pipeline on equity-index proxies.

Bloomberg

The institutional benchmark: Terminal (~$32k/yr unofficial), Event-Driven Feeds for machine-readable news, and Second Measure consumer-transaction analytics. Documented here as the yardstick for latency-sensitive event trading; every function it serves has a budget substitute elsewhere in this directory.

BLS

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is the authoritative free source for CPI, PPI, and the Employment Situation, with a free API (500 queries/day registered) and an iCal release schedule. The 2025 shutdown left permanent gaps (no October 2025 CPI) that pipelines must handle.

Bookmap

Liquidity-heatmap visualization platform and the reference tool for seeing MBO effects (icebergs, stops) on CME futures. Platform $0–99/mo plus BookmapData/dxFeed/Rithmic data at $34–79/mo; display-oriented with no research archive.

Brain

Quant boutique selling daily NLP/LLM sentiment scores covering stocks plus major commodities and currencies — one of the few vendors touching our energy/metals markets directly. Contact-sales pricing; daily frequency only.

Cboe

Owner of the volatility-signal layer: free daily CSV history for VIX/VXN/VXD/RVX/VVIX/SKEW/OVX/GVZ/VXSLV (VIX back to 1990), free VX futures settlements to 2004, free delayed chain JSON, and daily put/call statistics. Paid tiers run from LiveVol Core ($105/mo) through cart-priced DataShop historical files to the All Access API ($2,499/mo) — but the free CSV backbone alone powers most vol features this project needs.

CEIC

Commercial macro/markets data platform used here as a licensed mirror for hard-to-scrape Chinese series (SGE benchmark, SHFE warehouse stocks), alongside similar assessed data from Argus and Fastmarkets. Contact sales; only worth it if free-scrape maintenance of Chinese primaries proves too costly.

Census Bureau

Free official source for advance retail sales (MARTS) and durable goods via the Economic Indicators Time Series API (key required), plus the indicator release calendar. Public domain, latest-value only — use ALFRED for vintages.

CFTC

Publisher of the Commitments of Traders reports — the free backbone of the positioning category, with a no-auth Socrata API and bulk zips covering legacy (1986+), disaggregated, and TFF (2006+) variants including the micro E-mini equity contracts. Key gap: no separate COT rows for MCL, QM, QO, QI, 1OZ, or SIC — proxy with parent contracts.

Chicago Fed

Publishes the free weekly National Financial Conditions Index (NFCI, 1971+), a ready-made risk-on/risk-off regime input mirrored on FRED/ALFRED. Revised weekly, so use vintages in backtests.

Citi

Originator of the Citi Economic Surprise Index (CESI), licensed only via Bloomberg/Citi Velocity. Free chart mirrors exist for eyeballing; the catalog's advice is to replicate a surprise index in-house from calendar consensus-vs-actual data instead of licensing it.

Cleveland Fed

Publishes free daily nowcasts of CPI, core CPI, PCE, and core PCE — the best free real-time estimate of upcoming inflation prints and a practical anchor for defining "surprise" without a consensus feed. Web-only (no documented API), so scraping is required.

CME Group

The listing exchange for every target contract and the single most-cited provider in the catalog, spanning eight categories: free product pages and settlements, the QuikStrike tool suite (options analytics, COT visualizer, OI heatmap, roll analyzers), free daily warehouse/delivery reports for metals, the complete calendars/reference layer (holidays, expirations, margins, fees, settlement procedures, price limits), the $25/mo FedWatch API, CVOL volatility indexes, and the contact-sales DataMine historical store (data to 1972, MBO/PCAP included). Its January 2026 fee list also sets the pass-through market-data entitlement costs (non-pro depth $12.10/exchange, $36.50 bundle) that every retail feed resells. Note cmegroup.com aggressively bot-blocks plain HTTP clients — automation needs a headless browser or the OAuth-gated Reference Data API.

CNN

Publishes the free Fear & Greed composite sentiment index. Browser-only (the JSON endpoint blocks bots), methodology opaque — low priority versus computing its components in-house.

Conference Board

Publisher of Consumer Confidence and the Leading Economic Index, with full data behind Data Central membership (contact sales). Headline surprise capture from free press releases suffices at this budget.

Context Analytics

Formerly Social Market Analytics; sells X/Twitter-derived S-Factor sentiment metrics and is the only vendor found selling social sentiment tagged to futures directly (via Snowflake Marketplace). Contact sales — the top paid candidate if a social sentiment factor ever proves worth buying.

COTbase

COT-specialist charting platform with derived indices and NinjaTrader/TradingView indicators. Free tier carries one year of history; Premium at $19.99/mo — pure convenience over the free CFTC API.

CPM Group

Independent precious-metals research house whose annual Gold and Silver Yearbooks (~$170 each, unofficial) provide a second opinion on supply/demand balances versus Metals Focus, with deliberately different definitions. Cheap regime context, not a signal feed.

CQG

Institutional futures data/execution network appearing three ways: the CQG broker feed (non-pro depth $13/exchange, $41 bundle — the benchmark retail DOM price), the self-serve Data Factory historical store ($7–27 per commodity-month for daily-to-tick files), and as the data backbone behind Portara. Good for surgical historical purchases and reliable live DOM.

CSI Data

Veteran EOD futures shop (Unfair Advantage software) with multi-decade daily histories from $25/mo. Legacy tooling; a budget alternative to Norgate for long daily series.

