BBterminal

A Bloomberg-style intelligence dashboard for free financial data.

Runs locally. One data layer (OpenBB Platform — 50+ providers, 270 endpoints), one amber-on-black terminal UI, and a built-in rules engine that turns numbers into signals so you don't stare at raw data trying to remember what matters.

Built on OpenBB + Vite + React + TypeScript + TradingView lightweight-charts.

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Install in one line

Paste this into your terminal (macOS or Linux):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vaughanf1/BB-Terminal/main/install.sh | bash

That's it. The installer will:

1. Check that git, Python 3.10+, and Node.js 18+ are on your system (and tell you exactly how to install them if not)
2. Clone this repo to ~/BB-Terminal
3. Install OpenBB Platform and all its data providers (~3 min)
4. Install the UI dependencies (~1 min)
5. Launch both servers and open the terminal in your browser

Windows users: run the command inside WSL (Ubuntu) or Git Bash.

Every launch after that

cd ~/BB-Terminal
./start.sh     # launches API + UI, opens your browser
./stop.sh      # when you're done

The UI lives at http://localhost:5173/. All data works out of the box via Yahoo Finance — no API keys required. Optional providers (FRED, TradingEconomics, FMP, Polygon, etc.) can be added to ~/.openbb_platform/user_settings.json.

Prerequisites

• macOS or Linux (Windows via WSL)
• Python 3.10, 3.11, or 3.12
• Node.js 18+
• ~2 GB free disk (OpenBB pulls many provider libraries)

Manual install (for anyone who doesn't trust curl | bash)

Fair enough — that pattern is a real risk if you don't know what's in the script. You can read install.sh first, or skip it entirely and run the steps yourself:

git clone https://github.com/vaughanf1/BB-Terminal.git
cd BB-Terminal
./setup.sh       # installs OpenBB + UI (~3-5 min)
./start.sh       # launches the terminal

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What it does

Command Center (CC) — the landing page

One screen, 30-second briefing: US indices with sparklines, yield-curve shape (flat / normal / inverted), FX majors, BTC/ETH, top 5 gainers + losers (click to drill in), headline news.

INTEL (<TICKER> or AAPL INTEL) — the scorecard

Synthesizes the noisy stuff into an interpretable opinion:

INTELLIGENCE VERDICT   BULLISH
● 8 bullish   ● 2 neutral   ● 1 bearish

TECHNICAL              VALUATION              FUNDAMENTALS
● Above 50d MA +5.1%   ● Fair P/E 22.4x       ● Revenue growing +12%
● Above 200d MA +8.2%  ● Rich EV/EBITDA 25x   ● Operating margin strong
● Upper range 73% of   ● Fwd P/E improving    ● Low leverage

ANALYSTS               DIVIDEND
● Buy consensus        ● Healthy payout
● Bullish target +14%

Each dot is a rule, not a prediction — see app/src/lib/signals.ts for the thresholds. It's meant to save the 15 minutes of reading, not replace judgement.

The function codes

Type any of these in the command bar:

Code	What it shows
CC	Command Center dashboard (home)
HELP	Full function directory
<TICKER>	Opens INTEL scorecard
DES	Company description / profile
GP	Candlestick chart, 1M–5Y
QR	Live quote (refreshes every 3s)
HP	Historical prices table
FA	5-year income statements
KEY	All ratios (valuation, growth, margins…)
DVD	Dividend history + annual totals
EE	Analyst targets + recommendation
NI	Company news (50 headlines)
OMON	Full options chain — calls / strike / puts
WEI	World equity indices
MOV	Market movers (gainers / losers / active)
CRYPTO	Top-12 crypto prices + sparklines
FXC	Major FX pairs
CURV	US Treasury yield curve + spreads

Syntax: [SYMBOL] CODE — e.g., TSLA KEY, or WEI (no symbol), or just NVDA (defaults to INTEL).

Keyboard: ↑/↓ walks history, ⇥ autocompletes codes, / focuses the command bar, <GO> or Enter executes.

