Frequently asked questions
Why does the stock screener need an Alpaca key?
Stock data is licensed, so it needs a key. Alpaca’s free market-data key allows 200 requests a minute and returns many stocks per request, which makes a screener possible for free. Other free plans only allow a handful of requests a minute.
Which stocks does it scan?
About 120 of the largest US companies plus popular ETFs such as SPY, QQQ and GLD, on daily candles.
Is the data real-time?
Alpaca’s free data is 15 minutes behind the market. Daily figures update through the trading day.