Getting Started

REST quickstart

Make your first authenticated FinanceDataAPI request.

What it is

This is the shortest path to a working FinanceDataAPI REST call: authenticate with an API key, hit one endpoint, and inspect structured JSON.

The example uses the SMA endpoint because it demonstrates the common request shape shared by the per-signal routes: symbol in the path, dates in the query string, and signal-specific parameters when needed.

When to use it

Verifying that a newly generated API key works end to end.
Building server-side integrations, cron jobs, or internal dashboards.
Understanding the response shape before moving to batch or MCP workflows.

REST example

python

import os
import requests

response = requests.get(
  'https://api.financedata.com/v1/signals/SMA/AAPL',
  params={
      'start_date': '2025-01-01',
      'end_date': '2025-04-30',
      'period': 20,
  },
  headers={'X-API-Key': os.environ['FDA_KEY']},
  timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
print(response.json())

MCP example

Tool call body

{
"name": "get_sma",
"arguments": {
  "symbol": "AAPL",
  "start_date": "2025-01-01",
  "end_date": "2025-04-30",
  "period": 20
}
}

Agent prompt that triggers it

Get the 20-day simple moving average for AAPL from January through April 2025 and summarize the latest reading.