TradeCraft
Requirements and getting started.
What you need before you subscribe, where the market data comes from, and the five steps to your first chain.
Where the data comes from
Two kinds of data. Only one is required.
TradeCraft ships with no market data of its own. Everything it shows comes from a source you already have or choose. You can start with live data alone.
Your broker's data, through your own account
Today's option chains, quotes and the prices behind your open positions come straight from your brokerage account at Schwab, Interactive Brokers or tastytrade. Nothing to buy: it is the same data you see on your broker's platform, read by TradeCraft over the API access your broker provides. TradeCraft reads only; it never places, changes or cancels an order.
Data files, if you want to look back
To backtest or replay a past date you need historical option chains, which brokers do not supply. You buy them as files from a data vendor, import them once, and TradeCraft keeps them in its local database. Skip this until you want it; nothing else depends on it.
Getting started
From subscription to your first chain.
The license comes first: the download is available to subscribers, and the key you receive is what unlocks TradeCraft on your computer.
- 01
Subscribe
Choose monthly or annual on the pricing page. Your license key and the download link arrive by email, and both stay available in your account.
- 02
Download
Open the download link, enter your license key, and save the Windows 11 installer.
- 03
Install and enter your key
Run the installer, start TradeCraft, and paste the license key when asked. TradeCraft confirms it online, ties it to this computer, and creates its local database. One license runs on one computer. To move it to a new computer, release the old one from your account page first.
- 04
Connect your broker
Enable API access at your broker (below), then enter the credentials on TradeCraft's Settings tab and click Connect. The chain, position panel and risk graph go live.
- 05
Optional: import historical data
Get a sample file from a data vendor, define an import format by matching the vendor's columns, then import the files you bought. The Trade tab can then step through any past date in your data.
Live data from your broker
What to ask your broker for.
Each broker has you switch on API access and create credentials on their site; TradeCraft's Settings tab then walks you through connecting. These are the things to request. The ? on the Settings tab has the step-by-step.
An individual brokerage account. Register at the Schwab developer portal as an individual developer and create an app with the market data API; TradeCraft uses only the quotes and chains. You will get a client ID, client secret and callback URL to enter in Settings.
developer.schwab.comAny tastytrade account. Under Manage → API Access, create an OAuth application with read access, then generate a grant for TradeCraft; the client secret and the grant's token go in Settings.
my.tastytrade.com → API AccessAn IBKR Pro account (Lite has no API). Market-data subscriptions for what you trade: OPRA for index options, the US Securities Snapshot and Futures Value Bundle for /ES and its options, and CBOE Streaming Market Indexes for the index prices themselves. Sign the market-data API acknowledgment. Step by step in the FAQ.
Set up IBKR →Historical data for backtesting
What the files need.
Historical option data is sold by data vendors, usually as CSV downloads by symbol and date range. Buy it for the symbols you trade. If a vendor sells a broader package, such as all U.S. index options, it will also cover symbols TradeCraft adds later; but check the price, since a full package can be far larger than you need. Your mileage will vary by vendor. Get a sample file first and try it in TradeCraft before you buy a history.
Date and time, option root (SPX, SPXW, NDX, /ES and so on), expiration, strike, Call or Put, bid and ask. A file that has only a last trade price or only a mid will not price a chain.
The index or future price at each timestamp, so the chain and the Greeks line up with where the market was.
U.S. Eastern timestamps at daily, 60-, 30-, 15- or 5-minute intervals. Finer than five minutes is not supported.
CSV or TXT files, or ZIP archives containing them. TradeCraft's import format is defined from your vendor's sample, so column names and order are up to the vendor.
Search for “SPX historical option chain data”, “historical options data CSV download” or “OPRA historical options data”, and for /ES, “CME options historical data”. Compare on bid and ask per option, intervals offered, how far back the history goes, and whether the price is per file, per month or per year.
SPX daily chains run about 0.35 GB per year, 15-minute about 9 GB, and 5-minute about 26 GB; twenty years at five minutes is 250–500 GB. Each additional symbol adds its own.
TradeCraft includes one built-in import format patterned after column names commonly found in Cboe® options data files; duplicate it to create vendor-specific formats. Cboe® is a registered trademark of Cboe Exchange, Inc. SPX® is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. A New Software and TradeCraft are not affiliated with or endorsed by either company. Data vendors and brokers are independent of A New Software; their products, prices and terms are their own and may change.
TradeCraft does not include market data and does not back up its database automatically; the Data Mgmt tab's Backup DB saves a copy of the database wherever you choose. Vendor access and fees are separate. SPX at 15-minute intervals for 2011–2018 (2019 partial) and daily for 2020–2026 contains over 407 million rows. Keep free space for imports, backups and maintenance; twenty years at five-minute intervals has not been capacity tested. Import at your own discretion.