Databento

The catalog's default primary market-data vendor: the full CME Globex MDP 3.0 feed (GLBX.MDP3) as normalized schemas from MBO/MBP-10 tick data to daily bars, covering every target symbol including 1OZ and SIC from launch, with history to 2010-06-06 and documented continuous-contract symbology (ES.c.0/.n.0/.v.0). Usage-based pricing from ~$0.50/GB with $125 intro credits keeps single-symbol research programs in the tens-to-hundreds of dollars; Standard ($179/mo) adds live access, and most datasets can be redistributed internally or externally after 24 hours. Its symbology and instrument-definition docs also serve as the project's reference standard.

DBnomics

Open, free, non-profit aggregator mirroring dozens of official macro providers (BLS and BEA confirmed; FRED is not a provider) through one API. Useful as a prototyping convenience and outage backup; sponsorship-funded, so long-term SLA risk.

Degreedays

degreedays.net computes station-level HDD/CDD globally with regression tooling via API (signup-gated pricing). Only needed if free NOAA CPC data and Open-Meteo derivations prove insufficient.

Dow Jones

Institutional newswire whose "DJ Institutional News: Global" is available through IBKR at $78/mo — the catalog's "real newswire on a retail budget" pick — while free IBKR tiers include DJ Commodities Market Talk and Global Press Releases. Direct machine-readable feeds are contact-sales (median contract $16,440/yr, unofficial).

dxFeed

Devexperts' market-data arm: the depth/quote feed behind Bookmap, ATAS, Quantower, ExoCharts, and Volumetrica ($37–39/mo per exchange retail via those platforms), plus institutional options analytics (greeks/IV) across OPRA and CME. Direct contracts are contact-sales; its site blocks automated fetchers, so pricing claims rest on partner pages.

Earth Observation Group

The Payne Institute (Colorado School of Mines) group publishing free VIIRS Nightfire satellite gas-flaring detections (2012+) after registration — a free upstream-activity proxy for crude supply models. Verify commercial-use terms on its licence form.

EarthDaily Analytics

Earth-observation platform that acquired Descartes Labs (October 2024), offering geospatial analytics and a DIY imagery platform. Contact sales; historically ag-tilted, marginal for this project's symbols.

Econoday

Institutional economic-calendar and consensus vendor embedded in many broker platforms (including IBKR's calendar). Enterprise API is contact-sales; the practical retail route is consuming it free through a brokerage rather than licensing directly.

EconDB

Small macro-series aggregator with a token-authenticated REST API at econdb.com/api. Pricing and licensing unknown — verify before depending on it; FRED covers the same ground for this project.

EIA

The US Energy Information Administration anchors the energy category for free: the Wednesday 10:30 a.m. ET Weekly Petroleum Status Report (crude/Cushing/SPR stocks to 1982), STEO forecasts, and the hourly EIA-930 grid monitor, all through the free Open Data API v2. Public domain with unlimited redistribution — the default ingestion target for every energy fundamental this project needs.

Energy Aspects

Premium oil research shop (OPEC+ analysis, balances) that acquired OilX (2023) and Kayrros (May 2026), and resells Kayrros satellite inventories. Tens of thousands per year unofficially; its meeting-preview genre is summarized free in the press.

EODHD

Mid-priced all-in-one API (EOD prices, fundamentals, news+sentiment, economic events). The economic-events calendar needs the $99.99/mo ALL-IN-ONE tier and only reaches back to 2020; mainly attractive if the project already buys its other data.

EPFR

Institutional fund-flow and allocation data across 150k+ funds; contracts reportedly $10k–650k/yr (unofficial). The free ICI weekly flows plus etf.com per-ETF tool are this project's substitutes.

Estimize

Crowdsourced EPS/revenue estimates (owned by ExtractAlpha since 2021), useful for earnings-season expectation gaps that aggregate into NQ/ES event risk. Contributor browsing is free; systematic feeds are contact-sales.

etf.com

Free web tool for per-ETF creation/redemption flows (SPY/QQQ/IWM/GLD/SLV/USO) updated daily. Bot-blocked for automation — view-only, but a handy daily proxy-flow check across every target market.

exchange_calendars

Open-source (Apache-2.0) Python exchange-session calendar library, successor to Quantopian's trading_calendars, with CME support via the CMES calendar. Fewer futures-specific product calendars than pandas_market_calendars; useful as a cross-check.

Federal Reserve Board

Free source of truth for FOMC dates/statements/minutes/SEP (2026 meeting dates confirmed through the calendars page), speech RSS feeds, and the Data Download Program (H.15 rates, H.10 broad dollar index). No structured API for statements — NLP pipelines parse HTML/PDF.

FinancialJuice

Free real-time text/audio headline squawk with an integrated economic calendar; paid Pro/Elite tiers ($69–99/quarter promo) remove delay. No API, so it serves human situational awareness around releases, not pipelines.

Financial Modeling Prep

Equity-centric API suite with an economic-calendar endpoint; docs and pricing were bot-blocked during verification. Marginal option — only if FMP is already in the stack.

FINRA

Publishes free monthly margin-account debit/credit balances (January 1997+) — the standard slow-moving leverage-cycle proxy for equity-index regime models. ~7-week effective lag; use YoY changes.

Finnhub

Freemium market-data API with news, a premium-gated news-sentiment endpoint, and an economic calendar. The free 60 calls/min tier is genuinely useful for proxy-ticker headline collection; paid-tier pricing is JS-gated and unverified.

FirstRate Data

Sells one-shot downloadable bundles of clean 1-minute futures bars back to ~2007 (130 most-active contracts) in all three continuous-contract adjustment variants, with updates $59.95/mo after the first free month. Bundle price is checkout-gated; micros and new listings are largely absent.

