B3 Market Data vs CVM Regulatory Filings API
Developers new to Brazil often conflate B3 market data (prices, volumes, corporate actions) with CVM regulatory filings (DFP, ITR, FRE PDFs). They solve different problems. apicvm is a CVM regulatory filings API — not a market data feed.
This page clarifies the distinction so you pick the right data source and integrate apicvm where it fits.
Two different data layers
| Layer | Source | What you get | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market data | B3, brokers, vendors (Brapi, etc.) | OHLCV, quotes, trades, dividends | Charts, backtests, execution |
| Regulatory filings | CVM (via apicvm) | DFP, ITR, FRE PDFs + text | Fundamentals, risk, governance, NLP |
A stock price tells you what the market paid. A DFP tells you what the company reported about assets, liabilities, and risks. Both matter — but no single free API replaces both.
What B3 market data covers
Market data providers expose:
- Real-time or delayed quotes and trades
- Historical OHLCV candles
- Corporate actions (splits, dividends — depending on vendor)
- Index composition (Ibovespa, etc.)
Access patterns: WebSocket streams, REST quote endpoints, CSV historical dumps. Licensing and latency vary by vendor.
What CVM regulatory filings cover
CVM requires public companies to file:
| Type | Content |
|---|---|
| DFP | Annual standardized financial statements |
| ITR | Quarterly financial information |
| FRE | Formulário de Referência — business, risks, governance |
These arrive as PDF documents (sometimes multiple per period). apicvm lets you:
export APICVM_KEY='apicvm_...'
export APICVM_URL='https://apicvm.dev'
# List filings — not prices
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $APICVM_KEY" \
"$APICVM_URL/v1/documents?ticker=PETR4&type=DFP&year=2024&perPage=10"Resolve companies, download PDFs, and extract page-level markdown — see Getting Started.
When you need market data
Choose a market data provider when you need:
- Live or historical stock prices
- Volume and bid/ask for trading systems
- Portfolio mark-to-market with daily closes
- Backtesting price signals
apicvm will not help here — it does not expose quote endpoints.
When you need regulatory filings
Choose apicvm (or build equivalent CVM infrastructure) when you need:
- Fundamental analysis from audited statements
- Risk factor text from FRE documents
- Quarterly trends from ITR filings
- LLM/RAG over regulatory PDF content
- Citation to original CVM documents in agent answers
Combined workflows
Production research stacks often use both:
Market data API → prices, returns, volatility
apicvm API → DFP/ITR text → fundamentals, NLP featuresExample: compute P/E from market cap (market data) and net income (DFP text extraction). apicvm supplies the filing side; you join with prices from your market data vendor.
Analogy for US developers
| Brazil | United States |
|---|---|
| B3 quotes | NYSE/NASDAQ market data |
| CVM DFP/ITR/FRE | SEC 10-K/10-Q filings |
If you work with SEC EDGAR for filings and a separate vendor for prices, the Brazil split is similar — see Brazil CVM vs SEC EDGAR.
CVM is Brazil's securities regulator; it is not equivalent to "Brazil's SEC EDGAR product" as a single system.
What apicvm explicitly does not provide
- Stock prices, indices, or futures quotes
- Real-time trading data
- Dividend calendars (unless extracted from filing text)
- Analyst estimates or consensus
Stay precise in product copy and agent prompts.
Current limitations
- Filing availability follows the ingestion pipeline — not tick-by-tick market sync.
- Material facts (Fato Relevante) and IPE are outside MVP scope.
- You need a separate provider for market data — apicvm is filings-only.
Next steps
Ready to integrate?
Get an API key and start querying Brazilian CVM filings programmatically.