FRED

Suitable task

Build a reproducible macro-series research notebook. The documented service exposes series observations and dates when values were revised or newly released.[22]

Inputs to prepare

Prepare a series identifier, observation period, units, frequency and a decision about latest data versus data known at a past date. The documented API requires a key; each application user must use their own key.[27]

Expected research outputs

The observations endpoint returns economic-series values; the vintage-dates endpoint identifies revision or new-release dates.[22] Suggested research output: a dated table with the series identifier, units, retrieval time and transformation notes, not an investment signal.

Suggested steps — not executed here

1. Open the official documentation and identify the series you want; record its source, units, frequency and seasonal-adjustment status before combining it with another series.
2. If using the API, follow the official key page using your own account; never put a private key into a shared notebook or a public URL. No key was requested here.
3. Retrieve the chosen observations in your own environment and retain the untransformed response alongside a cleaned table. For historical research, inspect the vintage-date documentation before choosing the information cutoff.
4. Align dates and units before comparison; record missing values and revisions. Write down what evidence would invalidate your hypothesis rather than treating correlation as a forecast.

Access, cost and license boundaries

The documentation was readable without payment in this retrieval. This does not establish a blanket free-data or commercial-redistribution license. API authentication requirements are documented; subscription pricing, usage quotas and individual series reuse permissions were not verified.[27]

Limitations and unchecked conditions

Editorial caution: revised observations can introduce hindsight into historical studies. This directory has not called an authenticated data endpoint, checked data entitlements or validated any observations. A release date, observation date and retrieval date answer different questions.

Choose another research route when…

• World Bank Data: Prefer this research route when the question is framed around country development indicators; its documentation provides country/indicator queries.[28]
• Federal Reserve FOMC: Prefer the original meeting documents when the question is what policymakers said, rather than how a numeric series moved.[10]

Official evidence for these notes

Source retrieval date: 2026-09-11

• [10] FRED
• [22] FRED
• [27] FRED
• [28] FRED

Pending editorial approval; not approved for search indexing.