ForexFactory

The de-facto retail economic calendar, with free machine-readable weekly JSON/XML/CSV feeds at nfs.faireconomy.media (verified live) carrying impact ratings, forecast, and previous values. The zero-cost calendar backbone for event flags and no-trade windows; redistribution terms unverified.

FRED

The St. Louis Fed's free warehouse of 800k+ macro series with a clean REST API, plus ALFRED — vintage "data time travel" that is the single most important free dataset for avoiding look-ahead bias in macro backtests. Also mirrors Cboe vol indices daily (VIXCLS from 1990, with OVX/GVZ reaching further back than Cboe's own CSVs) and offers a release-calendar API.

Freightos

Container-freight index (FBX) publisher with a free tier (12 lanes, 30-day history) and a paid Terminal platform (5-year history, contact sales). A free weekly goods-trade macro pulse; container rates are not tanker rates.

GasBuddy

Weekly US gasoline-demand estimates from card transactions, published free as commentary by Patrick De Haan ahead of EIA's Wednesday implied-demand figure. Panel-biased and unproductized — an early qualitative read only.

GDELT

Free, open global news monitoring (events to 1979, tone-scored GKG from 2015) via CSV, BigQuery, and a rate-limited DOC API on 15-minute update cycles. The free macro/geopolitical news-pressure layer for daily-frequency models — not a low-latency feed, and it carries links/scores rather than article text.

GoldChartsRUs

Nick Laird's Sharelynx data warehouse: decades of stitched daily history for series whose official sources publish only point-in-time files (COMEX warehouse stocks, aggregate ETF holdings, COT, lease rates, premiums), sold as a low-cost subscription (~$200/yr unofficial) plus à-la-carte CSVs. One-man operation — spot-check provenance against primary archives.

Relative search-interest data: free UI CSV exports, an official alpha API (application-gated, ~5 years rolling history), and dead scraper libraries (pytrends archived 2025). Window-rescaling makes naive backtests wrong; SerpApi is the practical programmatic route until the official API matures.

GridStatus

Open-source Python library unifying ISO electricity data (CAISO/ERCOT/PJM/MISO/etc.) with a hosted API whose free plan allows 500k rows/month. Richer than EIA-930 for load/LMP features at effectively zero cost.

Haver Analytics

Institutional macro-database standard ("290+ databases", ~1-minute post-release delivery) including licensed content like ISM and Conference Board in one schema. Five figures per year unofficially — the benchmark for "complete," not a realistic line item here.

Hedgopia

Free weekly blog charting COT positioning extremes in exactly this project's index/energy/metals contracts. Curated interpretation, not raw data; single-author continuity risk.

HistoricalOptionData

Flat-file EOD US options history shop: 24-year full-history packages $1,150–$2,035 depending on greeks/IV level, one-year files from $230, annual update subscriptions $585–865. A one-time purchase route to deep SPX/VIX options history for offline backtesting.

ICE

Intercontinental Exchange touches this project three ways: it lists the trademarked DXY dollar-index futures (licensed market data, outside the CME plumbing), its IBA unit administers the LBMA Gold/Silver benchmark prices (usage licences $4k–$30k/yr, redistribution more), and it redistributes the API Weekly Statistical Bulletin. For research, free delayed LBMA tables and the Fed's H.10 dollar index substitute for all of it.

ICI

The Investment Company Institute publishes free weekly US mutual-fund + ETF flow estimates by asset class — macro flow context across all target markets with about a one-week lag. Free with attribution.

IEA

Publishes the monthly Oil Market Report; summaries and an abridged public PDF are free, while the full report and data tables are subscription (contact sales, prices unverified). Headlines hit newswires instantly, making the paid tier skippable at retail scale.

IG

Retail CFD broker exposing free real-time client long/short ratios on index, oil, gold, and silver proxies — a classic contrarian fade input. Web/platform only, no official API, snapshot-only history.

IMF

The IMF data portal (IFS/IRFCL) is the free point-of-truth for monthly official gold reserves by country — the raw feed behind World Gold Council central-bank statistics, ~2 months in arrears. Free JSON API; endpoint syntax migrated in 2024–25.

India TRADESTAT and IBJA

Official Indian trade statistics (monthly gold imports by HS code, from fiscal 2017–18) plus IBJA's twice-daily domestic bullion benchmark rates. Free but scrape-only; together they give the world's #2 gold consumer's demand and local premium/discount signals.

Interactive Brokers

The project's cheapest live-data utility: non-pro CME L1 at $1.55/exchange and L2 at $12.10, OPRA at $1.50, CFE at $4.50 — roughly $10–16/mo for live quotes across every target complex — plus bundled free Reuters/Dow Jones news feeds, the $78/mo DJ institutional wire, Econoday's calendar, and TWS API historical bars. Its hard limits matter: expired futures history is only ~2 years, pacing rules throttle bulk pulls, and storing feed data violates the subscriber agreement.

Investing.com

Free ad-supported web calendars (economic, EIA/API/rig-count events with consensus) plus multi-year event-history pages. No official API and scraping breaches ToS — a manual cross-check layer, not a pipeline dependency.

Investors Intelligence

The 60-year-old weekly Advisors Sentiment survey (bull/bear ratio since 1963), subscription-gated with no public pricing. Headline values circulate free via secondary charts; AAII/NAAIM cover the need at $0.

