# Financial Literature Data Catalog

> A catalog of free financial data sources — macro, rates, FX, equities, filings, volatility, crypto — with the broker's notes: which source answers which question, how to read what it returns, and how to pull it into Python, Excel or Sheets. Checked weekly.

Editorial: Financial Literature — Learn to read the numbers. These pages belong to the free weekday market-reading papers (Asia, Americas, Europe editions; sign up at https://financialliterature.com/asia/#/portal/signup).
Each source page states when to use the source, how to read what it returns (units, revisions, traps) and how to pull it (Python, Excel, Sheets), plus a series-to-question map. Status is checked weekly by an identified bot; nothing is redistributed — every recipe pulls from the source itself. Educational only; no investment advice.

## Data Catalog

- [FRED](https://financialliterature.com/data/fred/): Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The macro library: 840,000 series, one id each, with the longest histories on the free web. Best for: Is the yield curve inverted?; What did US CPI do last month?; Any US macro series with a long, stable history. CSV: no key · API: free key, 120 requests/min. Licence: FRED terms of use: most series free to use with attribution; a minority of third-party series restrict redistribution — the series page says which.
- [BLS API](https://financialliterature.com/data/bls/): US Bureau of Labor Statistics. CPI, jobs and wages straight from the agency that measures them — before FRED mirrors them. Best for: What did US CPI do last month, from the agency?; Payrolls and the unemployment rate on release morning. No key: 25 queries/day, 10 years per query · free key: 500/day, 20 years. Licence: US government work, public domain. Cite BLS and the series id.
- [BEA API](https://financialliterature.com/data/bea/): US Bureau of Economic Analysis. GDP, PCE and personal income from the agency that compiles the national accounts. Best for: What was real GDP growth last quarter, by component?; PCE inflation — the Fed's preferred gauge. Free key · 100 requests/min, 100 MB/min. Licence: US government work, public domain. Cite BEA, the table and the vintage date.
- [US Treasury data](https://financialliterature.com/data/treasury/): US Department of the Treasury. The daily par yield curve as a CSV, and the debt, interest and auction tables behind it. Best for: The whole yield curve today, every maturity; How much interest does the US pay on its debt?. No key · no published limit; FiscalData paginates at 10,000 rows. Licence: US government work, public domain.
- [NY Fed Markets Data](https://financialliterature.com/data/nyfed/): Federal Reserve Bank of New York. SOFR, EFFR and the repo rates, published by the desk that computes them. Best for: What is the overnight funding rate today?; Is there stress in repo?. No key · no published limit. Licence: Public; cite the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
- [SEC EDGAR APIs](https://financialliterature.com/data/sec/): US Securities and Exchange Commission. Fundamentals as filed, every filing's index, and insider trades — from the regulator, not a reseller. Best for: What did the company actually report?; Who is selling their own stock? (Form 4). No key · 10 requests/second, declared User-Agent required. Licence: US government work, public domain; filings are public records.
- [Cboe index data](https://financialliterature.com/data/cboe/): Cboe Global Markets. The VIX and its family, as daily CSVs from the exchange that computes them. Best for: How scared is the market now versus 2008 or 2020?; Is a move in stocks confirmed by options?. No key · static CSV files. Licence: Cboe data terms: free for personal and research use; redistribution of the index values requires a licence.
- [CFTC Commitments of Traders](https://financialliterature.com/data/cftc/): US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Who is long and who is short every futures market, weekly, since 1986. Best for: Are speculators crowded into a trade?; How positioned are funds in the yen, gold, or 10-year futures?. No key · Socrata API, 1,000 rows per page by default. Licence: US government work, public domain.
- [EIA API](https://financialliterature.com/data/eia/): US Energy Information Administration. Oil, gas and power prices, stocks and production — the energy side of every inflation story. Best for: What is WTI or Brent doing, from the official series?; Are crude stocks building? (the Wednesday number). Free key · 5,000 rows per request. Licence: US government work, public domain.
