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?
It starts with about 120 of the largest US companies and popular ETFs such as SPY, QQQ and GLD, on daily candles. Scroll down to load more, up to about 600: roughly the S&P 500, popular growth stocks and around 75 ETFs.
Is the data real-time?
Alpaca’s free data is 15 minutes behind the market. Daily figures update through the trading day.