Intrinio Stock Options API

Intrinio’s stock options API delivers options contracts for developers building sophisticated trading applications, investment platforms that need to display options data, and investment firms that need robust streaming options solutions. In this article, we will outline the main features of Intrinio’s options API and highlight some of the reasons you might use Intrinio’s option API over other solutions.

You can read the API documentation, or contact our team to get set up with a free trial.

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What is an Options API?

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Most options traders use terminal solutions to visually look at options data, conduct research, and place trades. Behind the scenes, most tools such as Robinhood, Trade Station, Interactive Brokers, and Fidelity use an options API to get the data they need. 

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An options API is used by a developer to integrate options data from a source, such as options exchanges like CBOE and OPRA, and then to display that data inside of the application traders look at on their computers. 

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Most individual investors are satisfied with accessing data in this way because a developer has done the hard work to access an Options API and then process and display real-time, delayed, or historical data in a meaningful way such as a chart of historical prices or with a display of implied volatility. 

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Businesses that provide trading solutions, however, need an options API to get the raw data that goes into the applications traders use to buy and sell options contracts. 

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What is included in the Intrinio Options API? 

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The Intrinio Options API includes three main categories of options data as well as numerous categories of derived options data and a stock prices API. 

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Historical Options API

• This data comes directly from the OPRA exchange and represents the end-of-day closing prices for options contracts. If your business wants to create a chart of historical options prices for backtesting or display, this data is critical.

Real-Time Options API

• Options contracts update throughout the trading day. This options API provides the most recent prices for options contracts in both REST and WebSocket API formats. This allows developers to show the most recent prices of options inside their applications. 

15-Min Delayed Options API

• There are significant exchange fees associated with displaying real-time options API data inside an application. These fees can be eliminated, or greatly reduced by using 15-minute delayed options data. Intrinio stores options prices for 15 minutes so that businesses can query only delayed data and display it to their users. This can be done in part of an application and used in conjunction with real-time data or as a starting point when just building an application. 

Derived Options API 

• Options traders need numerous derived metrics to make sense of options data. These metrics are referred to as the greeks because they are represented with greek letters. In addition to the greeks, the Intrinio Options API provides a closely related metric, implied volatility. Additionally, bars and snapshots are available to make the data easier to access and visualize. Finally, Intrinio identifies unusual options activity by tagging trades that occur off the exchange, are very large, or are split across exchanges.

Stock Prices API

• Options contracts are closely related to stock prices which determine whether a contract is ‘in the money.’ The Intrinio options API also includes stock price data required to analyze options moniness, data that is often displayed alongside options data in applications. 

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Why use Intrinio’s Options API over other solutions?

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Intrinio is constantly building features into its API that make it easier to integrate, more affordable to access, and more useful to the end users that will view the data. Here are just a few of them.

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SDKs In Numerous Languages

• Hiring a developer to integrate an options API is one of the most expensive parts of building an options application or web app. Intrinio offers SDKs in numerous languages that cut down on the time it takes for that developer to do their job. This saves money and time, allowing businesses to focus on their applications not their integrations.

World Class Documentation

• Similar to the SDKs, Intrinio has great documentation. This makes it easier for developers to understand and work with Intrinio’s API. Ultimately, this gets them to the data they need faster

Exchange Approval Support

• Using an options API requires exchange approval. Getting that approval can be tricky and requires a lot of paperwork. Intrinio’s support team is here to help, making sure you get the right approvals quickly without paying more than you should in fees.

A Full-Time Dev Ops Team

• The options exchanges that generate stock options data can make mistakes. The same is true for the cloud service providers that deliver the data. Hardware fails, code deploys knock customers offline, and fields change formats or names. Intrinio’s team of expert software engineers keeps an eye on this so you don’t have to worry. If there is a problem Intrinio is on it and you don’t have to figure it out alone. 

Filtering out Useless Data

• Stock options APIs push a lot of data because the options market is much, much bigger than the stock market. Processing that volume requires a lot of server capacity, and that capacity isn’t cheap. Intrinio’s Options API filters out useless data that options exchange generate. This reduces the throughput of the API dramatically without eliminating any important trade data. This cuts down on your server costs big time.

Preprocessing Derived Metrics

• In addition to filtering the options API, Intrinio preprocesses dozens of metrics on its own servers so users don’t need to on their end. This cuts down on server costs and developer costs since engineers don’t have to write the code to derive important metrics.

Developer Level Support 

• Even with SDKs and great documentation, you will have questions about Intrinio’s options API. Intrinio assigns developers to each user so that you can get the answers you need straight from the experts. This saves time and means that you can get your integration up and running faster.

Delayed Data For Testing and Display

• Intrinio provides a 15-minute delayed version of its API that is substantially equivalent to its real-time options API. This means you can test and integrate the more affordable delayed feed and upgrade to the real-time feed whenever you are ready. Additionally, the 15-minute delayed feed can be displayed at a lower cost, enabling you to show options data in more places in your application. 

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