- [ECB Data Portal](https://financialliterature.com/data/ecb/): European Central Bank. The FRED of Europe: euro-area rates, inflation, money and bank lending, SDMX under the hood. Best for: Euro-area policy rate, HICP and money supply from the source; ECB reference exchange rates, daily. No key · fair use; long queries can time out. Licence: ECB data are free to use and redistribute with attribution ('Source: ECB').
- [Eurostat API](https://financialliterature.com/data/eurostat/): Eurostat. GDP, unemployment and prices for every EU member state, one dataset code each. Best for: Compare inflation or unemployment across EU countries; Euro-area flash GDP and HICP on release day. No key · fair use. Licence: Eurostat data are free to reuse with attribution (© European Union, Eurostat).
- [Bank of England Database](https://financialliterature.com/data/boe/): Bank of England. Bank Rate since 1694, gilt yields, sterling and UK money and credit — as CSV by series code. Best for: Bank Rate history and the current level; Sterling effective rate and gilt yields from the Bank. No key · CSV per query, browser export for bulk. Licence: Open Government Licence v3: free to use and redistribute with attribution.
- [BOJ Time-Series Data](https://financialliterature.com/data/boj/): Bank of Japan. Japan's policy rate, JGB yields, yen and money — as table CSVs from the Bank of Japan. Best for: Yen per dollar and the BOJ's own rate series; Japanese money stock and bank lending. No key · table CSVs, no published limit. Licence: Free to use with attribution to the Bank of Japan; check individual tables for third-party data.
- [BOK ECOS](https://financialliterature.com/data/bok/): Bank of Korea. Korea's base rate, won, CPI and household credit — the Bank of Korea's own statistics API. Best for: Korea's base rate and CPI from the source; Won per dollar with a long daily history. Free key · 10,000 calls/day; the 'sample' key answers at most 10 rows per query. Licence: Free to use with attribution to the Bank of Korea (Korea Open Government Licence type 1).
- [China NBS data portal](https://financialliterature.com/data/nbs/): National Bureau of Statistics of China. China's GDP, CPI, PMI, retail and industrial data — the official portal, browser export only. Best for: China's official GDP, CPI, PMI and retail sales; Monthly activity data on release day. No key · the portal refuses scripted pulls (403); export from the browser. Licence: Official statistics; free to cite with attribution to NBS.
- [SingStat Table Builder API](https://financialliterature.com/data/singstat/): Department of Statistics Singapore. Singapore's CPI, GDP, jobs and trade by table id — no key. Best for: Singapore CPI and GDP from the statistics office; Retail sales, trade and employment for the Singapore desk. No key · fair use. Licence: Singapore Open Data Licence: free to use and redistribute with attribution.
- [HKMA API](https://financialliterature.com/data/hkma/): Hong Kong Monetary Authority. HIBOR, the base rate, the aggregate balance and the HKD peg's plumbing — a clean JSON API. Best for: Is the Hong Kong dollar at the weak side of the peg?; HIBOR against the US rate. No key · 100 records per page. Licence: Free to use with attribution to the HKMA.
- [BNM OpenAPI](https://financialliterature.com/data/bnm/): Bank Negara Malaysia. Malaysia's OPR, ringgit rates, KLIBOR and reserves — a documented JSON API with no key. Best for: Malaysia's policy rate and its history; Ringgit per dollar, daily, from the central bank. No key · versioned Accept header required. Licence: Free to use with attribution to Bank Negara Malaysia.
- [RBI DBIE](https://financialliterature.com/data/rbi/): Reserve Bank of India. India's repo rate, rupee, inflation and banking statistics — the RBI's database, browser export. Best for: India's repo rate and the RBI's reference exchange rates; Bank credit and deposit growth. No key · browser export (the portal is a JavaScript app). Licence: Free to use with attribution to the Reserve Bank of India.
- [RBA statistical tables](https://financialliterature.com/data/rba/): Reserve Bank of Australia. Australia's cash rate, yields and exchange rates as stable CSV tables. Best for: The RBA cash rate target and history; AUD/USD and the trade-weighted index from the source. No key · static CSVs; a declared User-Agent is required. Licence: Creative Commons BY 4.0: free to use and redistribute with attribution to the RBA.
