Data sources

What powers Tapeline.

Every data feed Tapeline reads from, the surface area where it appears, and the refresh cadence. No black boxes, no “proprietary data” vague-speak.

The Tapeline composite score and the per-factor sub-scores are computed via the published 6-factor formula at /how-it-works. Those numbers are Tapeline’s analytical output — derived through transformation, not redistributed from any single vendor. The list below covers the underlying inputs.

Massive (formerly Polygon.io)
Licensed
massive.com ↗
What it's used for
- ·Live equity + ETF prices
- ·OHLC bars for trend / RS / momentum calculations
- ·Volume + dollar-volume for the heatmap tile sizing
- ·Auto-discovery of the active US ticker universe
Where it appears
Every ticker price you see, every chart, every percentage change, the heatmap tiles, the scanner table
Refresh cadence
Sub-60 seconds for live prices; weekly for the ticker universe walk
Stocks Starter tier ($29/mo). Data is delayed ~15 minutes on this tier — the 'live' badge reflects scanner-tick freshness, not exchange real-time.
Finnhub
Licensed
finnhub.io ↗
What it's used for
- ·Per-ticker fundamentals (P/E, ROE, margins, growth rates)
- ·SEC Form 4 insider transactions
- ·Upcoming earnings + IPO calendar
- ·Company profile / sector classification (backfill)
Where it appears
The Financials tab on every ticker page, the Insider activity tab, the recent insider buys feed at /app/holdings, /app/earnings, /app/ipos, the sector label on the heatmap
Refresh cadence
Fundamentals refresh weekly. Form 4 transactions refresh daily for the top ~2,500 most-liquid tickers. Calendars refresh twice daily.
Free tier (60 calls/min). Falls back to empty cards if the upstream key is unset.
SEC EDGAR (direct)
Public domain
www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar ↗
What it's used for
- ·Real-time 8-K material event filings
- ·CIK → ticker symbol mapping (for cross-referencing)
Where it appears
The breaking-news bar on every dashboard page tagged 'SEC EDGAR'. Material event filings (M&A announcements, earnings restatements, executive changes) appear here ~5-30 minutes before they're re-reported by the news wires.
Refresh cadence
Every 5 minutes alongside the news refresh
US government public record. Free, no key, no licensing.
FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
Public domain
fred.stlouisfed.org ↗
What it's used for
- ·10-year Treasury yield
- ·DXY US Dollar Index
- ·VIX volatility index
- ·Rate-direction inference (RISING / FALLING / SIDEWAYS)
Where it appears
The Regime tile on every dashboard page. The Macro sub-factor on every ticker score. The 'Fear & Greed' composite on /app/regime.
Refresh cadence
Cached 1 hour, refreshed on the next worker tick
US Federal Reserve public data. Free, no licensing restrictions.
Benzinga
Licensed
www.benzinga.com ↗
What it's used for
- ·Live news wire with cashtag tagging
- ·Analyst consensus ratings (Buy/Hold/Sell tally, avg price target)
Where it appears
The breaking-news bar headlines tagged 'Benzinga'. The Analyst Ratings widget on Premium ticker pages.
Refresh cadence
News every 5 minutes. Analyst ratings cached 6 hours per ticker.
Tapeline prefers Benzinga over Massive for news quality. Falls back to Massive cleanly if Benzinga is unreachable.
Signal-system (the founder's research workbook)
Licensed
What it's used for
- ·Composite ticker scoring (6-factor blend)
- ·Smart Money sub-score (Congressional + insider activity)
- ·Market regime label (BULL / NEUTRAL / CAUTIOUS / BEAR)
- ·ETF benchmark classifications
Where it appears
The composite 0-100 score on every ticker page, scanner row, and watchlist item. The signal label (HIGH CONVICTION / STRONG SETUP / etc.). The Regime tile.
Refresh cadence
Tapeline pulls the signal-system's published Google Sheet via CSV every 5 minutes
Tapeline reads the founder's personal research workbook. The signal-system project is separate from Tapeline (lives at C:\signal-system\ on the founder's machine, not part of this repo).

Transparency note

Tapeline is built and run by one person. The product reads data from several public and licensed feeds, transforms it through a 6-factor scoring formula, and surfaces the result. The page above lists every feed honestly — what it's used for, where it shows up, how often it refreshes. No hidden vendors, no "proprietary data" hand-waving. Where Tapeline displays a number that came directly from a vendor (a price, a P/E ratio, an analyst rating), the vendor is named in the surface area column above. Where Tapeline displays its own derived metric (the composite score, the sub-scores, the signal label, the plain-English "why" sentence), that's Tapeline's own analytical output computed via the published 6-factor formula at /how-it-works. If you're a vendor and you'd like Tapeline to credit you differently, drop a line to support@tapeline.io. Page is editable on every release.

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