IQFeed

DTN's prosumer streaming feed: deep bundled history (1-minute bars to 2005, 180 days of tick, 80+ years daily) over a stable TCP API, at $108.15/mo core plus futures/depth surcharges and exchange fees (CME waiver rates $2.10–$33.60 if a funded brokerage account qualifies). Strong all-in-one option if the project prefers a fixed-cost feed over usage-based Databento; no depth history, Windows-centric.

iShares

BlackRock's SLV page publishes daily silver ounces-in-trust, shares outstanding, and bar lists free — the best daily proxy for silver investment demand feeding QI/SIC. No clean official full-history file; self-archive daily.

ISM

The Institute for Supply Management's Manufacturing and Services PMIs are first-tier 10:00 a.m. ET events, but reports and release calendar are now login-gated (verified 302-to-SSO) and historical data is a paid product. Capture headline surprises via calendars; budget for ISM only if PMI sub-indices prove alpha.

IVolatility

Long-running derivatives data vendor selling à-la-carte EOD options data, IV surfaces, and IV indexes — including futures options — at pay-per-use rates from $0.20–0.60 per ticker-day. The cheapest way to buy futures-options IV history for a handful of CME symbols.

JETNET

JetTrack packages corporate-jet movement intelligence (the dataset Bloomberg distributes; Gordon Haskett sells a similar research product). Contact sales, FAA privacy opt-outs bias the sample, and event frequency is too low for systematic index-futures signals — curiosity tier.

Jigsaw Trading

Depth & Sales DOM-execution specialist (daytradr) with one-time licences from $579 plus $50/mo for live trading. Skill-building tooling for discretionary scalping, not a data source.

JODI

The Joint Organisations Data Initiative offers free monthly oil production/demand/stocks for 90+ countries back to January 2002 — the only regular window into Saudi/China official numbers. ~2-month lag; monthly balance models only.

JPMorgan

Its weekly Treasury Client Survey is a widely-watched rates-positioning gauge but is client-only, with headlines leaking through press coverage. Treat as unavailable for systematic pipelines — use CFTC TFF on treasury futures instead.

JPX

The Osaka Exchange (ex-TOCOM) publishes free daily settlement/volume/OI files for yen-gold futures, giving Asia-session positioning context for the metals legs. Real-time requires a paid Information Provision Agreement.

Kalshi and Polymarket

Regulated (Kalshi) and crypto-native (Polymarket) prediction markets with free public APIs (both probed live) exposing event probabilities on Fed decisions, CPI prints, and hurricanes. Free event-probability features ahead of scheduled macro risk; thin liquidity distorts tails.

Kayrros

Satellite+AI measurement of ~12–13,000 crude storage tanks globally plus twice-weekly drone flights over Cushing, updated daily — now sold through Energy Aspects after its May 2026 acquisition. Institutional pricing; documented so the project knows what informed crude flow sees before the weekly EIA print.

Kibot

Budget bulk-history shop: $820 one-time for all-futures 1-minute data (continuous + individual contracts), $3,750 for tick with bid/ask. Community-questioned quality and observed symbol-table mislabeling (QO/QI) — quality-check before building on it, and its table lacks several target micros.

Kinetick

NinjaTrader-affiliated feed whose EOD tier is free forever — the standard zero-cost daily-bars source inside a NinjaTrader workflow. Real-time is $81.11/mo (unverified; site unreachable during checks).

Kpler

The consolidated commodity-flows giant (ClipperData, JBC Energy, MarineTraffic, FleetMon, Spire Maritime acquisitions) tracking cargo-level crude flows and inventories. Median contract ~$55k/yr (unofficial) — institutional only, but its free insight posts are worth following.

LBMA

The London bullion market authority publishes free monthly vault holdings (2016+), monthly clearing statistics, and delayed benchmark price tables via the free MyLBMA portal; full OTC trade data (LBMA-i) is a commercial Nasdaq product and benchmark-price usage requires an IBA licence. The free layer covers the London side of the London–New York metal-migration trades that drive GC/SI and our micro contracts.

LiveSquawk

Audio news squawk for macro/futures traders at $350/mo (£275). An alternative quote to benchmark against Newsquawk; no API, no archive.

LSEG

The London Stock Exchange Group aggregates four catalog roles: Reuters-powered Machine Readable News and News Analytics (point-in-time archives to 1996/2003, real commodity coverage), MarketPsych sentiment indices for 44 commodities back to 1998, the legacy GFMS metals research franchise inside Eikon/Workspace, and FTSE Russell — whose reconstitution calendar (now semi-annual June + December from 2026) is the dominant free flow-event input for RTY/M2K. Everything except the FTSE calendar is contact-sales institutional.

Macrobond

Institutional macro data + analytics platform comparable to Haver, per-seat licensed at contact-sales prices. Out of scope for this budget.

MacroMicro

Chart platform aggregating macro series including licensed displays of otherwise-paywalled indicators (ISM, Citi surprise, AAII mirrors) at roughly $25–30/mo (unofficial, unverified). Cheap visual monitoring; not a primary source.

MarineTraffic

The best-known AIS ship-tracking platform, now Kpler-owned, with a free web map and paid tiers reportedly ~£10–100/mo (unofficial). The cheapest hands-on way to watch tanker chokepoints and port queues.

Market Data App

Low-cost REST/Sheets API for US options chains with greeks and IV: free 100 credits/day, Starter from $12/mo (annual). The cheapest chains+greeks API for prototyping SPX/VIX-proxy signals; credit metering punishes heavy chain pulls.

Marketaux

Global financial-news API with entity-level sentiment across 5,000+ sources; free tier is a teaser (3 articles/request), Basic $29/mo. A mid-tier alternative when Alpha Vantage/Finnhub quotas bind.