- [Nikkei Indexes](https://financialliterature.com/data/nikkei/): Nikkei Inc.. The Nikkei 225's daily closes from the index publisher, as a CSV. Best for: Nikkei 225 daily closes without a market-data account; The index's own valuation figures (PER, dividend yield). No key · recent daily CSV; longer history by year from the archive page. Licence: Nikkei's terms allow personal use; republishing index values requires a licence from Nikkei.
- [OpenDART](https://financialliterature.com/data/opendart/): Financial Supervisory Service (Korea). Korean company filings and financial statements — the EDGAR of Korea, with a free key. Best for: What did a Korean company report, from the filing?; Every disclosure a Korean company made this month. Free key · 20,000 calls/day. Licence: Public disclosure data; free to use with attribution to DART/FSS.
- [BIS Data Portal](https://financialliterature.com/data/bis/): Bank for International Settlements. Policy rates for 38 economies, credit, property prices and effective exchange rates on one SDMX API. Best for: Compare policy rates across countries on one axis; Credit-to-GDP and property prices, cross-country. No key · fair use. Licence: BIS terms: free to use and redistribute with attribution; some series carry national restrictions noted in the metadata.
- [IMF Data](https://financialliterature.com/data/imf/): International Monetary Fund. Cross-country macro from the IMF's datasets (IFS, WEO, BOP, GFS) on a new SDMX API. Best for: The WEO forecasts for any country; Balance of payments and reserves, cross-country. No key · fair use; the new API is still being completed. Licence: IMF data are free to use with attribution; WEO forecasts are IMF staff projections.
- [World Bank Indicators API](https://financialliterature.com/data/worldbank/): World Bank. Annual macro for every country with one indicator code — the quickest cross-country table on the web. Best for: Inflation, growth or unemployment for 200 countries in one call; Monthly commodity prices (the Pink Sheet). No key · 15,000 rows per page. Licence: CC BY 4.0 for most datasets: free to use and redistribute with attribution.
- [OECD Data Explorer](https://financialliterature.com/data/oecd/): OECD. Leading indicators, CPI, unemployment and rates for the OECD's members and partners, harmonised. Best for: Composite leading indicators for the big economies; Harmonised unemployment and CPI across the OECD. No key · fair use. Licence: OECD terms: free to use and redistribute with attribution; some datasets from third parties are restricted.
- [Stooq](https://financialliterature.com/data/stooq/): Stooq (Poland). Decades of daily closes for indices, stocks, FX and commodities — no key, no sign-up, no licence. Best for: Thirty years of daily closes for an index or an FX pair, no sign-up; A quick price series to put beside a macro series. No key · unpublished daily hit limit per IP; the CSV URL then returns an HTML page. Licence: No licence is published. Hobbyist-grade: fine for a notebook or a chart, not for a product or redistribution.
- [Twelve Data](https://financialliterature.com/data/twelvedata/): Twelve Data. Stocks, FX and crypto bars from one tidy API — the cleanest schema among the free tiers. Best for: Intraday bars across stocks, FX and crypto from one API; A clean OHLC series with a documented schema. Free: 800 credits/day, 8/min · paid tiers from about $30/month. Licence: Twelve Data terms: personal and internal use on the free tier; redistribution and commercial display need a paid plan.
- [Alpha Vantage](https://financialliterature.com/data/alphavantage/): Alpha Vantage. The best-known free stock API — daily bars, FX, some fundamentals — with a small daily quota. Best for: A daily price series with the most tutorials on the web; Company overview and statements for a US ticker without EDGAR parsing. Free: 25 requests/day (at the time of writing) · premium from $50/month. Licence: Alpha Vantage terms: personal use on the free key; commercial display needs a premium plan.
- [EODHD](https://financialliterature.com/data/eodhd/): EOD Historical Data. End-of-day prices for 150,000 tickers on 60 exchanges, plus fundamentals — a free tier for testing. Best for: Non-US exchanges (Korea, Japan, Europe) from one API on a paid plan; Fundamentals and prices for one ticker in the same schema. Free: 20 calls/day, US data only, 1 year of history · paid from about $20/month. Licence: EODHD terms: personal use on the free tier; redistribution and public display need a paid plan.
- [Polygon.io](https://financialliterature.com/data/polygon/): Polygon.io. US stocks, options and crypto with a developer-grade API; the free tier is end-of-day only. Best for: A well-documented US equities API to build on; Option chains and aggregates on a paid plan. Free: 5 calls/min, end-of-day, 2 years of history · paid from about $30/month. Licence: Polygon terms: personal use on the free tier; display and redistribution need a paid plan and, for some data, exchange agreements.
