Alpha Vantage is a free data source that provides both realtime and historical data. It supports stocks, forex and digital/crypto currency data. We have found that the data provided by Alpha Vantage is of better quality than Yahoo Finance but Alpha Vantage has one big downside: you are restricted to 5 API calls per 60 seconds.
Stock Portfolio Organizer provides two different data feed plugins that utilize Alpha Vantage: one plugin for realtime data and the other for historical data. To use an Alpha Vantage data feed plugin you first need to obtain a free API key by following the following link. Once you have an API key, open the ‘Data Feeds’ window which should look similar to the one below:
Next, click ‘New’ then select which Alpha Vantage data feed plugin you wish to use. The window should look similar to the following:
The recommended defaults are usually loaded soon as you select the data feed plugin from the drop down menu. In this case the plugin will be throttled to 5 requests per 60 seconds. All you need to do is select the ‘Target Market’ that the plugin will be downloading data for. Once that is done, click ‘Plugin Settings’. The ‘Plugin Settings’ window should look similar to the following:
Here you need to input the free API key you obtained earlier then select the market the plugin will be downloading data for. It is important that you select the correct market since behind the scenes ticker symbols will have the correct market suffix added to them so that the correct data will be fetched. You can read more about ticker symbols and market suffixes here. When the settings have been edited, click ‘OK’ to save them and close the window and then ‘Save’ again. In a few moments the data feed should start running and downloading data (if applicable). If you run into any problems, try reading the trouble shooting guide here.