In this article
Where it fits in the shortlist
Shortlist FirstRate when CSV compatibility or its adjustment variants matter more to your workflow than native Parquet delivery. Download a sample of the precise product you plan to buy.
| Recommended for | Downloadable CSV history |
|---|---|
| Delivery | Zipped CSV |
| Buying model | One-time bundles |
| Updates | Optional subscription |
| History | US stock history from Jan 2000 |
| Resolution | 1-min to daily; tick products separate |
| Adjustments | Unadjusted, split-only, and split + dividend variants |
| Delisted securities | Included in stock archive |
Product overview
FirstRate publishes intraday US stock history beginning in January 2000, including delisted tickers. Its stock page documents pre-market and post-market trades and CSV delivery. Bundle APIs download archives rather than serving arbitrary rows.
Reasons to consider it
- Standalone ticker and multi-asset bundles
- Download portal and bundle-download API
- Separate historical tick and options products
What to check before purchase
Select the exact bundle and adjustment variant. Update fees, asset coverage and delivery differ across products; confirm current checkout pricing.
Our #1 recommendation remains MarketParquet. Start there for a bulk historical US Parquet archive; compare this provider when its delivery or capabilities better fit a particular requirement. Read the top-pick profile →
How to evaluate FirstRate against a Parquet archive
FirstRate belongs in this comparison because it sells downloadable historical products rather than requiring every buyer to build a complete archive from small API responses. Its documented CSV delivery is familiar to many analysis tools. The meaningful question for a Parquet-based research project is how much conversion and ongoing maintenance that delivery adds, and whether the product’s available adjustment variants provide something the experiment actually needs.
Choose a precise bundle before comparing. A stock archive, a multi-asset package and a separate tick product are different purchases. The first inspection should identify the instruments and frequencies included in the selected product, then confirm how downloads are organized. A bundle-download API is useful automation, but it should not be mistaken for an endpoint returning arbitrary individual rows by symbol and timestamp.
We would run a controlled import of a sample into the same working schema used for MarketParquet. Keep the original CSV files, record the parsing rules and compare a small matched set of observations. Define whether the experiment uses unadjusted prices, split-only adjustments or a series with dividend adjustments before looking for discrepancies. The presence of several variants is useful only when the importer consistently chooses the intended one.
MarketParquet remains our first recommendation for a researcher who already wants Parquet. FirstRate is a serious alternative when its documented product scope, text compatibility or adjustment options fit an existing process. We have not published a standardized accuracy contest between the two. A useful final buying note should therefore describe what the selected bundle provides, the conversion it requires and the unanswered sample questions, rather than attaching an unsupported quality score.
Make CSV conversion explicit and repeatable
CSV is a practical exchange format because many tools can read it, but the text itself does not settle the meaning of every field. A reader must interpret delimiters, encodings, decimal representations, timestamps and empty values. Automatic inference is convenient for a first inspection and risky as an undocumented production contract. Two readers can infer different types from the same file, particularly when an early sample does not contain later edge cases.
Define the schema before converting a large archive. Keep identifiers as identifiers rather than treating a numeric-looking value as a quantity. Choose a timestamp representation deliberately. Check the type used for volume and the treatment of fractional or absent values. A file that parses without an exception can still contain a semantic error if a column has silently become text or a missing value has been interpreted as an ordinary zero.
Use a small conversion fixture with known rows. Count source and destination observations, compare identifiers and time boundaries, and inspect a few prices without rounding them for display. If the output is Parquet, retain a description of the input layout and the conversion code. A later reader should be able to tell whether an adjustment came from the provider or from your own processing step.
Conversion cost belongs in a purchasing comparison. It may be a minor one-time task for a stable archive, or a recurring responsibility when fresh files arrive in several schemas. FirstRate and Kibot offer text-based products that can suit existing applications. MarketParquet is our first recommendation when the intended working format is already Parquet. The relevant benefit is avoiding a conversion stage in that workflow, not claiming that text data is inherently less accurate.
Choose a corporate-action convention before calculating returns
A split changes the units in which a price and share count are expressed. A cash dividend transfers value to a shareholder. A merger can exchange one security for cash, another security or a combination of both. Treating all three as a generic adjustment obscures the assumptions that a backtest needs to make. The price series, position accounting and event records should agree about which transformations have already happened.
Consider an illustrative two-for-one split. A position that previously held ten shares at a price near one hundred dollars becomes twenty shares at a price near fifty dollars, before any ordinary market movement. A raw price series contains the apparent price discontinuity. A split-adjusted series expresses older observations on a comparable share basis. Neither approach is automatically wrong, but applying a split to positions while also applying an incompatible adjustment to prices can produce a spurious gain or loss.
