Factor freshness

Response speed is not factor freshness. Daily and intraday outputs use different clocks and input sets, while portfolio results also depend on what the caller supplied. Evaluate the evidence attached to the specific result.

Match the clock to the surface

Surface	Evaluate against
Catalog	catalog version and release metadata
Daily returns	last complete U.S. market session and daily materialization
History	row-level range, start/end dates, and observation count
Intraday returns	snapshot timestamp and current market-data inputs
Exposures	exposure-model session and source-return session
Portfolio attribution or hedge	holdings, exposures, returns, bars, mappings, and constraints

Weekends and U.S. market holidays do not create missing daily rows. Early closes or delayed jobs should appear as returned stale or degraded evidence, not be rewritten as current data.

Ask for the evidence envelope

curl -H "x-api-key: $SECAPI_API_KEY" \
  -H "secapi-version: 2026-03-19" \
  "https://api.secapi.ai/v1/factors/history/VALUE?range=1y&response_mode=compact&include=trust"

When included, inspect freshness.status, freshness.asOf, freshness.sourcePublishedAt, freshness.lagMs, materialization.materializationVersion, and degradedState. Availability differs by route and response mode; do not assume every field is present or has the same semantics.

Decision rules

Outcome	Appropriate treatment
Fresh and materially complete	retain the evidence with the workflow result
Fresh but shorter history than required	do not make a long-history or maximum-coverage claim
Stale daily result	wait for current materialization before making a current-data claim
Stale intraday result	avoid live-market language; use a completed daily surface when suitable
Degraded portfolio result	show partial attribution or no-solution context with missing capabilities

For a historical claim, rely on returned row-level proof rather than the requested range name. Continue with Factor provenance and Factor model methodology.

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Match the clock to the surface

Ask for the evidence envelope

Decision rules

​Match the clock to the surface

​Ask for the evidence envelope

​Decision rules

Match the clock to the surface

Ask for the evidence envelope

Decision rules