User Guide
Everything you need to get the most out of Open Terminal — from your first search to writing SQL queries against live SEC financial data.
▶ Watch the tutorial videoStart here Getting Started
When you first open the app, you'll see a sidebar on the left with two lists: Tickers and Concepts.
- Tickers are the companies you want to research (e.g. AAPL, MSFT, TSLA)
- Concepts are the financial metrics you want to chart (e.g. Revenue, Net Income)
Search and click to select. Your selections persist the next time you visit.
You can switch between light and dark theme using the toggle in the top right.
Tab Financials
This is your main research view. Pick one or more tickers and a financial concept, and a chart appears immediately. You can plot multiple companies on the same chart to compare them side by side.
- Stock price chart — shows the historical stock price for your selected companies. If you have multiple tickers selected, prices are shown as percentage change so they're easy to compare on the same scale.
- Fundamentals chart — shows the financial metric you selected (Revenue, Net Income, etc.) over time, pulled directly from SEC filings.
- Merge — click the Merge button to combine both charts into one, with prices on the left axis and financials on the right. Great for spotting how financial performance relates to stock price.
If the charts feel crowded, use the collapse buttons (▼) to hide the price or fundamentals panel, giving the other more room.
Data tab
Switch to the Data tab (below the charts) to see the exact numbers behind the chart in a table. Each row links directly to the original SEC filing so you can verify the source yourself.
News tab
The News tab shows recent articles for your selected tickers. Each article displays:
- The headline, publisher, and publication date
- A description of the article
- A sentiment score — how the article is likely to affect the stock price, scored from negative to positive
- Hover over the sentiment score to see a one-sentence explanation of why it received that rating
Tab Formulas
Don't see the metric you need? Build it yourself. The Formulas tab lets you combine existing concepts using simple math.
For example, to calculate Profit Margin:
- Type a name:
Profit Margin - Type the formula:
NetIncomeLoss / Revenues - Click Add
Your new metric appears in the concept list. Select it just like any other concept and it will plot on the chart alongside your other selections. Your formulas are saved and available every time you return.
stock_price_avg, market_cap, shares.
Tab Companies
The Companies tab is your starting point when you don't know exactly what you're looking for. Browse thousands of public companies — each card shows a business summary, recent management commentary, and current news with sentiment scores.
Finding companies
- Type any keyword in the search bar — company name, ticker, or topic (e.g. "electric vehicles", "cloud software", "biotech")
- Click tag chips to filter by sector or theme
- Results rank by relevance — exact ticker matches come first
Using your results
Click Use Displayed Tickers to add all the visible companies to your selection at once. Then head to Quadrant to compare them visually, or back to Financials to dig into their numbers.
Tab Quadrant
Plot any two financial metrics against each other — every dot on the chart is a company. This is the fastest way to screen a large group of companies and spot the outliers.
Color by formula — add a third metric to color the dots, turning the chart into a heat map (e.g. color by revenue growth to see which profitable companies are also growing fast).
Focusing on specific companies
- Click a dot to highlight a single company
- Find companies alphabetically in the legend
- Drag-select a region of dots to box in the ones you want, then choose to keep only those in your active selection
Once you've narrowed it down in Quadrant, head back to Financials to compare just those companies in detail.
Tab AI Playground
Not sure where to start, or how to write a formula? Just ask. Type a question in plain English and the AI will build a chart from the financial database for you.
"Show me the top growth stocks in the last five years with at least $50 million in revenue"
The AI returns a chart of matching companies. From there:
- Click Use Displayed Tickers to add those companies to your panel
- Click See Data Table to open the full results in the SQL Explorer
The AI remembers your conversation, so you can follow up with refinements like "now filter to only tech companies" or "show the same thing but sorted by market cap".
Tab SQL Explorer
For power users who want precise control. Write any SQL query directly against the financial database. The schema panel on the left shows all available columns — click any column name to insert it into your query.
Press Ctrl+Enter (or Cmd+Enter on Mac) to run a query.
The main table is called financial_data and contains one row per company,
per month, per financial concept — so you can filter, aggregate, and join however
you like.
Results show in a table below. Click Use Displayed Tickers to add any companies from your query results directly to your selection.
Top Bar
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Polygon API Key | Enables live stock prices and real-time news. Without it, the app uses historical data from its built-in archive. Get a free key at polygon.io. |
| OpenRouter API Key | Powers the AI Playground. Required for the AI tab. Get one at openrouter.ai. |
| Date range | Filters the date range for charts and data across all tabs. |
| Annual / Quarterly | Switch between annual and quarterly financial values. |
| ☀️ / 🌙 | Toggle light and dark theme. |