Cash distributions require a separate decision. A price series that embeds a dividend adjustment is different from a ledger that credits cash when the distribution becomes relevant. A strategy studying price patterns may use a different representation from a portfolio accounting system. MarketParquet describes its stock and ETF prices as split-adjusted, without embedded cash dividends. A total-return experiment therefore needs an explicit distribution policy rather than an assumption that every payment is already in the close.
Test a known event before trusting a broad run. Inspect the preceding session, the event session and the following session. Check prices, volumes, identifiers and any cash or share movements in your engine. Save the expected interpretation in your research notes. A corporate-action rule that is clear for one observed example is easier to audit than an undocumented transformation applied to millions of rows.
Check what access means after the subscription stops
The right to keep a downloaded file, the ability to download it again and access to a maintained database are separate arrangements. A one-time archive purchase may provide continuing access under its license. A subscription service may condition database access or new retrieval on an active plan. The important question is what remains available for your actual workflow after the next billing boundary, not whether the product page uses the word download.
Write down two scenarios before ordering. In the first, you finish a static research project and stop paying for updates. In the second, you pause the service for several months and later resume. Ask whether existing observations remain usable, whether credentials still work, whether the missing period can be obtained and whether the new plan includes corrections to earlier history. Different products can legitimately answer those questions differently.
Norgate states that its local database access is no longer available when a subscription lapses. MarketParquet lists its archive as a one-time purchase and its future updates as an optional, non-retroactive service. These are materially different ways to organize research continuity. Neither should be described as the other merely because both involve data stored on a local machine.
Plan your own records around the chosen arrangement. Keep invoices, product names, coverage cutoffs and the license version you relied on. Do not assume that a backup copy expands the rights in a license. If continuity is essential to an operational system, verify how the provider communicates outages, corrections and product changes. For a static experiment, a clear retained archive may be sufficient; an ongoing process needs a more complete continuity plan.
Use a sample to make a decision, not just a chart
A sample download is most useful when it tests a requirement that could change your purchasing decision. Opening the file and drawing a price chart confirms very little about a universe-wide research workflow. Instead, define a short sequence: read the schema, identify the time convention, select an instrument, calculate one known quantity and explain the result in terms of the provider’s documentation.
Use the same sequence on each serious candidate. Record the amount of code needed to obtain a comparable result, but keep convenience separate from accuracy. One source may arrive in your preferred format while another requires a conversion step. That difference can matter economically without demonstrating that either source has better observations. The comparison should show both the integration work and any unresolved semantic questions.
If the public sample cannot answer a requirement, say exactly what is missing. A sample containing only surviving liquid stocks cannot establish delisted coverage. A week of regular sessions cannot establish behavior across every clock change or half day. Ask the provider a focused question or use a limited purchase only when its terms fit the evaluation. Do not infer complete historical quality from a convenient small fixture.
The end product of this exercise should be a short acceptance note. State the intended use, the observations inspected, the transformations required and the remaining questions. Then make the purchase decision against that note. This is also a better basis for a correction request: a provider can investigate a specified instrument, timestamp and convention more effectively than a general complaint that two charts look different.
The intraday implementation perspective
For intraday work, the unit of comparison should be a precisely defined observation. Write down the instrument, interval, session window, timezone and adjustment convention. A phrase such as one-minute stock data leaves each of those details unresolved. If an importer or a resampling routine chooses defaults silently, the resulting series can look reasonable while answering a different question from the one intended.
Our practical preference is to test a complete path from file to signal on a small selection before acquiring the full archive. Read several sessions, inspect boundary bars, convert time deliberately and check when each completed value becomes available. Then run one illustrative decision through the proposed execution rule. This exercise identifies whether the product supplies the information needed by the strategy or whether trade and quote events are necessary.
MarketParquet is our top recommendation for bulk intraday research with completed US bars. Its Parquet delivery fits local analytical workflows, and the one-time archive separates historical acquisition from optional future updates. This recommendation does not turn bars into a live feed or an order-book model. Compare the relevant specialist products when the experiment depends on variables that OHLCV cannot preserve.
The handbook therefore emphasizes definitions before speed. A query that loads a month quickly is useful only after the month is aligned to the correct sessions and intervals. Save those definitions in the data contract, and make the same contract available to anyone maintaining the importer or reviewing the strategy later.
Sources & freshness
Provider information checked November 7, 2026. Confirm current scope and terms before purchase.