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[US] Brokerage with decent API? (self.personalfinance)

submitted 11 months ago by tburkhol to c/[email protected]

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Looking for a brokerage with functional, individual API access to, at least, account positions, balances, and equity/fund/bond prices. Used to be happy with TDA, but they got bought by Scwab, whose API has been "pending" for six months.

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[–] tburkhol 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

As long as it's actually a TDA account, the API will work. They're transitioning all those accounts to Schwab, though. Once they transition your account, you no longer have TDA account, so no TDA credentials to authenticate with the API.

[–] tpWinthropeIII 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Yes but I've read that Schwab will have its own API. I read that within the last two months. I've also been told as much by a rep, with disclaimers of course. That was a year ago.

Either way, I expect schwab to have an API. Why else buy TD?

[–] tburkhol 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I've registered on Schwab's developer site, which has listed 'individual trader api' as 'coming by the end of 2023' as long as I've been aware. They do have a slew of active professional APIs, but those are contract-dependent and not fit for (my) purpose.

I got forcibly migrated a couple months ago, and also expected them just to migrate TDA's API to their own system, but I'm losing faith in their 'end of 2023' promise. I haven't been able to get any more detail on their timeline/progress, although the developer portal is responsive. It's frustrating. There's nothing magical about Schwab's website, fees, trading, or account services, so if I can manage my frustration and restore my data access by migrating, I'm open.

The options my own search has turned up are Alpaca and Interactive Brokers. Alpaca seems pretty sketchy; still in the 'startup' phase. IBKR seems legit, but isn't one I'd heard of before. I was hoping someone on social media might have had great experience somewhere and be ready to share. Or even that some brokerage might be watching for the opportunity to advertise, even on a community with barely 100 monthly users.

[–] tpWinthropeIII 2 points 11 months ago

Interactive Brokers is also my next choice. Although, beware that you have to install Java runtime from Oracle in order to be able to log in to they servers. Java runtime environment has seen many beaches of security in the past, particularly the Internet was still in adolescence. Oracle claims to have solved those but this needs to be verified.

I'm waiting for Schwab mainly because, as it turns out, there is magic there. Namely, our assets are protected from online fraud. I'm sure there are limits to that protection. And that protection has applied to their normal online accounts. Will it apply to API accounts? We will have to reread the fine print when it's final.