Massive

Polygon.io's successor (rebranded October 2025) selling developer-friendly REST/WebSocket APIs per product line — futures (now GA, $0–199/mo, 2–7+ years history), options, indices, and Benzinga-sourced ticker news — with genuinely useful free tiers. The budget complement to Databento for recent CME bars and flat files; history is shallow and there is no continuous-contract construction.

Menthor Q

Options-positioning analytics (gamma levels, net GEX, Q-Score models) that explicitly covers futures contracts rather than only the SPX complex, with platform integrations. Premium $59/mo (perpetually "discounted" from $129) — the cheapest credible dealer-gamma feed for ES/NQ/CL/GC.

MetalCharts

Free dashboard pre-joining exactly the metals category's core datasets — COMEX inventories/deliveries, LBMA vault and clearing data, SHFE stocks, SGE benchmark, premiums, COT — with premium tiers at $50–90/yr. A monitoring and scraper-sanity-check layer, not a licensed source.

Metals Focus

The precious-metals consultancy behind both the Silver Institute's World Silver Survey and WGC's Gold Demand Trends; sells country/sector-level supply-demand databases at contact-sales prices. Its headline numbers reach this project free through those two publications.

Monetary Metals

Publishes the only regularly maintained GOFO-successor series — proprietary daily gold/silver forward and lease rates plus basis charts — free to view, with data licensing on contact. Model-derived scarcity/backwardation signals for squeeze detection in the metals legs.

MotiveWave

Multi-broker charting platform whose Order Flow edition adds footprint/DOM tooling on macOS — rare among order-flow tools. Pricing is checkout-gated (~$49/mo Order Flow, unofficial).

MQL5

MetaQuotes' free economic calendar (900+ indicators), programmatically accessible only inside the MetaTrader 5 runtime. A redundancy source, awkward unless an MT5 bridge already exists.

MT Newswires

Independent multi-asset newswire (28k+ stories/month) distributed through LSEG, FactSet, dxFeed, and brokers at contact-sales prices. The tier-2 wire option when Reuters/DJ licensing is out of budget.

NAAIM

Weekly survey of active managers' equity exposure (−200% to +200%, since July 2006) with free Excel history — but the page states it moves to subscription access effective 2026-08-01. Download the full history before the paywall.

Nanotick

Specialist selling colocation-captured CME PCAP data (nanoBooks full order-book replay, back to 2014 unverified), distributed by Globex channel rather than product. Contact sales; the nanosecond-fidelity tier beyond even Databento.

Nasdaq

Relevant mostly through Nasdaq Data Link and adjacent products: the free RTAT10 retail-activity feed (full RTAT is login-priced), the commercial LBMA-i London OTC trade data, and a graveyard the catalog documents so nobody rebuilds on it — the CHRIS/SCF continuous-futures mirrors (404), OptionWorks futures IV (404), and the VOLQ index (terminated 2023-09-29). Verify anything Data-Link-hosted before use; the site bot-blocks aggressively.

New York Fed

Free publisher of the reference rates underlying rate-expectation math (SOFR/EFFR via the no-key markets API), the Survey of Consumer Expectations (inflation expectations, 2013+), and the weekly Staff Nowcast with its news-decomposition surprise measure. All free; verify redistribution language.

NewsAPI.org

General-purpose keyword news API whose free tier is dev-only with a 24-hour delay; production starts at $449/mo. Poor fit versus finance-native APIs — documented mainly as a warning.

Newsquawk

Professional audio squawk aimed squarely at index/energy/metals futures traders ($199 single-channel, $399 all-channels per month). Human-in-the-loop latency and no API — discretionary event-trading support only.

NFA

The National Futures Association's $0.01/side assessment fee applies to every trade at a US FCM and doubles to $0.02 effective 2027-07-01 — a date-aware line item for multi-year cost models rather than a data product.

NinjaTrader

Retail futures broker/platform group (with Tradovate and Kinetick): free-to-lifetime platform tiers ($0/$99/mo/$1,499), micro commissions from $0.09/side on Lifetime, L2 depth at $48/bundle, Order Flow + tooling, and free EOD data via Kinetick. An execution venue and margin/commission reference, not a primary data archive.

NOAA

Free US government weather covering the whole energy-demand and hurricane-risk channel: the api.weather.gov REST API, National Hurricane Center advisories and HURDAT2 history (with CSU seasonal forecasts alongside), and CPC heating/cooling degree days back decades. Public domain and trivially scriptable.

Norgate Data

EOD futures specialist with 30+ years of per-contract daily history, survivorship-aware coverage, and well-documented continuous contracts (FND-aware roll rules, arithmetic back-adjustment) for USD $270/yr. Confirmed coverage of the equity-index complex including micros plus benchmark CL/GC/SI — but not MCL, QM, BZ, QO, QI, 1OZ, or SIC. The best value in clean daily data and a de-facto roll-convention reference.

OFR

The Office of Financial Research's free Short-Term Funding Monitor API serves repo-market series (2014+) — funding-stress features that lead risk-off moves in ES and gold. No key required.

OPEC

Publishes the free Monthly Oil Market Report (with Excel tables) and the press releases that carry OPEC+ quota decisions — direct gap-risk events for the crude legs. Some paths bot-block datacenter IPs but the PDFs download fine; production figures are secondary-source estimates.

Open-Meteo

Open-source global weather API (forecast + ERA5 reanalysis history to 1940) free for non-commercial use at generous limits; commercial use requires a paid tier (prices render dynamically — verify). The best free programmatic weather source for backtestable features.

