Launch HN: Realize (YC W22) – Integrate brokerage accounts into your site or app

Post by hemloc_io » Wed, Feb 16, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

timothygoltser wrote: post #4

wizwit999 wrote: post #3

Congrats on launching. I'm not familiar with the space so forgive me but when you say we "build direct integrations", what does that mean? Is the data available by APIs or did you get someone to do something custom for you? If it's available by API, why would others screenscrape?

Thanks! Where possible, we integrate with brokerages' public APIs (we refer to these as "sanctioned integrations"). Brokerages like TD and Alpaca implement OAuth such that we can get delegated access to user accounts, but that's not the case for other brokerages (ex: Robinhood, Webull, etc.). In the latter case, we'll reverse engineer brokerage APIs, which we refer to as "direct integrations" since they use the same…

Post by timothygoltser » Wed, Feb 16, 2022, 4:26 PM UTC

hemloc_io wrote: post #11

timothygoltser wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! Where possible, we integrate with brokerages' public APIs (we refer to these as "sanctioned integrations"). Brokerages like TD and Alpaca implement OAuth such that we can get delegated access to user accounts, but that's not the case for other brokerages (ex: Robinhood, Webull, etc.). In the latter case, we'll reverse engineer brokerage APIs, which we refer to as "direct integrations" since they use the same…

Hmmm also ignorant on this, but is that legal? I’d assume it’s a TOS violation at least. Would using this cause accounts to be banned in these direct integrations?

Post by wisdomtt » Wed, Feb 16, 2022, 4:34 PM UTC

sthatipamala wrote: post #10

As a consumer, I’ve had significant difficulty getting my Schwab Equity Award Center balances to sync with apps like Wealthfront. The connection is always buggy and I have to reauthenticate all the time. I wonder if this is the problem. If so, I’m glad you are working on this. Best of luck!

Post by ceejayoz » Wed, Feb 16, 2022, 4:35 PM UTC

timothygoltser wrote: post #16

ceejayoz wrote: post #12

> We take an entirely different approach by building direct integrations... > Private APIs need to be reverse engineered and are liable to change at any moment, so we had to develop systems to catch breaking changes and are always on alert to address them. Isn't this still, essentially, screen-scraping? Reverse-engineering private APIs (presumably from their mobile apps, I'd imagine) and doing the abuse/block dance w…

While we try to form relationships with all of the brokerages we integrate with (including the ones we reverse engineer), we do still have to do the abuse/block dance with their protective systems occasionally. We've found that cutting out headless browsers has made it much easier to do this, for two main reasons: 1) Some brokerages have fairly sophisticated anti-screen-scraping protections, but their private APIs ar…

Post by timothygoltser » Wed, Feb 16, 2022, 4:39 PM UTC

ceejayoz wrote: post #17

timothygoltser wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we try to form relationships with all of the brokerages we integrate with (including the ones we reverse engineer), we do still have to do the abuse/block dance with their protective systems occasionally. We've found that cutting out headless browsers has made it much easier to do this, for two main reasons: 1) Some brokerages have fairly sophisticated anti-screen-scraping protections, but their private APIs ar…

I think "direct integrations" as a euphemism from "using reverse-engineered private APIs in violation of their terms" is dishonest.