- [yfinance](https://financialliterature.com/data/yfinance/): Community (unofficial Yahoo Finance). The notebook favourite: one line for a ticker's history or option chain — unofficial, throttled, and not for jobs. Best for: A quick look at one ticker, option chain included; Prototyping before you choose a licensed source. No key · Yahoo throttles (429) aggressively; no service level. Licence: Yahoo's terms prohibit automated and commercial use of its data; yfinance is a community scraper with no licence to grant. A notebook, not a product.
- [CoinGecko API](https://financialliterature.com/data/coingecko/): CoinGecko. Crypto prices, market caps and volumes for 15,000 coins — the free tier needs no key for basic calls. Best for: Bitcoin or any coin's daily price and market cap with history; Total crypto market cap and dominance. Public: ~30 calls/min, daily data · demo key: 10,000 calls/month · paid tiers above. Licence: CoinGecko terms: attribution required; commercial use and redistribution need a paid plan.
- [Binance public API](https://financialliterature.com/data/binance/): Binance. Candles down to one minute for every spot pair on the largest exchange — no key for market data. Best for: One-minute candles for a crypto pair; Order-book depth and recent trades. No key for market data · 6,000 request weight/min per IP. Licence: Binance API terms: market data for personal use; redistribution restricted.
- [Kenneth French Data Library](https://financialliterature.com/data/french/): Dartmouth (Kenneth R. French). The Fama–French factors and portfolios since 1926 — the academic benchmark for 'did this strategy beat the market'. Best for: Market, size, value and momentum factor returns since 1926; Industry portfolios to benchmark a sector. No key · static zipped CSVs. Licence: Free for academic and personal use with attribution; the library states its data are not to be redistributed.
- [Shiller long-run data](https://financialliterature.com/data/shiller/): Yale (Robert J. Shiller). Stock prices, dividends, earnings, CPI and long rates since 1871 — the CAPE's home. Best for: Is the market expensive by the standards of 150 years? (CAPE); Real stock returns and real rates over the very long run. No key · one Excel file. Licence: Free for personal and academic use with attribution to Robert Shiller; not for redistribution.
- [Frankfurter](https://financialliterature.com/data/frankfurter/): Frankfurter (open source, ECB data). ECB reference rates as a clean JSON API — thirty currencies, history to 1999, no key. Best for: A daily FX series for any major pair with one URL; Converting a series into another currency. No key · no published limit; self-hostable. Licence: MIT-licensed software serving ECB reference rates; the ECB permits free use with attribution.
- [Bank of Canada Valet API](https://financialliterature.com/data/boc/): Bank of Canada. Canada's policy rate, CAD exchange rates and yields as a simple JSON/CSV API. Best for: USD/CAD daily from the central bank; The Bank of Canada's policy rate and bond yields. No key · fair use. Licence: Bank of Canada terms: free to use and redistribute with attribution.

## Compare, questions, changelog

- [Compare](https://financialliterature.com/data/compare/): tick any 2–3 sources; the page computes joint coverage, frequency and history intersection, access, the analyses the combination unlocks, the questions it answers and the gaps. Curated: Policy rate and inflation for a country; Recession watch: the curve and the claims; Is the won weak or the dollar strong?.
- [Questions](https://financialliterature.com/data/questions/): 78 questions, each naming the series that answers it and how to read the result.
- [Changelog](https://financialliterature.com/data/changelog/): weekly sweep of every source; what broke, moved or was added.
- [How it is checked](https://financialliterature.com/data/about/): identified bot, weekly, states OK/slow/degraded/down/unverified; licences; no redistribution; corrections.

## Site

- [Index](https://financialliterature.com/data/): overview and how the tools fit together
- [Sitemap](https://financialliterature.com/data/sitemap.xml)
- [Newsletter](https://financialliterature.com/asia/): the publication these tools belong to

## Attribution

When citing, attribute to "Financial Literature" (https://financialliterature.com/data/). Contact: hello@financialliterature.com.