OpenFIGI

Bloomberg's free symbology-mapping API (tickers → FIGIs, including futures), verified live without a key. Useful for cross-vendor instrument-master joins; futures ticker conventions need mapping care.

OpenSky Network

Community ADS-B network with a free research API for live and historical aircraft state vectors (2013+ for approved researchers). The free way to experiment with jet-tracking signals before paying ADS-B Exchange (~$10/mo unofficial) or JetTrack.

OpenWeather

Commercial weather API with a large free tier (1M calls/month). A redundancy feed; Open-Meteo is the better free primary for this project.

OptionMetrics

The academic-standard historical options database (IvyDB US from 1996; IvyDB Futures covers US futures options) with survivorship-bias-free IV surfaces and greeks. Contact sales, or free via WRDS with an academic affiliation.

optionsDX

Budget shop selling per-underlying historical option-chain files (SPX, VIX, SPY, QQQ, SLV) with greeks/IV at $0–50 per package, including free sample quarters. Nearly-free bootstrap data before committing to a real options vendor.

Optimus Futures

Broker whose Quantower-derived Optimus Flow order-flow platform is free for clients, paired with $41–45/mo non-pro CQG/Rithmic depth bundles. The zero-software-cost order-flow stack.

ORATS

Options analytics API with smoothed IV surfaces, 500+ indicators, and history to 2007 — Delayed API $99/mo, Live $199/mo. Best-value parameterized vol surfaces on the SPX/VIX proxy complex; no futures options.

Orbital Insight

Satellite-analytics pioneer acquired by Privateer in May 2024 after financial distress; its trader-facing oil product's status is unclear. The catalog's advice: do not build on it — use Kayrros or Ursa.

pandas_market_calendars

MIT-licensed Python library with dedicated CME Globex session calendars (equities, energy-and-metals modules verified in source). The programmatic session/holiday layer for backtests — audit annually against CME's official holiday calendar.

Petro-Logistics

Geneva tanker-tracking pioneer whose OPEC Production Monitor estimates member output ahead of the MOMR (used by the OPEC Secretariat itself). Contact sales; Reuters/Bloomberg monthly OPEC surveys carry the gist free.

Portara

The deepest intraday futures archive anywhere — CQG-based daily data from 1899, intraday/tick from 1987, with a Roll Manager for custom continuous series. Contact sales, unofficially thousands of USD per portfolio; the multi-decade-intraday tier above every retail option.

Primary Vision

Publishes the weekly frac spread count — a completions-side supply indicator that leads production more tightly than rig count. National count is free via social posts; basin detail is paid (contact sales).

QuantConnect

Cloud backtesting platform whose AlgoSeek US Futures dataset (tick to daily since May 2009, 157 liquid contracts) is rentable inside the free LEAN tier instead of bought. Data is platform-bound; paid tiers priced via configurator.

Quantower

Multi-connection trading platform with DOM Surface liquidity heatmap and footprint tooling; free limited version, All-in-One $70/mo (≈$49 annual). Optimus clients get its derivative (Optimus Flow) free.

Quiver Quantitative

Retail-priced alt-data aggregator (congress trading, government contracts, WSB sentiment, corporate-jet tracking, retail flow) with a REST API at $30/mo Hobbyist / $75/mo Trader. The cheapest broad alt-data API; no commercial-use rights below the custom tier.

RavenPack

The reference institutional news-analytics vendor: entity-level events and sentiment over Dow Jones content back to 2000, with commodity coverage relevant to our energy/metals legs. Contact sales (~$20–40k academic, unofficial); WRDS is the academic side door.

RBN Energy

Daily US energy-markets blog with genuinely educational free posts on Cushing/Permian/USGC plumbing; premium Backstage Pass ~$1,320/yr (unverified, site bot-blocks). High-value context, not data.

Reddit

Retail-sentiment raw material: the official Data API is free for non-commercial use (~100 queries/min), commercial access is $0.24/1k calls (unofficial) with manual approval, and historical research runs on Pushshift-format Academic Torrents dumps (2005–2025). API terms prohibit ML training without consent.

Rithmic

Low-latency order-routing and market-data infrastructure resold by brokers (AMP, Optimus, EdgeClear) — the standard retail-accessible source of true CME MBO. About $70/mo all-in for non-pro live L3 ($25 connection + $45 depth bundle); real-time only, no research archive.

RS Metrics

Satellite measurement of outdoor base-metal storage and smelter activity (MetalSignals, packages from $5,000) distributed via CME DataMine and Bloomberg. No gold/silver coverage — macro-indirect for the silver contracts' industrial-demand half.

S&P Global

Two roles: S&P Global PMI publishes the flash US PMI (the only early-month PMI read) as free press releases with full history subscription-only, and Commodity Insights (Platts) sells the physical crude benchmark assessments (Dated Brent). Free headlines suffice; both data products are contact-sales institutional.

SerpApi

Commercial scraper API that is the practical programmatic route to Google Trends since pytrends died — free 250 searches/month, Starter $25/mo. Vendor absorbs the ToS gray zone ("US Legal Shield"); window-stitching remains your problem.

SGE

The Shanghai Gold Exchange publishes benchmark AM/PM fixes (from April 2016) and trading/vault-withdrawal reports free on its English site — the raw material for the Shanghai–London premium, a key Chinese-demand signal for gold. Site is flaky outside China; scraping is fragile.

SHFE

The Shanghai Futures Exchange publishes free weekly gold/silver warehouse stocks — the third leg of the global visible-stock triangle with COMEX and LBMA, and the place East–West silver migration shows up first. English site sits behind a WAF; MetalCharts mirrors it.

