Datasets

The Charles Schwab data provider sources data directly from Charles Schwab's Trader API. If you use this data provider, Charles Schwab only provides the security price data. QuantConnect Cloud provides the auxiliary datasets.

The data feed is a stream of asset prices collected by WebSockets and distributed to algorithms on the platform.

When you deploy a live algorithm with the Charles Schwab brokerage, you can use the QuantConnect data provider, the Charles Schwab data provider, or both. If you use multiple data providers, the order you select them in defines their order of precedence in Lean, so Lean only uses a provider for the securities that the providers before it don't supply.

We suggest the following configurations, in order of preference:

1. The QuantConnect data provider on its own. It's free and it's high quality, and it covers most asset classes.
2. The QuantConnect data provider first and a provider that fills its gaps second. The QuantConnect data provider doesn't supply Index data (for example, SPX, VIX, and NDX) or Future Options data, so you need this configuration to trade Index Options, which need the underlying index, and to trade Future Options.
3. The Charles Schwab data provider first and the QuantConnect data provider last. Use this configuration if you want to trade on Charles Schwab prices and let the QuantConnect data provider cover the rest.

Third-party data providers support most alternative datasets, except data that streams real-time intraday data. If you're using streaming datasets, like the Tiingo News Feed and Benzinga News Feed, include the QuantConnect data provider as an additional data provider.

The Charles Schwab data feed is free for Charles Schwab subscription accounts.

Charles Schwab recommends subscribing to a maximum of 300 symbols across all connections. Above this limit, there is a higher chance of getting inconsistent data.