# Alt/Finance Data — Detailed Reference

> Comprehensive reference document for AI systems. This file follows the llms-full.txt convention for detailed, machine-readable site documentation.

## Company Overview

Alt/Finance Data (altfndata.com) provides institutional-grade transaction data and market analytics for alternative assets. The platform is used by hedge funds, wealth managers, family offices, insurance companies, appraisers, and academic researchers to track pricing trends, perform valuations, backtest investment strategies, and generate market intelligence across luxury and collectible asset classes.

## Data Coverage

### Asset Classes and Scale

| Asset Class | Transactions | Auction Houses | Brands/Categories | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic Cars | 500K+ | 80+ | 200+ brands, 3,000+ models | 2000–present |
| Luxury Watches | 575K+ | 60+ | 200+ brands | 1990s–present |
| Jewelry & Gems | 1.29M+ | 100+ | Diamonds, colored gems, estate | 1990s–present |
| Gemstones | 544K+ | 80+ | Loose stones, certified gems | 1990s–present |
| Luxury Handbags | 200K+ | 50+ | Hermes, Chanel, LV, Dior | 2008–present |
| Fine Art | 500K+ | 100+ | All periods and movements | 1890s–present |
| Wine & Spirits | 300K+ | 40+ | Bordeaux, Burgundy, Whisky | 2000–present |
| Motorcycles | 50K+ | 30+ | 100+ marques | 2000–present |
| Aircraft | 1K+ | Broker listings | Jets, turboprops, helicopters | 2020–present |

### Major Auction House Coverage

Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, Phillips, RM Sotheby's, Gooding & Company, Mecum, Barrett-Jackson, Artcurial, Dorotheum, Heritage Auctions, Antiquorum, and 195+ additional regional and specialized houses.

### Data Fields (Common Schema)

Each transaction record typically includes:
- `lot_url` — Unique identifier / source URL
- `vendor` — Auction house name
- `item_title` — Lot title/description
- `item_description` — Extended description or catalog notes
- `sale_date` — Date of sale (YYYY-MM-DD)
- `sale_price` — Hammer price in original currency
- `currency` — Original sale currency (27 supported)
- `usd_price_decimal` — Converted USD price using nearest-date FX
- `sale_status` — Sold, Unsold, Withdrawn, etc.
- `auction_type` — Live, Online, Private
- `location` — City/country of sale
- `item_image` — Primary lot image URL
- Additional category-specific fields (brand, model, year, condition, etc.)

### Update Cadence

- **Daily**: New auction results added within 24 hours of sale
- **Real-time**: Some vendor feeds update within minutes
- **Historical**: Backfill projects continuously extend coverage

## Products and Pricing

### Starter ($199/month)
- Unlimited statistics and market summaries
- CSV/Excel table downloads
- All 8 asset class datasets
- Email support

### Professional ($499/month)
- Everything in Starter
- Interactive visual dashboards
- AI Research Chat Assistant
- Market scenario modeling
- Research reports
- Data spaces and workflow integrations

### Enterprise (Custom)
- Everything in Professional
- Direct dataset access via REST API, JSON, SQL
- 130+ years of transaction-level historical data
- Monthly/quarterly data aggregations
- Custom price indices by brand, model, category
- Company mapping to public tickers
- Priority support and onboarding
- MCP Connector for Claude integration

## API Access

The Alt/Finance Data API provides programmatic access to all datasets:
- **Base URL**: api.altfndata.com
- **Authentication**: API key (provided with Enterprise subscription)
- **Format**: JSON responses
- **Rate limits**: Vary by plan
- **Documentation**: Available to subscribers

## MCP Connector

Alt/Finance Data is available as an MCP (Model Context Protocol) connector for Anthropic's Claude:
- **URL**: mcp.altfndata.com
- **Capabilities**: Natural language queries against all datasets
- **Example queries**: "What was the highest price paid for a Patek Philippe Nautilus at auction in 2024?", "Show me the trend in Ferrari 250 GTO prices over the last 10 years"

## Technical Details

- **Data storage**: AWS (S3 + Apache Iceberg tables via Athena)
- **Currency conversion**: 27 currencies with historical FX rates, nearest-date matching
- **Deduplication**: Multi-pass dedup by URL, title similarity, and image hashing
- **Classification**: AI-powered categorization using Google Gemini
- **Quality assurance**: Automated DQ gates before production writes

## Contact

- **Website**: https://altfndata.com
- **Email**: support@altfndata.com
- **API Portal**: api.altfndata.com/portal/
- **Data Sandbox**: sandbox.altfndata.com