Sierra Chart

Trader-grade platform whose in-house Denali feed is the catalog's best-value real-time CME depth stack: packages $36–56/mo plus non-pro exchange fees ($13.50/exchange with depth, $40.50 all-four bundle), with MBO on package 12 and ~180 days of downloadable depth history. Also bundles 1-minute history to June 2008 and tick to ~2011; data lives in platform-format files, so export takes work.

Silver Institute

Publishes the annual World Silver Survey (researched by Metals Focus) and supply/demand tables as free PDFs back to 1990 — the canonical silver fundamentals baseline for QI/SIC. Annual frequency; regime context, not signals.

Similarweb

Web/app traffic panel for digital-economy nowcasts on the mega-caps that dominate NQ/ES. Contact sales (~$199/mo self-serve, unofficial); marginal for an index-futures project.

Société Générale

Publishes the free daily SG Trend Indicator — a transparent trend-following model tracking the SG Trend Index (0.75 correlation) across equity-index, crude, and gold futures. The free CTA-positioning/crowding proxy for exactly our symbols; commercial licensing on contact.

SpaceKnow

Small satellite-analytics firm (activity indices, China manufacturing heritage) still operating per a June 2026 Satellogic partnership. Contact sales; niche and continuity-risky.

SPDR Gold Shares

State Street's GLD publishes a free daily historical archive XLSX (from inception 2004-11-18, verified with 5,645 rows) of tonnes-in-trust, NAV, and premiums — the workhorse daily gold ETF flow series and best single Western gold-demand proxy feeding 1OZ/QO. Machine-readable and not bot-blocked, unlike CME's metals files.

SpiderRock

Institutional real-time and historical options analytics — NBBO IV, no-arbitrage fitted surfaces, greeks — across US equities and CME futures options. Contact sales; the production-grade live futures-vol-surface tier if the project ever scales.

Spire Maritime

Satellite-AIS constellation data, acquired by Kpler (April 2025, ~$241M) with the legacy pricing page still up; reportedly >$10k/mo (unofficial, unverified). Raw AIS for build-your-own flow analytics — buy analytics instead at this scale.

SpotGamma

The leading retail/pro dealer-gamma analytics service for the SPX complex (levels, HIRO real-time flow, TRACE surfaces) at $89–299/mo, mapping directly onto ES/MES and NQ via QQQ. SPX-centric — energy/metals coverage is thin, which is why Menthor Q wins the core-stack slot.

SqueezeMetrics

Gives away a daily SPX DIX (dark-pool sentiment) + GEX (gamma exposure) CSV back to 2011 — verified live, 3,820 rows — while the full stock-level dataset costs $720/mo. The free file is a 15-year dealer-positioning feature set for ES/MES regime models.

StockNewsAPI

US-market news API with coarse per-article sentiment labels from $19.99/mo. A budget alternative in the Marketaux/Alpha Vantage tier.

StockPulse

German social/news buzz and AI sentiment vendor distributed through IBKR — buzz texts free, AI daily trend-signal reports $80/mo. Equity-centric; cheap add-on inside an existing IBKR account.

StockTwits

Finance-native social network whose cashtag streams with self-declared bullish/bearish tags were the cleanest retail-sentiment signal — but public API registration is closed and access is now enterprise contact-sales. Use archived academic datasets instead.

Stooq

Free Polish data site with downloadable daily history including continuous futures symbols (ES.F etc.) going back 20+ years. Zero-cost prototyping data with undocumented roll methodology and anti-bot friction — never a production source.

Swiss Federal Customs

BAZG's Swiss-Impex database publishes monthly gold/silver trade flows by tariff line and counterparty country since 1988 — the best public tracker of physical metal moving between London, Switzerland, China, India, and the US. Free with attribution; commercial use needs permission.

TankerTrackers

Boutique tanker-intelligence service specializing in sanctioned/dark-fleet crude flows using imagery plus AIS. At $1,000/mo (Corporate Lite, $10,000/yr; retail tier closed since 2023) it is the cheapest named-price tanker intel — still the single most expensive line item contemplated in this catalog's retail universe.

ThetaData

Budget options/indices tick-data API for retail quants: options history 4/8/12 years at $40/$80/$160 per month, with SPX/VIX/RUT index coverage. The cheap deep-history route for SPX/VIX options signal research; no CME futures options.

TickData

OneMarketData's institutional cleaned tick archive — futures trades back to the 1980s–90s per contract (ES from Sep-97, CL from Jan-87, GC from Jan-84), quotes from 2010, with TickWrite tooling and vendor roll dates. Contact sales at institutional prices; the research-grade deep-tick tier.

Tier1 Alpha

Daily systematic-flows research (dealer gamma, vol-control and leveraged-ETF flow estimates) sold via Hedgeye at $49.95/mo or $449/yr. The cheapest institutional-style flow narrative for the equity-index legs; models, not raw data.

Tiingo

News API whose articles carry both published and crawled timestamps — rare and valuable for point-in-time-correct sentiment backtests — riding on a $30/mo Power plan plus an approval-gated news add-on. Retail plans cap queryable history at 3 months; deep archives are institutional.

Tradier

Brokerage whose free-with-account REST API serves real-time SPX/VIX option chains with ORATS-powered greeks (updated hourly). A zero-cost live options-chain feed for prototyping; no futures options.

Trading Economics

Commercial one-stop calendar + 20M-indicator API with licensed ISM/PMI headline display and streaming actuals. Pricing is sales-gated (unofficially ~$149–299/mo) — the pragmatic Econoday alternative if the project outgrows scraped calendars.

