How to Obtain Historical Trading Data for Hong Kong and US Stocks? Two Highly Practical Resource Websites Recommended - iTick

In the process of investing in Hong Kong and US stocks, historical trading data APIs play a crucial role in market review, strategy analysis, and risk assessment for investors. Today, we will share two practical websites for obtaining historical trading data for Hong Kong and US stocks, focusing on how to use APIs to access historical data.

1. iTick

1. Platform Overview

iTick is a digital agency specializing in providing reliable data source APIs for fintech companies and developers. Its services cover multiple areas, including forex, stocks, cryptocurrencies, and indices, aiming to help users build innovative trading and analysis tools to meet the complex and ever-changing demands of the financial industry.

2. Details of Hong Kong and US Stock Data Services

  • Comprehensive Data: Provides standardized, intuitive, and easy-to-use real-time and historical stock data APIs for US and Hong Kong stocks. Whether you need years of historical stock price data for long-term investment analysis or precise intraday trading data for high-frequency trading strategy research, iTick can meet your needs. For example, investors studying the long-term trends of US tech stocks can access complete daily open, close, high, low prices, and trading volumes for companies like Apple and Microsoft since their IPOs. Quantitative trading teams focusing on the Hong Kong stock market can obtain detailed historical tick-by-tick trading data for popular stocks like Tencent and Meituan.
  • Data Formats: Data is provided in both JSON and CSV formats. JSON is suitable for parsing and processing in various programming languages and software, making it ideal for developers integrating data into their trading systems or analysis software. CSV is widely compatible and can be directly opened and edited in almost all data processing software like Excel, making it convenient for individual investors to view and perform simple analyses.
  • Client Library Support: Offers client libraries that significantly simplify the process of accessing and using data. Developers can save time on understanding complex API specifications and focus more on developing trading strategies and building analytical models.

3. Developer-Friendly Features

  • Documentation Support: Provides comprehensive and detailed documentation for developers. The documentation includes detailed descriptions of various API endpoints and numerous code examples in popular programming languages like Python and Java. Even novice developers unfamiliar with API integration can quickly get started and integrate Hong Kong and US stock market data into their applications.
  • Free Plan: iTick's free plan is highly attractive for individual quantitative developers and small startups. It includes basic real-time quotes and historical data, which are sufficient for daily research and strategy testing. This significantly lowers the cost and barrier for individual developers to access data, enabling more people to participate in quantitative investment research for Hong Kong and US stocks.

4. Practical Use Cases

In the field of quantitative trading, many quantitative investment teams use iTick's Hong Kong and US stock data APIs to build quantitative trading systems. By backtesting historical data, they continuously optimize trading strategies. For example, a quantitative team used iTick's US stock historical data to backtest a mean reversion strategy. After analyzing a large amount of historical data and adjusting parameters, they found that the strategy performed well under specific market conditions. In live trading, with the help of iTick's real-time data interface, the system quickly obtained stock price changes, triggered trading signals, and achieved good investment returns. Similarly, some fintech startups use iTick's Hong Kong stock data to provide investment analysis reports for users on their intelligent investment advisory platforms. By mining and analyzing historical data, they offer stock recommendations, risk assessments, and other services, attracting many Hong Kong stock investors to their platforms.

2. HKEX Data Marketplace

1. Platform Background and Significance

The HKEX Data Marketplace is an important platform launched by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to meet the needs of data users for historical and reference data. Against the backdrop of global investors increasingly seeking rich data to formulate precise investment strategies, the platform aims to provide a more convenient and efficient way for data users to access data, further enhancing the vitality and attractiveness of Hong Kong's financial market. It also strengthens the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's core role in the financial data field, promoting synergy between data and financial business development.

2. Introduction to Hong Kong and US Stock Data Products

  • Historical Market Data: Provides comprehensive historical data for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange's securities and derivatives markets. This data is valuable research material for scholars, analysts, and professional investors studying the overall trends, microstructure, and long-term performance of various financial products in the Hong Kong market. For example, analyzing years of trading data from the Hong Kong stock market can reveal patterns in liquidity changes, sector rotations, and the impact of major policy events on the market.
  • Reference Data: Daily reference data for the securities market provides investors with basic information about stocks (e.g., company name, share structure), trading rules, and more. This reference data forms the foundation for fundamental analysis, portfolio construction, and understanding market mechanisms. For instance, when screening Hong Kong stock investment targets, investors can quickly filter stocks that meet their investment criteria based on financial indicators and industry classifications in the reference data. Although the platform primarily focuses on Hong Kong Stock Exchange data, it is also valuable for investors studying the linkage between Hong Kong and US stocks, enabling them to better capture cross-market investment opportunities.

3. Platform Advantages

  • Modern Interface: The user interface is carefully designed to be more modern and user-friendly. The simple and clear interface allows users to quickly familiarize themselves with platform functions, efficiently search for and access the required data, and significantly reduce the time cost of data retrieval.
  • Cloud Transmission and Multiple Delivery Channels: Offers diverse data delivery channels, including cloud transmission. This means users can flexibly choose data reception methods based on their technical architecture and data processing needs. Institutional users with strong data processing capabilities and cloud computing resources can quickly access large amounts of data via cloud transmission and directly perform storage and analysis in the cloud. Individual investors or small-scale users with limited local computing resources can choose other suitable channels to download data for local analysis.

4. Target User Groups

The platform caters to a wide range of users. For professional financial institutions like investment banks and fund companies, they can use platform data for in-depth market research, risk management, and investment product innovation. For example, investment banks designing Hong Kong stock-related financial derivatives require accurate historical market data for pricing model construction and risk assessment. Fund companies managing Hong Kong stock portfolios can better grasp market trends and optimize portfolios using reference platform data. For academic research institutions and scholars, the HKEX Data Marketplace provides rich data resources for conducting financial market-related academic research, contributing to the development of the financial academic field. For experienced individual investors, the platform data can be used for deeper stock analysis and investment strategy formulation, enhancing their investment performance in the Hong Kong stock market.

Through iTick and the HKEX Data Marketplace, investors can conveniently access historical trading data for Hong Kong and US stocks, providing strong data support for investment decisions. Whether you are a professional financial practitioner or an individual investor new to the Hong Kong and US stock markets, you can try using these two platforms to uncover the investment value behind the data.

3. Example of Historical Data Retrieval

API Request Example Code

      /**
 * @author:iTick
 * @description: iTick is a data agency providing reliable data source APIs for fintech companies and developers, covering forex, stock, cryptocurrency, and index APIs. It helps build innovative trading and analysis tools. A free plan is available, which is sufficient for individual quantitative developers.
 * Open-source stock data API: https://github.com/itick-org
 * Apply for a free API key: https://itick.io
 */

const http = require('https');

const options = {
  method: 'GET',
  hostname: 'api.itick.org',
  port: null,
  path: '/stock/kline?region=us&code=SPX&kType=1',
  headers: {
    accept: 'application/json',
    token: 'your_apikey'
  }
};

const req = http.request(options, function (res) {
  const chunks = [];

  res.on('data', function (chunk) {
    chunks.push(chunk);
  });

  res.on('end', function () {
    const body = Buffer.concat(chunks);
    console.log(body.toString());
  });
});

req.end();