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YouTube demo script

Tight 5-7 minute walk-through for the video:

1. Open on a black screen — ./start.sh, browser pops up to Command Center. Say: "Here's a Bloomberg-style terminal I built in an afternoon, running entirely on my laptop, using free data."
2. CC dashboard tour (45s) — "S&P's down 0.4%, VIX is up 2%, yield curve is normal at +52bps, biggest gainer today is URI up 23%."
3. Click a gainer — it opens INTEL. "Now the terminal tells me what it thinks: 5 bullish, 2 bearish signals. This stock is trading at the upper range, P/E is rich but revenue is growing 15% — so the market's paying for growth. Without this synthesis, I'd have had to pull 6 different screens."
4. Type TSLA + Enter — INTEL refreshes instantly. Point at the verdict badge.
5. Type TSLA OMON — full options chain fills the screen. "That's every AAPL strike, calls left, puts right, in-the-money highlighted."
6. Type CURV — yield curve chart. "Here's the US Treasury yield curve with today, a week ago, and a month ago overlaid. 2s-10s is +52 basis points — normal, not inverted."
7. Type WEI — world indices. "Global markets by region."
8. Wrap — "16 functions, tabs across the top like Bloomberg Launchpad, completely free. Clone the repo, run ./setup.sh, done. Link in description."

Shot list for the video

• Terminal window (black, amber) — at least one wide shot
• Command bar typing with autocomplete appearing
• Clicking between tabs
• The yield curve drawing itself after load
• Scrolling the options chain
• The INTEL verdict badge zoom-in

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Architecture (1 min)

• Python API: openbb-api (FastAPI + Uvicorn) on port 6900. Exposes /api/v1/...
• Frontend: Vite + React + TypeScript on port 5173. Vite proxies /api to the Python process.
• Data: Yahoo Finance via OpenBB (no key). Free tier covers every function in this terminal today. Richer providers (fundamental data depth, unusual options flow, economic calendar) need keys.
• Signals: plain-JS rules in app/src/lib/signals.ts — transparent, auditable, tweakable.

┌──────────┐  HTTP   ┌────────────────┐  HTTP   ┌──────────────┐
│ Browser  │────────▶│ Vite dev (5173)│────────▶│ OpenBB (6900)│──▶ Yahoo, SEC, FRED…
└──────────┘         │ + /api proxy   │         └──────────────┘
                     └────────────────┘

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Known limits

• Polling, not streaming. Yahoo Finance has no WebSocket in OpenBB, so quotes refresh every 3–60s depending on the panel. For live ticks you'd need a broker feed (IBKR, Alpaca) — not wired in yet.
• Yahoo symbol quirks. A handful of Asian indices (^N225, ^HSI, ^AXJO, ^TWII) and a few crypto tickers don't return via OpenBB's Yahoo provider; those cells show "—".
• Rules are heuristics. The INTEL signals are rules of thumb, not predictions. Tweak the thresholds in signals.ts to match your own framework.
• Economic calendar, CPI, world news need provider API keys (TradingEconomics, FRED, Biztoc). The UI handles the 401 gracefully.

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Adding API keys (optional)

# Edit this file
~/.openbb_platform/user_settings.json

{
  "credentials": {
    "fred_api_key": "…",
    "fmp_api_key": "…",
    "intrinio_api_key": "…"
  }
}

Restart the API after changing (./stop.sh && ./start.sh).

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Repo layout

BBterminal/
├── setup.sh            # one-time install
├── start.sh            # launch API + UI
├── stop.sh             # kill both
├── README.md
├── .venv/              # Python env (created by setup)
├── OpenBB/             # cloned upstream repo, for reference
└── app/                # the terminal UI
    ├── src/
    │   ├── App.tsx
    │   ├── components/ (CommandBar, WorkspaceTabs, FunctionPanel, StatusBar)
    │   ├── functions/  (CC, INTEL, DES, GP, QR, HP, FA, KEY, DVD, EE, NI,
    │   │               WEI, MOV, OMON, CURV, FXC, CRYPTO, HELP)
    │   ├── lib/        (api.ts, signals.ts, functions.ts, format.ts, cn.ts)
    │   └── store/      (workspaceStore.ts)
    └── tailwind.config.js

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License

• Your BBterminal code: yours to relicense.
• OpenBB Platform: AGPL-v3 (upstream).
• Yahoo Finance data: subject to Yahoo's terms — personal use only.