Trading Technologies

Professional futures execution platform (MD Trader, Autospreader) with MBO-capable internals, unofficially $775–1,750/mo. An order of magnitude above retail order-flow stacks; institutional execution tier only.

TradingHours

Commercial trading-hours and holiday API/data covering 900+ markets at $50–150/mo, licensed per application for internal use. Buys SLA-backed session maintenance; for CME alone, free sources plus pandas_market_calendars substitute.

Tradingster

Free web dashboard charting CFTC COT reports, including the micro E-mini contracts. Zero-setup lookups; repackaged public data with longevity risk.

TradingView

Charting platform with all CME futures, continuous 1! symbols with a back-adjustment toggle, and manual CSV export on paid plans (prices unverified this session; real-time CME is a paid add-on). Visual research only — automation is against ToS.

Tradovate

Cloud futures broker (NinjaTrader group) with commission-tier plans ($0/$99/mo/$1,499 lifetime), free L1 CME data with a live account, L2 at $41/bundle, and an API exposing chart history (minute bars to 2017). Execution venue and cheap API-first retail depth; not a history archive.

TSA

Publishes daily airport checkpoint passenger counts (2019+) each weekday morning — a free high-frequency jet-fuel demand proxy for the crude complex. Headcount is not fuel burn; use as a nowcast input.

University of Michigan

The Surveys of Consumers (sentiment + inflation expectations, monthly since 1978) are free after each 10:00 a.m. release via the data portal and FRED; real-time/embargoed access is a sponsor product at contact-sales prices. The 2024 methodology shift created level breaks.

Unusual Whales

Retail options-flow/dark-pool platform with GEX and OI analytics at roughly $48–50/mo (unofficial) plus an API from $150/mo. Budget SPX-complex flow context for ES/NQ; heuristic flow labeling, equity options only.

Ursa Space

SAR-satellite oil-storage measurement (radar sees through clouds), delivering a Monday-morning Cushing estimate two days before EIA with claimed 99% correlation. Contact sales — reportedly cheaper than Genscape but still institutional; structurally blind to fixed-roof tanks and caverns.

US Mint and Perth Mint

The two mints' bullion sales figures (American Eagle ounces to 1986; Perth monthly updates) are free retail-demand proxies for exactly the buyer CME cited when launching 1OZ and SIC. US Mint CSVs 403-block datacenter IPs — same scraping caveat as CME.

US Treasury

Free machine-readable rates and supply data: FiscalData's no-key REST API (auction results to 1979, debt, TGA), TreasuryDirect's upcoming-auction API, and the daily par yield curve CSVs (1990+). Public domain; watch for schema drift as new tenors appear.

USGS

The National Minerals Information Center publishes public-domain gold/silver mine-supply statistics (Mineral Commodity Summaries 1996–2026, monthly surveys currently paused). Clean priors for supply models at annual cadence.

Vanda Research

VandaTrack measures intraday US retail net flows for 12,000+ tickers — the press-cited standard for "retail bought the dip." Contact sales, institutional budget; the free Nasdaq RTAT10 top-10 feed is the poor man's substitute.

VesselFinder

AIS tracking platform with REST APIs and raw NMEA streams at quote-based pricing, plus a free web map. An alternative AIS quote to MarineTraffic.

VIX Central

Free single-maintainer site visualizing the VX futures term structure by date. Quick contango/backwardation reads without building a pipeline; no API, no SLA.

Volland

Wizard of Ops' dealer-positioning dashboard exposing aggregate charm/vanna/gamma exposures beyond simple GEX, tiered by update frequency from $150/mo (EOD) to $1,000/mo (5-minute). SPX-centric; pricing from the June 2024 user guide — confirm at signup.

Volumetrica

Order-flow platform pair (VolSys/VolBook) using MBO data for iceberg/stop detection, available through AMP and EdgeClear. Pricing page 404'd during verification — Unknown, verify before considering.

Vortexa

Energy cargo-tracking and freight analytics, Kpler's main competitor (12,800+ tankers, 320k+ voyages/yr). Contact sales at institutional prices; an alternative quote for waterborne crude flow data.

Wikimedia

Free REST API for per-article Wikipedia pageviews (2015+) — backtestable retail-attention features ("Stock market", "Gold", "Recession") without Google Trends' rescaling pain. CC-licensed, no key, ~1-day lag.

Wood Mackenzie

Owner of the legacy Genscape Cushing Crude Oil Storage Report — tank-by-tank infrared/aerial measurement of the WTI delivery point, twice weekly, two days ahead of EIA, subscribed to by "ten of the top ten hedge funds" (vendor claim) and even by EIA itself. Contact sales at institutional prices; retail's edge is knowing its release rhythm and tracking leaked headlines.

World Gold Council

Goldhub is the free one-stop gold fundamentals portal: quarterly Gold Demand Trends with Excel tables, monthly central-bank statistics from IMF data, weekly global ETF flows, prices from 1978, and India/China premium context. Free (registration for some files); demand estimates are produced with Metals Focus.

X (Twitter)

The X API is now pure pay-per-usage ($0.005 per post read, no free tier) — $5,000 per million posts makes bulk sentiment mining uneconomic here. At most, narrow curated macro/energy account streams; historical continuity broke with the 2023 repricing.

Yahoo Finance

Front-month futures quotes and bars via the unofficial yfinance library — free, with hard intraday-history caps (~60 days sub-hourly, ~730 days hourly) and an undocumented splice for continuous symbols. Exploration and sanity checks only; never for backtests that cross roll dates.

Last updated: